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File 161709152432.png - (245.77KB , 500x500 , Catalyst_title_card_part_two.png )
993796 No. 993796 ID: afe7de

A big thanks to Poltergeist Ethanoic Acid for the Title card art!

CATALYST PART 1: https://questden.org/kusaba/quest/res/986604.html

WIKI: https://questden.org/wiki/CATALYST
DISCUSSION: https://questden.org/kusaba/questdis/res/134892.html

============

Authors Commentary: This Quest contains 18+ content including violence, sexual content, and more. Reader discretion is advised.
Expand all images
>>
No. 993797 ID: afe7de
File 161709155387.png - (14.54KB , 500x500 , C2_001.png )
993797

The pasta Willamina’s made you was good. Damn good. The garlic bread was even better, it felt like you went into heaven as it slowly melted down your throat. You both kind of just stared at eachother during the whole meal, chuckling and gorging yourself. You shared a little bit about eachother too.

You learned that Willamina actually is an amateur chef, she learned how to cook from Nicky. She’s just lazy and doesen’t like to cook unless she’s got company over. And you shared how you got into a fight with Cannie earlier and won. Willamina was very impressed by that considering she’s sparred with Cannie a few times over the years and has never won once.
>>
No. 993799 ID: afe7de
File 161709164605.png - (15.79KB , 500x500 , C2_002.png )
993799

This was when you broke out the Wine bottle and poured some for the two of you.

Willamina: Ahhh, WINE always tastes good paired with PASTA.

You: Damn straight, I haven’t had Italian food this good since I was a kid.

Do you:

A. Look around the room and talk about the stuff in her place.
B. Talk about your powers.
C. Talk about Isabella.
D. Other. (Describe what you say)

>>
No. 993800 ID: eb1fcc

>>993799
A or C, lets discuss the powers after at least a little bit of revelry.
>>
No. 993802 ID: e51896

Isabella might be a sore subject to bring up. It's date time! it should be all about you, and Willamina. Lets avoid C for now.

I'm good with either A, or B

A if we want to find a good place to lead into B by looking around the room, like the pictures she has hanging on the wire, or the picture on the wall (might be her family). We might be able to talk about Cat and Willamina's past first before leading into talking about our powers, just to build a little bit more connection between the two characters first.

B if we want to get our secret off our chest asap. But I think if we go with B now, we should ask her about the Libarby book you let her read as a good place to lead into talking about your powers.

I'm leaning towards A more
>>
No. 993803 ID: 595f9c

A and then after, B

Ask if you can look over at the pictures. If that is her family photo on the wall, maybe you can show her your family photo that you keep in your wallet afterwards.
>>
No. 993804 ID: 094652

A
D) Tell her that you have received a Skill Book, and you may have access to new skill books and powers very soon.
>>
No. 993806 ID: 01d4f3

Use A to segue into B.
It's also a good excuse to walk around and check for spying bugs.

We can trust Willamina, but our secrets are heavy and dangerous. It's like we live in another world from her. It's frankly amazing were taking it all so we'll.

Before we just blab on about ourselves she deserves to know the gravity of the situation.

Also ping roach about his location.
>>
No. 993809 ID: 9a2966

Do A, but let it segue into B. Once you've gotten to know her a little bit more, just stop prevaricating and get started. Open up by mentioning that you've, uh, kept something from her. To be fair, you've also kept it from pretty much everyone, and for good reason.

First things first: you Awakened less than a week ago.

You got something significant, too. You moved to Lyst so you could get a handle on it in private, but the nature of the power means you need certain people to use it on - people to trust. And, well, for other reasons you'll get into, you think you need to start using your power sooner rather than later, as there's an opportunity cost if you just sit on it like a dummy.

If she's willing to hear you out and promise to keep the secret, you'll let her in on the details. Like, as the first one to get to know all of this stuff - at least intentionally! Miss Iraphena clued in that you had a power and cornered you into revealing so - Cannie and Isabella were also there at the time, oops - but you mislead them as to the exact nature of what you can do.

She willing to bend an ear? Or if not, she can bail from this topic and just know for now that you've Awakened into some tricky Deal With It shit. You know she's got some past traumas and you'll totally respect it if she'd want to stay entirely outta Awakening shenanigans for the nonce. That goes even after the deets-reveal, though you hope she'd keep your secret regardless.
>>
No. 993818 ID: 894419

A (I'm curious about the polaroid streamer), to segue into B.
>>
No. 993883 ID: 9f8373

A and

D
Particularly talk about photography, you don't know much, but you enjoy hearing someone's whose into it talk about it.
>>
No. 993907 ID: f8fa51

A
>>
No. 993934 ID: 0fae41

A. Summon more of the room into being with your beholding gaze!
>>
No. 993979 ID: afe7de
File 161717816790.png - (11.07KB , 500x500 , C2_003.png )
993979

> Look around the room and talk about the stuff in her place.
You decide to look around the room a bit while chatting with Willamina about various topics. The first thing to draw your eyes are the pictures hanging from a wire running along the entire room. There’s a LOT of them. You turn around and look at the ones closest to you and see some photos of Cannie sitting on a log, Cannie sleeping near that tree from the park, and a nice selfie of her outside some sort of gathering. There are also various photos of different places in town, some photos of different citizens. And one photo of Bobby Slurps passed out on the sidewalk covered in like 3 different SLUSHEES .

You: Uhm… I like these photos you’ve taken. And it looks like you and Cannie get along pretty well.

Willamina: Yeah, we’re really CLOSE, have been since we were kids really. If you can get past her thick-HEADED-ness over certain things she’s actually pretty cool.

You: You mean like her desire to fight people all the time?

Willamina: That’s one thing yeah. Plus she’s FAMILY, I wanna make sure I have photos of her in case something BAD happens again.
>>
No. 993980 ID: afe7de
File 161717817859.png - (15.32KB , 500x500 , C2_004.png )
993980

You point to the photo directly behind Willamina

You: Speaking of family, is that them over there?

Willamina: Yeah, it’s FUNNY, we ordered that painting a few months before the fire but there was a delay and it only ACTUALLY got here like 2 months after the fire. So it’s actually one of the ONLY remaining pictures I have of them.

You pull your family photo out of your wallet and hand it over to Willamina.

You: This is the only photo I have left of my family too. Everything else was destroyed, if I didn't always keep it in my wallet I wouldn’t even have this left.

Willamina: It’s AMAZING how one thing can happen and just flip your life UPSIDE down.

The two of you continue talking about the various photos in the room and Will’s love of photography. It’s nice to hear her enthusiasm about the different photos. Maybe you can take some more time looking through the rest of them later. By the time this conversation has started dying down you’ve run out of wine. You’re feeling a little BUZZED, it makes you feel a little nicer and relaxed.
>>
No. 993981 ID: afe7de
File 161717824210.png - (13.06KB , 500x500 , C2_005.png )
993981

Willamina: Aw DAMN, hold on I have more in the fridge.

Cat: Oh, I’ll get it. Wanted to use the Bathroom anyway.

You head up to the restroom and do your business, washing your hands and heading to the fridge. After closing the fridge you notice another photo, this one is a selfie of Willamina and someone you don’t recognize. There’s a big old lipstick smooch on it though and that gets your attention. You head back to the table and pour some for the both of you.

Cat: Here it is, whose that on the fridge?

Willamina: That’s ZARAH! We met like a little less than a month ago at the Romance FESTIVAL. She’s blind but we hit it off pretty much INSTANTLY. She’s got cool scars like me too.

Cat: She looks kinda badass.

Willamina: I’ll INTRODUCE you to her the next time she comes to down. She’s got like dark mutilation superpowers, so maybe you can talk shop.
>>
No. 993982 ID: afe7de
File 161717825595.png - (11.11KB , 500x500 , C2_006.png )
993982

You took a look around the place while you were up and didn’t really notice anything out of the ordinary when you were examining things. Even the picture frame which you thought was dubious turned out to just be a picture frame. Willamina’s house is nice. It’s full of memories, and gives you a little bit of a sad feeling that she’s also lost so much. But you also feel a sense of camaraderie from it too.

Willamina: You know, Me, Cannie, Isabella, and Max used to talk about one day Awakening and becoming heroes and conquering dungeons. But only Max ever Awakened.

Willamina: I forgot about it until I read that book you lent me this morning.

This is it, it’s time for the BIG DECISION Do you tell her? If so, how do you do it?
>>
No. 993983 ID: 12ecef

>>993982
Tell her. Tell her Iraphena extorted the fact that you have a power out of you, but she only knows that you can sense the powers of others. You can do more. Tell Willamina if she wants to awaken, you can awaken her.

Oh also fill her in on the fact the world is ending, Isabella has insane fire powers, Iraphena considered having you killed, and someone in the woods has been watching you at night. Probably do that after you awaken her though, so you don't sound like you've gone insane.
>>
No. 993984 ID: eb1fcc

>>993982
yes, and I suggest the sledgehammer approach. For the funnies, you see.

"So, good segue point actually. See, I can _awaken_ people. Was kinda just waiting to get a good read on you before I told you though, since it's uh... kind of one of those "get abducted by the government" superpowers. So uh, please keep it on the down low."

"Also, yes, that's an offer. Let's talk shop."
>>
No. 993986 ID: 6c227a

Welp, you are being observed by the local wildlife again. Maybe keep it down till we figure out what that is about? Be nice if they are just friends of that badger, but we do also know about one animal-based information network.
>>
No. 993987 ID: 031458

Hmm. Stray cat and a roach watching through the window?
Close those curtains. Close ALL the curtains.

Willamina, I trust you, so I'm about to share a huge secret with you. It'll get out eventually, but if it happens too quickly it'll put me and even the town at large in danger. Once you're confident the place is secure lower your voice to a whisper and get close. I can awaken- and strengthen superpowers. What kind of future do you want to live? I'll Make it possible.
>>
No. 993989 ID: e51896

>>993986
I think that is actually roach and mint out the window. Well, they can't hear you from outside. Best to close the curtains for a little privacy anyway,

Since this is a big moment, ask if you and she can sit down for a moment somewhere after closing the curtains. On the topic of awakening, there's a very heavy weight that has been burdening you since before you arrived at Lyst that you wanted to get off your chest to someone you fully trust and talk to about and help ease your burden.

Then pretty much tell her that you awoke less than a week ago before coming here, and it is a power that if people knew about, especially government officials, they would try to keep you for themselves,

your power is that you can awaken others, and upgrade their existing powers. It's something you feel you can greatly help people with, but also something that people can take advantage over you with, and that thought scares you deeply, especially the stress you have been feeling from certain people in town with their suspicions of your power over you. You wanted to tell Willamina about it before your secret is found out through more sinister means.

Then apologize for not telling her sooner.

>Oh also fill her in on the fact the world is ending, Isabella has insane fire powers, Iraphena considered having you killed, and someone in the woods has been watching you at night. Probably do that after you awaken her though, so you don't sound like you've gone insane.

(I wouldn't tell her about the apocalypse, or Isabella's fire powers, and murder attempts, at least not tonight, Isabella did put her trust not to tell anyone after all, and she could potentially tell our secret to others if we do that. I feel this is too much to unload in one night. Telling her about our power is a huge enough bombshell as it is)

If Willamina shows any worries about you... give her headpats to ease those worries like Cannie told you.
>>
No. 993991 ID: 53560f

Hold on, let’s deal with our watcher before we talk shop. For all we know, that could be overmind watching through the window. Just shoo them off or something and close the blinds.
>>
No. 993992 ID: 7bd48e

Close curtains, take the conversation to another room, discuss your powers and ask if she wants to be awakened.
>>
No. 993993 ID: 9a2966

>>993982
>Roach (?) and cat silhouette in the background
...Did roach come by Mint? Eh, if it's them it's them. They're probably waiting on your date to finish.

>Only Max ever got powers, segue
Anyway, let's go for it. It's a poor opening considering her trauma, but at least it's been years and she's the one who brought the topic up.

>Tell her?
Yes. Take a deep breath, close your eyes and say there's something you haven't been entirely forthright about. And that you apologize for the absolute head-whammy you're about to inflict on her - you have a hard time wanting to spoil this rather nice date with the conversation - but... well, you've got a lot on your chest and she's been nice enough to warrant trust.

>How much?
Share the fact you Awakened recently. The doozy that is the nature of your power (can give 1 power of variable strength and influence its exact nature | can upgrade others' powers, and thus sense if others have powers | which is limited to only so many / so strong a day), explaining why you'd want that secret kept.

Share the fact Miss Iraphena bullied you into revealing you were Awakened, but you somehow managed to mislead her (and Cannie and Isabella who were there) as to the exact nature of it - they think it's a detection-based power. That you got Favors and Questions in exchange for letting that flawed knowledge go to someone else - probably some bigwig in Nunitus - a thing you'd hoped to avoid, really, by coming to a small town like Lyst. You just wanted to explore the nature and limits of your Arcane Catalyst in relative peace without becoming, like, something for nations and guilds to fight over.

So... well, straight talk, if she wants to cut ties from here on to stay the hell outta alla this business, that's an option on her end. But you can offer her something she's wanted, and far more control and input over what it could be than pretty much anyone's had. At least to your knowledge.

Honestly, you also planned to move more slowly - Lyst seems like a nice town to live in, and you wanted to empower people you got to know well and could hopefully trust - but then something cropped up and it turns out not making good use of your power could incur... an opportunity cost, you might say?

Go on to talk about the 27th demon auction dream, showcase the coiling ring as one of the things you bid on, mention the fucked-upness of, well, owning a slave now apparently??? Seriously. Share the fact these demons are gonna have a throwdown over who's to be the next demon king eventually - soon-ish - is the curveball that more than anything has you spilling your gut to someone you think you can trust. Mention the Achievement aspect of the System, how you got points to UPGRADE your already broken power.

>Don't tell
Do not (yet) mention anything involving your investigations into the mansion fire.
Do not (yet) mention Miss Iraphena was at the auction.
Do not (yet) reveal what you know about Isabella's powers.
Do not (yet) reveal anything about Roach (or Mint's secret ability to turn into a Cat).

Some of that is meddling with privacy, some of it is knowledge that might become a danger to her (and you) if shared and the last is aces up your sleeve.
>>
No. 993994 ID: 7bd48e

>>993993
Mainly this, though the demon auction might be a bit much for Willamina to take in. I'd say demon auction can probably be a discussion for another day
>>
No. 994003 ID: 3d14a4

>>993993
Ping roach. See if it is.
>>
No. 994022 ID: b1b4f3

>>993982
Oh hey is that Mint out there with Roach? Maybe you can invite them inside.

Tell Willamina you haven't been completely honest with her, but you trust her enough to tell her your secret. You said you didn't have a power, but you do. You have two of them. The power to Upgrade powers, which also lets you see someone's powers without upgrading anything, and... the power to Awaken. But you don't get to pick what the target gets.
Now, before you Awaken her you need to get her to promise she won't immediately start throwing around whatever power she gets. She should keep it secret until it's needed, since... well, that seems to be the norm around here, and it'll look suspicious if she suddenly shows off her powers after you arrived in town. You also want her help, because you have good reason to believe Nunitus is secretly an evil organization, and Iraphena's already onto you. Iraphena can't use her precognition on you which helps, and means she won't know Willamina has powers until she uses them since that was a direct action on your part, but Iraphena's boss will send supers to capture you if things go bad.
>>
No. 994038 ID: f8fa51

Yeah, if that's not Roach, you'll want to close the curtains before having this conversation.

But you will have this conversation, yeah. You need at least one confidant that you're not terrified of and lying to, at any rate.
>>
No. 994039 ID: f96c5c

I dont think roach can be contacted if he is that far away, and through the window.

Lets ask to move to another room as theres something you wanna tell her.
>>
No. 994047 ID: 094652

Tell her about your day.

Explain first and foremost that you've been lying to everyone because you feel like a bloated golden goose stuffed with eggs up to your chest. You suspect that the Incident ensured you'd be chosen, but it took eight years for the full clusterfrack to bloom.

When she asks what you're talking about, show her your Lightning skill book, then talk about the Demon King and his half-assed revelations. Explain that you received the right to acquire multiple high-tier dungeon items, powers included. You're allowed to go back to the Dream Auction three times and then -

The reason why metahumans got powers is so they'd be interesting in the metapocalypse.

Lastly, you found a heap of loose evidence pointing at Isabella, but you also found loose evidence that suggests she wasn't fully in control of her actions. But you need to know here and now if you can trust Willamina.

The book is a gift, but it isn't the only skill book you can acquire. If Willamina wants to confront Isabella now, you'll support her. But you'll walk away for good if she attacks first.
>>
No. 994048 ID: 9f8373

>>993993
Mostly for this. Just changes to general tone and one yes/no on what to discuss.

Yes on awakened recently, were not honest on meeting because it’s new to you even. Yes on: General who knows you have a power in its not-complete capacity. No on discussing the demon auction for now in addition to the other no’s here except for Roach.

I think it should be added that you have tested it, and indeed made a new roach friend which is how you discovered your powers. Definitely focus on the she can opt-out, but that honestly, you have been waiting since you had this power emerge to try it on someone. However, you are extremely aware of the risk of awakening someone who might do something bad with it and have been paranoid. You know that it's something she’s wanted, you are convinced she is a good person, and you would like to help her realize one of her possible dreams if she’s still interested. If not, then just ask she doesn’t tell anyone, make a cheesy overdramatic bow, and promise you’ll continue excellent deliveries.
>>
No. 994056 ID: ce39da

Tell her about your power, but see how she handles it before you drop any other bombshells (the number of which has been increasing at an alarming rate). We don't want to overwhelm her all at once.
>>
No. 994109 ID: afe7de
File 161726399855.png - (15.56KB , 500x500 , C2_007.png )
994109

> Close the curtains
> Offer to move to another room
You turn around just in time to see a cat and a small bundle of bugs walking away into a nearby alley. Huh, weird. You close the curtains just to be safe. Then you turn around and point to the couch, you considered moving to another room, but the couch is probably a better place. The two of you head there and sit on the couch, you get kind of close to each other and Willamina pokes a button next to her causing some mood lighting and lo-fi hip hop starts playing.

Willamina: You look like you have SOMETHING on your mind… Whats up?

> Tell her
You: So uh, about that book. I actually got it because I was researching how traditional Awakenings happen. To be blunt this might get a little heavy… But I wanted to talk to someone I could trust and well. I sense a decent bond between us because we’ve both gone through some pretty rough shit.

Willamina: Go ahead, no judgment. I’ll LISTEN.

You give a weak smile to that and for a moment are really grateful for her response.

You: So I Awakened the night before I came to town. And well, Miss Iraphena knew that I did and coerced me into revealing what I can do. I didn’t lie, but I omitted what I could fully do because I wasn’t really fond of how aggressive she and Isabella were being. And the reason she knew that I was one is that I’m a blind spot in her Powers. She’s one too, with what seems to be a pretty powerful precognition ability.

Willamina takes a sip from her wine glass and continues looking at you, making a rotating gesture with her free hand.

Willamina: Go ON, So far this doesent SEEM that heavy, JUST really shitty and manipulative.

You: Well, here’s the heavy part. My Power is that I can Awaken people and upgrade their Awakened powers.
>>
No. 994110 ID: afe7de
File 161726401014.png - (9.82KB , 500x500 , C2_008.png )
994110

You see Willamina’s pupils dilate a bit as she tries to remain calm, she takes another steadying sip of wine.

Willamina: BULLSHIT. There’s no way that’s a REAL thing. Do you know how many people would KILL or worse to get a hold of a power or even that power?!?

You: That’s why I left the big city before anyone had a chance to try to capture me and make me their power slave. It’s limited in scope of how much I can do in a specific day, but refreshes at midnight. And, well, I know this is unbelievable, so here, watch this.

You start pulling out random objects from your ring, eventually settling on the Lightning God technique book. You can tell Willamina is interested because she stops drinking and is leaning more towards you in awe.

You: Because of this, something happened and I was able to get a hold of some artifacts, this. Is a skill book, and I know what power will come out of it too.

Willamina grips a hold of your arm roughly and you drop the wine glass you were just holding, but she doesn’t seem to care.

Willamina: You better NOT be fucking with me right now. Did you come to me, KNOWING that the ONE condition to getting my inheritance back is for me to be an AWAKENED, the power doesn’t matter, but they took EVERYTHING. Don’t lie to me Cat.
>>
No. 994111 ID: afe7de
File 161726402355.png - (12.34KB , 500x500 , C2_009.png )
994111

Tears start falling from her cheeks as she gets close to you, she’s upset and angry, but the glint in her eyes shows that there’s some hope too.

Willamina: I KNOW you’ve been snooping around in my business, about the FIRE, I’m not an IDIOT.

You: I uh… No, I didn’t know that. But I… I have been snooping. It’s just… something’s not right about the whole situation. And I just… I wanted to know if you’d be trustworthy enough for me to share this with.

You’re on the verge of tears too, and they start coming, you’re both shaking.

You: I… Ever since the INCIDENT, the dungeon break, I lost everything, friends, family, connections. Do you know how hard it is to make a genuine connection with anyone in the big city? They’re all Ice cold, standoffish, and elitist. I made ONE or TWO good friends, but work and life separated me from them. They only care about what you can do for them. I… I was sick of it and just wanted to move away. And then I was told that you weren’t good people but then I meet you and you’re actually pretty fucking cool and we’ve both lost so much and actually get along and can share these things.

Willamina embraces you as the both of you weep, you return the embrace, sobbing and coughing. She’s warm and smells lightly of a fruity perfume, PINK flavor you think? After ten minutes or so the sobbing and shaking subsides and you feel a little better, like a lot of the weight and stress you’ve been carrying around the last few days has left your shoulders. Willamina grabs a box of tissues and hands you some, the both of you blow your noses and clear the snot.

You: I… If this is too much we can stop. This never happened and I just go back to being a courier.

You start to move to get up but Willamina puts a hand on your leg to stop you.

Willamina: I want to AWAKEN. If you do this for me I will FOREVER be in your debt. We can use the inheritance to help PROTECT ourselves. Though uh, having some actual muscle like CANNIE would be a good idea, I… sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself.
>>
No. 994115 ID: afe7de
File 161726413022.png - (24.89KB , 500x500 , C2_010.png )
994115

She takes a deep breath, gets up and bows at the waist to you.

Willamina: PLEASE Awaken me.

Do you Awaken her? If you do, what Power does she awaken to? OR Do you use the Skill book?
You have 6 ENERGY to spend, you can also suggest more than one power, the cost will be determined by the complexity and strength of the power. If a power is too strong but is very popular then restrictions will be placed on it to reduce the cost. In short, Have fun and give her a power you think is neat!
>>
No. 994121 ID: e51896

Willamina and Cat are pretty similar to each other in many ways. Maybe Willamina’s power can be something similar to Cat’s power as well:

Enigmatic Inhibitor


-Can spend energy to erase an AWAKENED Target’s power permanently.
-can spend energy to decrease a power’s level by 1 to a minimum of 1
-cannot be used on yourself
-targets effected by Enigmatic Inhibitor can still be awakened on their own with either a new power, or their old power through normal means, including through Arcane Catalyst.

This power I feel will be very useful when the Apocalypse happens. If the apocalypse is anything like THE INCIDENT, we may need Willamina for damage control when multiple people awaken and cause mayhem. Plus if we make a mistake and give someone a power that they abuse or we don’t like, Willamina can get rid of it, and Cat can give them a new power
>>
No. 994122 ID: 094652

Get Roach to scan her thoughts right now. If she even considers stabbing Isabella in the face, you need to discuss that now.

> I will be in your debt forever.
"Can I get that in writing?
Whatever happens... here. The skill book is yours. It's a gift. You don't owe me if you use this only."

>Power Type
Empath - Can absorb or project physical and mental sensations from others. At higher levels, allows the user to briefly copy the powers of others, Awakened or Non-Awakened, but with an inefficient energy cost.
>>
No. 994123 ID: e7c7d3

Awaken her, give her the power to summon capybara minions
>>
No. 994125 ID: 12ecef

>>994115
"I'm going to be real, I came here expecting to awaken you, so that's what I'm going to do."

Power:
A Mile In My Shoes!

Willamina gains the ability to hijack the sense of other people, or project her senses into their minds. For example she can force someone to feel any physical sensations she is feeling (pain, temperature, etc.) or allow them to see through her eyes.

Similarly, by focusing on a person she can piggyback on their senses undetected, feeling what they feel and seeing through their eyes.

To use the ability she has to know the approximate position of the person she is targeting when she begins using the power but doesn't require line of sight.

Some reasonable drawbacks to balance this out if its too OP are:

Willamina loses access to her corresponding senses while piggybacking on someone else's senses or projecting her sensations onto someone else; so she can't see through her own eyes while seeing through someone else's.

Maybe stick like a 20 meter range limit on that too, or give the ability a limited runtime like 4 hours of shared/projected senses per day.
>>
No. 994131 ID: 9fdfd3

Use your power rather than the skill book.
But before that, ask her to promise you she won't rush anywhere headfirst, because that's a sure-fire way to get oneself killed.
>>
No. 994132 ID: 031458

Save the book, awaken normally.

True Flame Manipulation: Can Extinguish, enhance, sustain, and manipulate fire within a radius, innate immunity to fire and heat.

At higher levels, radius increases and more arcane uses become availiable, fire minions, plasma control, heat rays, ect..
>>
No. 994133 ID: 53560f

I’m just gonna list a couple ideas I have because I can’t decide on just one. If one or more get picked then that’s pretty cool.

Power nullification: can prevent or cancel the use of powers within range.
Bastion: a protective aura around the user that provides damage resistance and a weak soothing effect to any in range while active.
Blizzard: combination of ice and wind powers since she mentioned wanting either at the bar that one time.
>>
No. 994136 ID: e85a08

May as well aim high.

Meta Icon: Can copy, store, and use others' powers. Maybe just one at a time to start.
>>
No. 994140 ID: 19da02

>>994123
This one seems the most useful
>>
No. 994141 ID: ce39da

Use the power, use all 6 points; we know enough now that Level 5 (even if 6 points is enough to boost it that far) is nowhere near the upper limits of this world.

Er, but do warn her that we (Cat) can't control what power she gets (even if we (the suggestors) can).

White Album: Can drop the temperature in a radius around her really far really fast, even freezing stuff solid after a few moments, and can form ice crystals on the surface of stuff to varying degrees (based on the humidity). (There's definitely a cold-resistance/-immunity "necessary secondary power," or else the aura simply doesn't touch her body.) Unknown whether 6 points is enough to include an "ice armor" sub-power (and we're almost certainly a ways off from getting the "Gently Weeps" frozen air crystal field add-on).
>>
No. 994145 ID: 9a2966

HOLD ON TO YOUR HORSES

As in, hold on and think things through. Nobody with a heart would've denied Willemina an Awakening after all of that, but you've still got all the recent complicating factors of your life to consider. So let's.

Point 1: DELAY THE AWAKENED REVEAL

Get Will's promise she won't showcase her new power to anyone, or call on her inheritance immediately (gosh, you really had no idea about that). It'll probably be a good idea for her to get a handle on her new power first anyway, plus Miss Iraphena will see changes coming and will likely be informed by Will's change in (future) fortunes once that is set in stone. This is to delay, deflect or at least mitigate suspicions that Cat caused her awakening.

Case in point, if Willemina shows up with a cool new power IMMEDIATELY after the two of you had a date that's SUPER suspicious instead of it just being VERY suspicious. You don't know how spy-ish Miss Iraphena's power is, but she'll probably catch on to Will's change in fortunes sooner rather than later.

In short, YOUR BENEFACTOR WANTS TO BE AN ANONYMOUS PRICK, DAME DINGUS - at least for now!

So no overt gratitude or protections. If she could build up a decent base of operations here in Lyst where you might feel safer exercising your power more openly that's a start - but you don't think someone new to the scene really COULD protect you if it got out exactly what kind of power you have. Keeping things secret for a while until you build up enough friends - and newly Awakened - to become more than just an inconvenience to grab feels like your best bet.

Point 1.1: Using the Skill book you have is a SUPER good way of deflecting from the above concerns - you can just say you bid on it and gave it to Will when Iraphena reacts. Whether it's a skillset Will would want is another matter, and it does have the downside of probably taking time to skill up. Which leads me on to...

Point 2: GIVE HER THE PICK, PRICK

By all means, come up with ideas for her, but she should have some influence on the final pick, no?

Point 2.1: Based on your intel, the SKILLBOOK will probably give her a stronger skill than anything you can grant or upgrade at the moment. The strongest skill you could grant would be like, yea in the region of a little more than half as strong. If she wants to become STRONG in one thing, the book can be hers (or does she think Cannie would love it rather - it's definitely a martial arts thing).

Point 3: THE DEMON INVASION & IRAPHENA'S CRYPTIC 'NOT THE DEMONS YOU SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT'

Straight fightin', defense and utility powers may be VERY useful considering what's to come, but also meta-aware powers like power nullification, demon exorcism, power changing powers, UNIQUE STUFF THAT CAN GRANT US ACHIVEMENT POINTS, etc. This is where it would've been useful to reveal to her the full monty of your problems so a more informed decision about her choice of power could be made, but... ah well. One thing at a time.

If Will takes our advice, we should lean towards suggesting she take something that might be useful in the coming months and years.

Point 4: MORE SUGGESTIONS

Will-of-Wings:
A will to fly made manifest. Trainable - increases in strength of imagination and willpower can increase effect of power. May be able to grant flight to others - or force it on them (although this shall, obviously, be harder the harder something wants NOT to fly).

Method and comfort of flight is limited to user's imagination and the current effort of will tied into the power (i.e. can conjure wings, but also planes, helicopters, surfboards, just levitate, whatever comes to mind).

---

Will's Power:
A will to defend made manifest. Grants an aura of resistance to effects of magics and powers around user - aura can be adjusted in size (and thus strength). Super effective against mind-influencing powers! Exposure to a power over time can harden user's will against it.

If user has other Powers that can be affected by feats of will, this power passively increases them.

---

Catalytic Convergence:
A skill like few others. User can combine the effects of multiple nearby Power-users' powers to produce unique combo effects. This effect is easier to pull off if the power has been affected by an Arcane Catalyst (i.e. made or upgraded by Cat).

---

Lastly, note also the absolute whatchawhawhoWHAT of her being ABLE to get her family's fortunes back simply by Awakening - that sounds like something that comes with serious caveats! And attention! You should ask her for details on this. Sounds like her family's got some pretty deep roots in the Heroes' league and this could be their way of forcing recruitment on her should she actually be lucky enough to Awaken, which there is a certain? Which... eeh, if she wanna get tied up with 'em, please please keep you out of the details. You're not super fond of the way they do things - and neither, it sounds, should she be.

What was Max's power, by the way?
>>
No. 994146 ID: 9a2966

>>994141
Just a headsup: Cat definitely knows they can influence the nature of the power - they did so with Hazel the Badger, after all!
>>
No. 994147 ID: 9a2966

Also re: Will-of-Wings, I meant "grant temporary flight to others". They won't get their own flight power and are just borrowing an aspect of the W-o-W.
>>
No. 994152 ID: eb1fcc

>>994115
so what, we're not going to give her something to let her cope with the pain of existing here?

like I'm all for a clever superpower, but uh, maybe lets tie that into her whole "long-suffering burn victim" issue at least a little bit, maybe some kind of healing factor or pain-o-mancy like that one guy suggested
>>
No. 994161 ID: 9a2966

>>994152
Well, yeah, but it's also a big decision and something tells me healing powers ain't the most... attractive option of all to her. Even if not being in pain would help her everyday life, she's A) somewhat used to it by now and B) has access to Gruk.

Whom we could empower, too. He already has relevant healing powers, occupies that niche in town and seems like a pretty good guy besides! We could alternatively give someone else a more specific healer-ish power that can help with, y'know, burn scars and nerve damage. Which might be needed. There was that Awakening book - it mentioned a body's self-image was tied to healing.

>Some awakenings have even been known to cure diseases and heal life-long scars, but if the scars have too much of a mental footprint in the person’s life, they may remain, stuff like lost eyes are less likely to come back as well.
So not all self-regenerative powers or quick-fix healing-power paths may actually help. Pain-o-mancy sounds like something that might do it, though... and also be somewhat cruel and/or terrifying to use on others in an offensive manner. Or, uh, be something that pulls on a body's pain to perform feats of magic.

... might want to specify how the power would work.
>>
No. 994162 ID: 19da02

>>994152
Ed said in the dicksword that any power will remove her constant pain but not heal her scars.
>>
No. 994166 ID: 031458

Willamina has expressed interest in three types powers:

CRYOKINESIS for the purpose of FIGHTING FIRES - Definitely due to her trauma

WIND MANIPULATION for the purposes of FLIGHT - Probably just because it's cool

"SOMETHING THAT COULD NULLIFY THE PAIN" so TOUGHNESS or REGENERATION - Because pain

I am of the opinion that we should grant a WIND, COLD, FLIGHT, or any power that can be used to FIGHT FIRES to Willamina. We can then work to get GRUK in on this so we can UPGRADE his power to end Willamina's pain.


I see suggestions for EXTRASENSORY, POWER LEECH, and POWER DISRUPTIVE here. Those seem rather... Meta? It would make more sense to put those on an ANIMAL or SLAVE.
>>
No. 994191 ID: f23268

Whatever powers you give her, do so by giving her headpats, Cannie says Will really loves that... and it turns her on. It may lead into sex if we're lucky. This moment would be extra special if we awaken her during sex, and it felt like that was what she thought you were planning to do initially when she turned on the lofi and mood lighting
>>
No. 994195 ID: b1b4f3

>>994115
Hell yes. Awaken her, don't use the book. That book is ridiculously powerful, so something we'd want to put on someone who literally cannot betray us (Mint) and it's not really of a type she expressed interest in anyway.

Hailstorm/blizzard.
Control and creation of wind and/or ice. Flight via wind power! Extinguish fire with ice! Use wind to launch hailstones at your enemies!

Alternatively, we could do something weird with the cold/wind concept:
Entropic Exchange
The ability to control the transfer of thermal energy from one place to another.
Can make things hot or cold at will, but something else has to get cold or hot at the same time. Much easier to equalize temperature between two objects, though-- this makes it good at extinguishing fires or melting ice. Also, can fairly easily prevent an object's temperature from changing, which means one could spend time to build up heat or cold in an object to be dumped later in a combat situation. Like charging batteries. Limitation: The power does not work very well when targeting people directly- much easier to target objects they're carrying/wearing. Though it's not too difficult to bring someone's temperature closer to "normal", or insulate them. Alternate/additional limitation: power manifests as two beams of energy, one from each hand.

or,
Cryokinesis
The ability to control, but not create, ice. Better get that freezer running.
Ice controlled in this manner can absorb far more heat before melting, and retains this quality for some time after the user stops manipulating it.
>>
No. 994211 ID: e51896

>>994191
We can do that, make sure she consents to it as we do it, take things slow and look for any signs that she may be comfortable, or uncomfortable with you two getting laid.

But yeah, headpats to awaken her even if it doesn't lead anywhere regardless.
>>
No. 994273 ID: f32394

>>994145
I don't think Willamina can agree to secrecy though, nor should we want her too, now.

She is heir to a fortune upon awakening, and will likely become our benefactor.

We can keep other people we awaken silent for a time, but not Willamina.
>>
No. 994276 ID: 9a2966

>>994273
Clarification: I did not mean secrecy for her - at least not in the long term! Just not to immediately march out there - right after the date - and say she got a power, and to come up with alternative circumstances under which she got them.

People CAN put two and two together, y'know, and we're already on Isabella and Iraphena's radar.
>>
No. 994288 ID: 031458

>>994276
She'll probably wait till tomorrow anyway. It's well into the evening.

Even is she did suddenly run into the street though, no one has been awakened by us before, nor is this a common power.

What I'm saying is one person awakening around us isn't a big deal, so long as it's not explicitly told to be us who did it.

A single instance does not a pattern make.

I agree that we should come up with a cover story together.
>>
No. 994290 ID: 8a8155

A twofold power: turn flesh to stone (and back), and stoneshaping. Stone won’t burn.
>>
No. 994299 ID: eb1fcc

>>994276
actually that might be the exact BEST way for her to make the reveal, given how important that is to her

like, straight up, how ELSE do you respond to suddenly getting a superpower? It would make it easy to build a story for it too, like THE POWER OF LOVE or something goofy but emotional to that effect.

Plus, we're banking on people with _precognitive powers_ not having the wherewithal to tell when someone has a power. That's a bad bet.
>>
No. 994300 ID: f8fa51

The only reason we had not to awaken her was secrecy. Since we've shared our secret, of course we're going to awaken her. However, I was of the impression we didn't get to choose her powers?
>>
No. 994302 ID: b1b4f3

>>994300
Cat doesn't get to choose exactly what power it is. Suggesters can decide on something that Cat doesn't really want or wasn't planning on.
>>
No. 994304 ID: 9f8373

Best argument for book: LIGHTNING GOD WILLAMINA! I mean, thats just really cool.

Unfortunately, what she wanted was ice, wind, or flying. I like ice the most, and so I propose ICE BARRIERS: The ability to conjure sheets of (mostly protective) ice on herself, the environment, or others [less temperature manipulation than sheer creation, but it is still ice]. Ice can be shaped to protect certain parts (e.g. arm bracer or a shield shape). Improvements over time can include distance to create, size, and density. Although not directly offensive (e.g. its not spikey) Other uses could include trapping people in ice, making barriers, or surrounding someone in ice to either protect them or keep them in a space.
>>
No. 994351 ID: 5cb622

You dont want Willamina to see you all that differently now that she knows about you.

Affirm this by playfully saying "You know, a simple 'HEY, give me a power, you PRICK!' would have sufficed', then awaken her by applying headpats.
>>
No. 994363 ID: 250e64

I'm going to go with something a little wacky as a multi-part power that hopefully feels cohesive, references her history and plays into her look.

SCAR ISSUE: Willamina can absorb energy (e.g. fire, electricity, lasers, sunlight), storing it in something that resembles her scar tissue. She can manipulate this matter, moving it around her body, even making extra limbs and such if she builds up a lot. She can use the stored energy as fuel to giver herself a physical boost or shoot lasers.

As a side effect of the energy absorption, it can be used to put out fires!
>>
No. 994370 ID: 6c227a

>>994363
I mean the scar angle is not an angle I would be excited about, but I was thinking something like that. Absorb incoming energy, (heat, lasers, powers) store it in some sort of internal battery, release it in the same form. Sorta similar to >>994136 only less likely to be too powerful for us to pull off.

Failing that, I'd absolutely suggest giving her a second power of fire resistance along with whatever else she gets, and seeing if we can play the angle that she actually awakened years ago, but was too traumatized by the fire to actually prove she was awakened for the inheritance.
>>
No. 994391 ID: afe7de
File 161735251983.png - (17.79KB , 500x500 , C2_011.png )
994391

> Come up with a cover story
You think briefly about this but realize it would be pointless, heck it would probably be a bigger problem if you tried to help her come up with a reason she awakened. You remember a line from Awakenings and their impact on Metahumans

Awakenings are unpredictable, sometimes they can be induced by trauma, sometimes they’re complete lotteries, other times they are artificially induced using artifacts, but we believe them to be the next step in the evolution of metahumanity.

It’s probably best if she just says she just randomly Awakened or it happened in her sleep.

> Awaken Her
You don’t want Willamina to treat you all that differently now that she knows this. You give her a headpat as you respond:

You: You know, a simple “HEY, give me a power, you PRICK!” would have sufficed.

She looks up at you and smiles, you use your power. A blue glow begins to suffuse Willamina, radiating out from her head is a rather large halo. Her status window appears.

Name: Willamina Hadlee III
Age: 24
Powers:
ICE (1) - Upgrade? [2]
The user has some resistance towards the cold.
The user can freeze liquids including ambient moisture in the air and manipulate it to a minor extent.

STORM (2)- Upgrade? [2]
The user has some resistance to wind.
The user can generate winds of varying intensities and shapes from their body

You hear Willamina breathe heavily as you rub her scalp and the halo begins to dissipate.

You: Uh, feel anything different.

Willamina: I UH. Was that a vision? I swear that looked like my great grandma… Yeah. Um. Thanks, Great Awakener. GOD, did you pick that name? It’s awful.

You: I really didnt. I wish there was a way to get rid of that or maybe change what it told you.
>>
No. 994392 ID: afe7de
File 161735252825.png - (8.86KB , 500x500 , C2_012.png )
994392

Willamina: Wait a second.

Willamina gets up and starts moving around, she hops in place, twirls around, bends over, flexes her arms, massages her face and scars, and sits back down next to you.

Willamina: I… I can’t feel any PAIN. I… THERE’S NO MORE PAIN!!! Nothing HURTS Anymore!?!?!?!
>>
No. 994393 ID: afe7de
File 161735253470.png - (7.86KB , 500x500 , C2_013.png )
994393

She begins laughing and bouncing about in her seat and suddenly embraces you, giving you a huge smooch and shoving her tongue way into your unsuspecting mouth. She tastes of PINK flavor too. And her smell is very appealing at this moment. You’re flailing about in confusion a little bit before you put your arm around her and enjoy the kiss.
>>
No. 994394 ID: afe7de
File 161735254852.png - (7.25KB , 500x500 , C2_014.png )
994394

She pulls you close and scratches your head with one of her hands before releasing, a line of saliva trailing from her mouth to yours.

Willamina: You… You didn’t LIE. Thank you.

You hiccup from the surprise and give a small giggle.

You: Ha ha, um yeah. I uh, meant what I said.
>>
No. 994397 ID: e51896

Ask her for a demonstration of her powers. see if she can freeze her wine at all.
>>
No. 994399 ID: 53560f

So, what’s the plan for tonight now?
Go out and show off your cool new powers to whoever’s at the bar right now? Maybe dress up like some kinda nondescript movie ice princess too?
Come on, how do you plan to celebrate?
>>
No. 994403 ID: 68053e

>the ONE condition to getting my inheritance back is for me to be an AWAKENED, the power doesn’t matter, but they took EVERYTHING.
That smells like motive. Who is "they"?
>>
No. 994404 ID: c5d2fe

...Can we just enjoy the moment with her for a bit? Kiss, hug, be pleasant.
>>
No. 994405 ID: e51896

>>994403
It was stated before by Aeglos >the entire inheritance to the Hadlee Clan was actually slated to go to the Heroes Guild upon death of their major members.

The guild is who Willamina was referring to.

>>994399
We could see about having makouts with Willamina, lightly pull her on us on the couch and see if she'll accept? This is a special occasion after all (If she does, we should remember to wear a condom if it escalates further)

Also tell her she should still visit Gruk despite being healed, he'd appreciate the company.
>>
No. 994407 ID: 031458

Before you forget...
If you have energy left expend it to upgrade her powers, it's late anyway.

Anyway, was that the only kiss you had or do you have a stash of them hidden somewhere?
>>
No. 994421 ID: 094652

>Pork Time?
Back away for now. You don't want her to offer sex for favors or as some form of gratitude unless you're absolutely sure she wants it. You've seen enough couples in the city break down because they over-depended on each other.
But I guess you're in a relationship now.

>Enhance Powers
Not yet. Give her time to accustom to her powers. Besides, if the auditor has a power analysis ability, they'll notice the suspiciously high levels.
However, Roach has had some time to practice. Give him a level or two, and give his other roach bodies some levels to see what happens.
>>
No. 994430 ID: f94934

>>994404
Yeah, this.
>>
No. 994431 ID: ce39da

Yeah, I'm voting to back off on the sexy stuff; you're both too emotionally vulnerable for that right now. (Actually, does it count as "taking advantage" if it's going both ways?)

"I uh... do have some other stuff I'd like to talk about unless you think this is enough for tonight."

If she presses you: "So, you're not wrong about my investigating the estate fire, but you were mistaken about my goal in doing so. It was honestly just morbid curiosity - a local whodunnit plopped in my lap, so to speak.

"You know how most powers have 'necessary sub-powers' that aren't very apparent unless you stop to think about it? Like how most speedsters also have super resilience that allows them to withstand their own G-forces. Well... I have a necessary sub-power that tells me what powers I can upgrade or if they're eligible for an awakening by having no prior powers. I, uh... was using that to snoop out the park arsonist's identity."

"I can't stress enough that I only have a likely suspect for the estate fire, and I'm not comfortable telling you until I've dispelled all room for doubt. They have fire powers - ones that imply evil influence at that. After talking with someone close to them, I also know they have a plausible motive and that their alibi (at least as far as she tells it) sucks, though I'll need to try verifying it anyway. They referred this character witness to an organization associated with at least one of the kinds of eyes you drew for Aeglos Wood, the reporter, shortly after the incident. However, there are still a few details that need clearing up; what power their close relative might be hiding (since theirs is implied to be hereditary); your rescuer's strange desire for anonymity at the time, even though it wound up being an open secret; the fact that the supposed starting spots for the fires suggested a premeditated assault rather than an in-the-moment outcome to a botched confrontation; and finally, the question of whether you remember such a confrontation taking place if the suspect did this for the reasons I think they did."
>>
No. 994433 ID: b017dd

>>994421
I think it might be fine with it, it felt like she was setting the mood up for it by turning on the mood lighting, and music when we asked to sit on the couch before we told her anyway, and I think she may be fine with us doing it considering how she was open to it in the romance fest.

But i agree on not upgrading for now
>>
No. 994447 ID: b1b4f3

>>994394
Did you use all 6 energy on that? Doesn't seem like a great result... oh well, we can dump more energy into her tomorrow I guess. Or use it immediately if you held back for some reason.

Also maybe you should make out some more.
>>
No. 994470 ID: 9a2966

>It’s probably best if she just says she just randomly Awakened or it happened in her sleep.
Exactly the cover story I wanted, with a delay, making it not have happened after direct interaction with Cat. 's all.

>No pain
Wow, huh... how'd her pain completely disappear? Nothing in her powers states that's a passive ffect. Do Awakened in general have a higher tolerance? Or maybe there's an unknown passive to her power. Does the Demon Eye Amulet work on Awakened people and give more details than your upgrade interface?

>Great Awakener
Huh, so there IS a vision thing going on. Halo over the head, seeing her grandmother... weird, getting' 'holy' vibes here, but the demons who pulled you into their auction suggest this was their shindig. Maybe they weren't so alone about setting up alla this Awakening stuff...

Anyway, I GUESS this moment is too pure to ruin with further questions and whatnot. Ask her what she'd like to do now.
>>
No. 994471 ID: 9fdfd3

>Willamina: I… I can’t feel any PAIN. I… THERE’S NO MORE PAIN!!! Nothing HURTS Anymore!?!?!?!
Tell her she should somehow make sure she's still capable of feeling pain, at least in the un-scarred areas, because if not, she may be in for some nasty surprises. This is the kind of gotcha one would rather know of in advance.
>>
No. 994484 ID: da89f3

Make out more, afterwards, ask to see a demonstration of her powers

>>994431

As far as asking about the fire goes, I wouldn't tell her our progress of what we uncovered like about finding a likely suspect, and what we uncovered from Aeglos, would spoil the moment right now. but we should try to fish for more information once we are done celebrating

I think though, if we want to get information on her past, the most important thing to do right now is apologize for looking into her past without her permission, and then ask for permission to continue looking into the estate fire before you continue the investigation! it was kind of shitty weve been nosey about her behind her back. just let her know you want to give her closure as what happened to her was unfair, and are beginning to connect some of the dots with what you found in your search but you still have ways to go and need more info.

Maybe from there she will be willing to give her testimony on what happened.

But before we ask of her past, lets just enjoy ourselves for this moment. She hasnt been this happy in a very long time after all.
>>
No. 994489 ID: d6408c

>>994484
We were vetting her to see if we could trust her with our greatest secret. We then shared that in turn. There is nothing to apologize for.
>>
No. 994506 ID: 9f8373

More making out and power demonstrations seem like a good way to go.
>>
No. 994549 ID: 851736

>>994489
We probably dont need to apologize, but we should still ask permission to continue our investigation, it is only fair for her.
>>
No. 994556 ID: 3ed3c3

>>994394
So, uh... Ice Storm? Hail? Blizzard? What's a good super name?
Also, wanna bang?
>>
No. 994566 ID: ca2950

Bang Willamena
>>
No. 994589 ID: afe7de
File 161743849609.png - (8.92KB , 500x500 , C2_015.png )
994589

> Guess you’re in a relationship now.
You don't think that’s how relationships work, you gotta have a talk about it, you don’t like to jump to conclusions. Plus you and most other people aren’t really monogamous. This is only your second date after all.

> Energy check
You used up all of your energy to do that, it looks like you spent 4 Energy getting STORM to Level 2 and 2 Energy getting Ice to level 1.

> Enjoy the moment with Willamina. Kiss, hug, be pleasant
You kind of just want to enjoy the moment with Willamina for a bit, she seems genuinely happy and this is a nice moment. You can save talking about power testing and the apocalypse for later. Willamina leans into you, one hand on your lap, rubbing it sensually as she leans into you and rubs her cheek against yours.
>>
No. 994590 ID: afe7de
File 161743850729.png - (11.63KB , 500x500 , C2_016.png )
994590

You give her head and cheeks a few smooches as she pushes you down passionately and mounts you. She bends down and the two of you begin to make out again. This time is a bit slower and less forceful than before. Willamina’s hands explore your hair and entwine with your free hand. She’s griding against you and it feels pleasant.
>>
No. 994591 ID: afe7de
File 161743852489.png - (11.39KB , 500x500 , C2_017.png )
994591

You reach down and grab her ass, she gives a light squeak and then bites down on your neck. You’re expecting a soft supple rump but instead it feels like a sack of clammy sand, you’re not sure how to feel about this but your hormones are making you feel so good so it doesn't bother you that much. You continue to grope and caress her, even giving Willamina a smack to the ass or two. And now you’ve gotten a few hickeys on your neck.

The heat’s starting to die down and you look in each-others eyes, Willamina rubs her head against you, nuzzling you. She seems really calm now. You’re still a bit HORNY, but some of the voices in your head are telling you not to try to have sex right now, so you don’t push further.

You: Wanna go to the bar and show off your new powers?

Willamina: HELL. YES.
>>
No. 994592 ID: afe7de
File 161743853843.png - (13.43KB , 500x500 , C2_018.png )
994592

Willamina: HEY MOTHERFUCKERS, GUESS WHO JUST AWAKENED!?!?

The crowd goes silent and turns to face her. Willamina then raises a hand and makes snowflakes in the air, scattering them around the room.

Willamina: I got Ice powers BITCHES!!!

About half of the bar goes back to drinking and the other half hoots and hollers. The rest of the night goes by pretty quickly and eventually it’s nearing midnight and you decide to split from Willamina and head to bed, she does the same, waving you off as you head upstairs.
>>
No. 994593 ID: afe7de
File 161743855007.png - (8.30KB , 500x500 , C2_019.png )
994593

You head into your room and see a cat sitting on the windowsil right next to your roach encampment. It appears they’re talking to each-other.

Sitting Cat: I get what you’re saying, but we still have to wait for Catherine.

Sitting Cat: Sorry, “Cat,” Yes I know but we shouldn’t ruin their date. It could be he’s making an ally.

You head over to the counter and they seem to finally notice you.

You: Umm. Hello?

Sitting Cat: Hello Master, This lowly one is named Mint. You can confirm this in your status window by looking up the contracts window.

You do so and using the demon eyes you focus on the contract and can notice a line connecting the two of you if you focus REALLY HARD on the notification.

Roach: NOW THAT THAT IS CONFIRMED I AM A BIT MORE AT EASE. A LOT HAS TRANSPIRED CAT.

Mint: And I suppose you’ll be wanting a rundown of what I can do and have questions. What do you want to know?
>>
No. 994595 ID: f94934

>>994593
Oh, I want to know everything!

But I also want you to know something, I know you're a "slave" and all but I want to make it clear, I have on intention of forcing you to do anything. I want equals and allies, not meat-shields and servants.
>>
No. 994596 ID: e51896

Looks like you got a new slave pet... ask her to please not call herself lowly... Wait, that was an order, sorry, your still questioning your morals about owning a slave. Ask her to please not call herself lowly only if she wants to

Tell Mint you were told she can transform into a cat, but if she is going to show you her humanoid form... um... she should borrow some of your clothes first before transforming... if she wants

Lay on bed, grab your COMM and look at texts while you talk to roach. "I think I saw you two outside the window. Sorry I couldn't talk then. Hope you like the gifts I got you, roach. I take it you have some bad news? I assume involving Isabella?"

Might want to warn Mint, roach, roach, roach, and roach, that there are animals getting burned in the park, and you recommend they be careful especially at night.

Maybe ask Mint if she wants to be petted... in her cat form of course!
>>
No. 994597 ID: e51896

Also, Check if you got new achievements for awakening Willamina!
>>
No. 994599 ID: 8f86b1

Hello Mint! It is good to meet you. I'm glad to have another friend to weather the coming storm with.
I must know though, HOW did you manage to get auctioned off at the demon auction?

After that, ROACH: Your Report, please.

Also, I suggest using the skill book on mint tonight or tomorrow.
>>
No. 994602 ID: 094652

Having a non-awakened slave may have advantages we're not aware of. Ultimately, you should leave it up to Mint to decide if she wants a power, a skill book, or wants to be left alone for now.

... Well, maybe not the last one. Ask if you can pet the kitty.
>>
No. 994605 ID: 8f86b1

>>994602
>>994595

I don't get y'all's idea of consent with a slave. We can be 'nice', we can treat her with dignity, but she is our slave. Aside from "Your contract it's hereby null and void, you are now free." No course of action we take with her is 'Good' or 'Moral'. Merely keeping her here is exploitation, no choice we give her is freedom, only a cruel illusion of it.

We all know why we took a slave. So we'd have someone we could entrust with awesome power, for our own benefit.

Don't delude yourselves into thinking you can do the right thing here without being willing to make a sacrifice.

I for one do not believe it wise to waste our resources before the coming apocalypse, and therefore think we should continue to retain her contract, even if doing so is evil.
>>
No. 994606 ID: 9a2966

>Goes straight to the bar with Cat
Really wanted the power reveal to have no direct connection to Cat, but ah well, youthful exuberance, etc. Guess the first one's a freebie anyway, it's any AFTER this one that're gonna start becoming increasingly susp.

>Making an ally
More like making a friend - or more! You haven't exactly shared everything with her yet, though. It felt a bit much for a first date. That includes the existence of the two of them - which works out, since you'd like to have a few aces up your sleeve, at least for now.

>lowly one
>she will be willing to DIE for you

Feel fucking uncomfortable for a moment, then resolve to be nice to this individual over whom you have the implicit power of life and death. Greet her, say well met. Tell her you're new to the idea of being a slave master and the self-denigrating attitude sounds sorta crummy. She can refer to herself - and you - freely, and preferably informally. Ideally, you'd like to do something about her enslaved state, but you recognize there's a few serious obstacles to that becoming the case. Still, your stance is that you'd like her to find whatever freedoms and pleasures she can while being in your service. Basically, you'd like to treat her more like a... valued employee? She's definitely gonna get SOMETHING out of this. You'll work on exactly what later - and she's free to offer input as to what she'd like.

>implanted backstory
Anyway, you're very curious as to your supposed relationship now. You guess in public her humanoid form should be treated according to the backstory the demons came up with, as they APPARENTLY ADJUSTED REALITY OR EVERYONE'S PERCEPTION OF IT to pigeonhole her into your past. So, with that in mind... who is 'Mint', the backstory?

>slew of other questions
And who is Mint, the slave - what's her real backstory, how'd she end up a slave? What can she do and what does she know? More specifically, what can she tell you concerning the auction she was procured from, the beings behind it and this whole 'demon king contest' thing? How does her transformation powers work? (Do you have to buy clothes for her?)

>watdo with Mint?
... and what are you gonna do with her, plan-wise? You haven't exactly got a high-paying job at the moment, though there are cash favors you could snag from Miss Iraphena, or you could even sell one of your artifacts for massive moolah, though you'd prefer to keep as many of those as you can given what's coming. To conserve on those you're tempted to put her to work in town somewhere (maybe the Lyst-y-Mart?) so the two of you can combine your pay-power to move to a two-bedroom apartment, though you're not sure what the Mart job is paying.

Other than getting a job, she could do some more sleuthin' about town for you in either of her forms, though she'd be a bit more obvious than Detective Roach over here and both Miss Iraphena and CROW might be on the lookout for Cat-Mint. Not so much Iraphena if you just tell her, you guess.

>Detective Roach
Thank Roach for the day's sleuthin'. You got them some of the stuff they wanted, still looking for a nice plant, but if they've any additional requests they're free to lay 'em on you. It sounded like they'd had an eventful day? If it's anything important or time-sensitive they'd like to share, please go ahead.

By the way, how'd they find Mint - or the reverse?

Also, share with both of them how your day went.

>Achievements
Oh yes! And you need to check your achievements at some point. Maybe after all of the talking is over.

>Idea: hatching the Lucky Egg
Thought. Could we put Cat-Mint on egg-warming duty if we've got nothing better for her to do?
>>
No. 994607 ID: ce39da

>>994605
The demon auctioneer also implied that freeing her is actually pretty dang hard, and we don't even know where to start on that front. It almost certainly isn't as simple as waving your arms and going: "I command you to be free."

... Do check to see if the Lightning God book is still there (and functional). I'm not sure what benefit there is to withholding powers from someone who literally can't disobey us (no matter how uncomfortable we are with that whole situation).

Do get each other up to speed before you actually follow through with anything, though.
>>
No. 994609 ID: 9a2966

>>994605
>We all know why we took her as a slave.

>>/questarch/991228
>and... you are now in the emancipation business, for a plenitude of reasons
E M A N C I P A T I O N

Look it up, then let's get into those reasons.

For one, the demons might've worked a confidentiality clause into their slave binding magics, such as preventing her from revealing anything (or to lie about anything) she knows about the demons, what with having lived as their slave for who knows how long. We can't trust anything she says completely unless we're sure we're not running up against that, and that means freeing her in order to verify. As far as getting true intel on the demons go, there's a potential for a freed Mint to be an asset.

For two, a slave may not display a whole lotta initiative and might not have a whole lot of stake in a fight. It depends on the nature of her instilled slavishness and what sort of will she is able to muster. We'll see on that end, but I have a sneaking suspicion she'll be hella - pun intended - interested in not going back to being a slave if she's actually freed - and the demons ARE still coming to punk this world, so interests will hopefully align and we'd still have an empowered and capable individual to aid us.

For three, it seems likely that the demons keep slaves (well, they certainly have them on offer) and if they attack, their slaves will likely be part of that attack too. Figuring out if we can Awaken powers that can free these slaves actually seems like a beneficial tactical advantage to have.

For four, it's the right thing to do.

For five, it's the RIGHT thing to do.

Anyway, I see where you're coming from but I don't wholly buy into the idea that there is no way to be a good person here and that we should lean into hardening Cat's heart. Demons gonna demon don't mean we gotta be like a demon too (even if we might literally end up there thanks to the Ring of the Phoenix). It surely is possible to treat Mint right - or better, at least - and part of that involves exploring emancipation options and part of it involves turning this master-slave relationship into something healthier and more reciprocal.
>>
No. 994610 ID: e6a906

Tell Roach you awoke Willamina and she said she will protect you in return.

Ask when you first awakened Roach if he had a vision. Willamina saw a vision of her great grandmother and you're interested in knowing if he saw something.
>>
No. 994611 ID: 094652

>>994605
We know that.
But the deed is done and our conscience, while heavy, is still existent. We don't have the strength to free her right off the bat, but we can offer her small freedoms and trust, and try to build it up until we feel safe breaking our contract to give her a real life.
Maybe we'll fail to appeal to better nature. Maybe Cat cannot release the bond, or releasing the bond will have dire consequences. But we have to try, while we still can.
>>
No. 994615 ID: 031458

>>994605
This is me

>>994607
We could in that case command her to determine her own fate with as little regard to us as possible unless we command otherwise, and then never command otherwise.

>>994609
1- That's a reach. Even if they had reason to do such a thing, there is no reason that it couldn't be it's own unrelated curse.

2-I concur that any reciprocation they offer would indeed probably be spirited, but they need not lend us their sword, nor give us anything at all. Emancipation means we are owed NOTHING, not even a thank you.

3- Might be worth exploring, but the ability to break powerful magical contracts will surely either:
Come with a steep cost.
-or-
Or attract the attention of forces far beyond our means to deal with.

4/5 - I agree. But the only thing separating a victim and a survivor in an apocalypse is power. Nothing quite concentrates power into one person like slaves.
High-Minded though you may be, I find your idea of emancipation naïve at best. Foolhardy otherwise.

>or better, at least
Modify the relationship from one of a slave to that of an indentured servant perhaps?
We could guarantee some rights, perhaps guarantee release after the threat of apocalypse has passed... Though I question the value of promises that mature AFTER the apocalypse.
>>
No. 994620 ID: b1b4f3

>>994593
Alright so, ask how exactly the contract works. What happens if she doesn't want to do something you tell her to do? Or if she thinks it's a bad idea? Is she allowed to hesitate or object? Are orders followed literally, or based on intent?
What counts as an order? Is it possible to accidentally give her one?

Does she have any idea how it might be possible to free her?

Lastly, how does she feel about becoming a THUNDER CAT?
>>
No. 994622 ID: e51896

Maybe we can wait a bit on the skill book? I've been considering giving that book to Cannie once we become better friends with her.
>>
No. 994626 ID: 0fae41

Well, first of all: How are you? Then tell us about yourself, yes.
>>
No. 994724 ID: afe7de
File 161750602402.png - (7.43KB , 500x500 , C2_019b.png )
994724

> Achievements?
You pop open your achievement window and are greeted by a new notification:

Achievement “Awaken 3 different species of creatures” has been unlocked. +10
Achievement “Granted 2 Powers to a creature” has been unlocked. +5

And there’s a new hint available too:
Awaken 10 total creatures. 3/10

Your new achievement total is 30/140

You also double check the contents of your ring, you made sure to snag everything you pulled out earlier and it’s all there.
>>
No. 994725 ID: afe7de
File 161750603631.png - (6.56KB , 500x500 , C2_020.png )
994725

> Your feelings on slavery
You’re pretty conflicted about this. A cage is a cage is a cage after all. And attempting to promise something like freedom even if you don’t know its possible could be getting her hopes up a bit too high. You’re also in a precarious situation where you need allies you can 100% trust to not stab you in the back. You definitely WANT to free her if you can, but other parts of you are definitely making you think this is a bad idea and that you should keep the contract even if its questionable right now for the sake of the long term.

> Ask Mint some questions
You decide to start by asking Mint some questions. You’re guessing that Roach has something urgent to tell you, but want to get formalities out of the way with your new slave. Thinking about it that way still makes you uncomfortable, but this is the unfortunate reality that you live in.

You: So uh before we begin, is there any limitations on what you can talk about? Can you give opinions, object or hesitate, will you be forced to follow what I say literally or the intent of what I say, etc?

Mint: I only have the limitations you place on me Master. As this is a soul binding contract I can’t hide anything from you even if I wanted to.

Mint: I’ll be following your orders as you define them at the limits that you express, so if you want me to be literal I’ll be literal, but um, I’m only a kin, so don’t expect perfection. I’m no automaton.
>>
No. 994727 ID: afe7de
File 161750605273.png - (8.61KB , 500x500 , C2_021.png )
994727

You: Uh, this might be a weird question but do you want to be pet?

Mint: Yes, I like being scratched behind the ears and at the base of my tail.

Mint heads over to you and sits on your lap as you begin to stroke her. She purrs relaxingly as she continues to talk.

You: So slavery, how does this work? Can it be undone, are the limitations lax? What happens if I die, etc.

Mint: Slave contracts are managed by some demon, some say it’s the actual demon king himself, others say it’s one of the 72 demon lords, I don’t actually know. So if a slave breaks their contract or inflicts lethal harm to their master their soul is forfeit to the contract and is eradicated, resulting in instant death.

Mint: Upon your true death my contract becomes forfeit and the next assigned owner that you decide will control me. If no new owner has been decided by then then I will be in a flux state where if I do not return to the demons I will be killed in a similar manner after a certain period of time.

You: Fuck, alright. I guess if we can find and eliminate this demon lord then maybe the contract will be nullified?

Mint: Its… A possibility, but I don’t know. I was told some demon out there could nullify contracts but I wasn’t given the specifics, I think it was false hope given to the newly captured.
>>
No. 994728 ID: afe7de
File 161750606391.png - (8.88KB , 500x500 , C2_022.png )
994728

> Transforming?
You: Transforming, how does that work? Do you need clothes? What happens to the stuff you’re holding?

Mint gets up from your lap and transforms in front of you becoming a short woman, probably about 1.3 meters in height. At her hip is some sort of box, but you can’t really tell what it is from this angle. She turns back to normal and gets back into your lap, urging you to continue petting her.

Mint: As you can tell, I keep my clothing, they even let me keep my tools so there’s a saving grace in that. I don’t need new clothes, they’re held in some sort of extra dimensional space when I’m transformed. I just like being this size. Also getting fucked at this size feels hecking good.

You: Uh what was that?

Mint: Don’t worry about it.
>>
No. 994729 ID: afe7de
File 161750607508.png - (7.42KB , 500x500 , C2_023.png )
994729

> Implanted Backstory?
You: So what’s your cover story? I was told reality would adjust for your presence but I don't know much about this.

Mint: We’re former college friends, I moved out to Lyst similarly to you. If someone asks I just say I live on the outskirts of town at a motel until we figure out what’s going to happen. In truth I’m under your care.

> Actual Backstory?
You: So uh, What’s your story, how’d you become a slave and what can you do?

Mint: I’m from another world, one that was ravaged by demons and angels and monsters. My clan was a group of tinkers that made and sold magitech that we researched. I worked as a maid for a time and as an amateur inventor in my spare time. According to your world’s standards I would be considered a [RANK 3] Tinker Generalist. But my main job was in administration.

Mint: All of my clan can beast shape, turning from a more humanoid form to a more bestial form. It’s our [INNATE SKILL]. I can also turn into a larger, ridable cat form.

Mint: I became a slave when an army of fallen angels came and subjugated my people. We weren’t strong enough. The world had already ended and more than 70% of the land was flooded with monsters. We were only able to stay around for so long due to our magitech. Well it was either consent to slavery or be wiped out and I chose the former.
>>
No. 994730 ID: afe7de
File 161750608898.png - (6.10KB , 500x500 , C2_024.png )
994730

You: Phew, okay, thats a lot. Um… Please give me some time to process that. I’ll be up front about this. I’m not really comfortable with the slave owning business, so my current plan is to treat you like an indentured servant that has rights and an allowance. It’s not the best compromise, but I want to also at least treat you nicely.

Mint gets up and sits across from you, giving you a glare

Mint: I’m going to be a little blunt here, but that’s not the best attitude to take in this situation. Your world will end soon, regardless of how you treat me. While I am technically a person I lost my rights as one and became a tool. Use me to further your own goals and ensure you and yours do not get enslaved or killed in the same matter as my home planet.

Mint: That kind of attitude can only come from someone who has been spoiled and that hasnt lived with the harsh realities of a world under constant strife. I would even encourage you to get MORE slaves that can protect your livelihood.

Mint: You can of course say I’m effectively free and send me on my way, we’ll still have the slave contract and I won’t be able to go against you. But I will literally just go on dungeon runs and gain power so I can fight against the demons, angels, and monsters that will descend on this planet.
>>
No. 994731 ID: afe7de
File 161750609713.png - (5.47KB , 500x500 , C2_025.png )
994731

You’re not sure how to respond to that and the room goes silent for a moment. You look to roach and he tilts his head at you.

You: So Roach, what happened with you?

Roach: I LOST MY PRIMARY BODY, IT SHALL BE MISSED. IF I HAD NOT GATHERED SOME SPARE ROACHES I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE DIED THEN AND THERE. THOUGH IT’S A SHAME, I LIKED THE WINGS ON MY BODY.

You: Uh, how?

Roach: I’LL GET INTO THAT NEAR THE END. I FOLLOWED ISABELLA AROUND THE WHOLE DAY, THE IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE ARE THAT SHE HAS A SHRINE IN HER ROOM TO SOMEONE WITH SPIKY HAIR THAT LOOKS SIMILAR TO WILLAMINA. SHE SPENT A LOT OF HER TIME TODAY JUST LAUGHING WHEN NO ONE ELSE WAS HOME. THERE’S A DART BOARD IN HER ROOM WITH WILLAMINA’S FACE ON IT SHE THROWS DARTS AT.
>>
No. 994732 ID: afe7de
File 161750610932.png - (8.48KB , 500x500 , C2_026.png )
994732

Roach: SHE ALSO MUTTERED TO HERSELF ABOUT HOW SOON MAX WILL BE HERS ALONE, WHATEVER THAT MEANS. SHE THEN HAD A PHONE CALL WHERE SHE REPLIED “YES MY LOVE” AND “YES SENPAI” NUMEROUS TIMES. AND “NO CHANGES, SHE’S STILL UNAWAKENED” AND “THERE’S A NEWCOMER LOOKING INTO IT BUT THEY’LL REACH THE DEAD END OF IT SOON ENOUGH. IRAPHENA WANTS ME TO BE HANDS OFF BUT FRANKLY I COULD GIVE A RATS ASS WHAT SHE THINKS, I’M HER SUPERIOR AFTER ALL.”

Roach: THEN SHE LOOKED INTO THE AIR RIGHT NEXT TO HER, AND BACK TO THE WINDOW AND SAID “YOU DEAL WITH IT” IT SUDDENLY BECAME VERY HOT AND I WAS CAUGHT ABLAZE, I HAD A ROACH HIDDEN UNDER THE HOUSE SO I TRANSFERRED MY CONSCIOUSNESS AND THEN HID.

Roach: I WAS TOO SCARED TO CONTINUE OBSERVING HER SO I WENT AROUND TOWN GATHERING MORE ROACHES, THEN I SAW THIS CAT WANDERING AROUND WATCHING YOU, SO I FOLLOWED HER AND EVENTUALLY TALKED TO HER AND FOUND OUT SHE WAS YOUR SLAVE AND WE AGREED TO HEAD BACK HERE TO WAIT FOR YOU. I WANTED TO TELL YOU SOONER BUT SOMEBODY THOUGHT WE SHOULD JUST WAIT FOR YOU.
>>
No. 994737 ID: 8483cf

cat
>>
No. 994738 ID: e7c7d3

>Also getting fucked at this size feels hecking good.
A cat is fine too.

Oh dear, it sounds like Isabella has gone off the deep end for a while now. Still, probably be best to call it a night
>>
No. 994739 ID: 0fae41

Rideable cat form? Like a tiger? Please show me. That's even more cat to pet... Also, is there any tinkering you can do with magical items?
So that's how Isabella's demon power works, she's got an imaginary friend. The shrine could be a caricature of Willamina herself or a demon that happens to resemble her.
Also Roach has a good point, we should get more wings for the hive. We could add a few flies in the short term, they should last at least a week or two.
We should probably sleep then.
>>
No. 994740 ID: 3ed3c3

>>994732
...Wow okay.
So Isabella is 100% cracked, she has a demon on her side, she's Iraphena's superior, and she's aware she's being observed. Not good.
But she's unaware that Willamina is Awakened, she doesn't know the full extent of our powers, she doesn't know that we're on to her, and she's making a lot of mistakes. Very good.
Thank Roach as much as possible, and prepare for some shuteye.
>>
No. 994741 ID: e7c7d3

>>994732
Also, calling the other person on the other side of the call as "my love" imply she's taking orders from Max? Is max behind all this? Just using Isabella and Iraphena to get back at Willamina for scorning him
>>
No. 994742 ID: e51896

That's messed up.

Keep in mind I could be wrong, but from what it sounds like, Isabella is probably referring to us as the newcomer, and I think she somehow knows we're investigating the estate fire. It seems like also Iraphena doesn't want Isabella stopping us investigating the estate fire. Could she be protecting us?

She is probably keeping an eye on Willamina to make sure she doesn't awaken, and report to whoever is on the phone if she ever does (could be Max back from the grave, a new lover, he faked his death, or his ghost.) (It probably was a bad idea to have Willamina announce her powers at the bar, but what's done is done.)

and it looks like her power Demonic Flame Spirit is a separate entity that burned roach, and has been burning other animals. (My guess is that the reason why Isabella has been burning animals is because she is dealing with the overmind's animals spying on her or something.)

Are cockroaches face supposed to look like that? anyway, Lets look at our texts for now before bed, we've missed a lot. But we will need to have a serious discussion with Willamina tomorrow, first thing in the morning. We'll probably need to introduce her to roach in order to get her to understand the situation better as proof.
>>
No. 994745 ID: b1b4f3

>>994727
Hmm, well, Iraphena's lawyer contacts might have some ideas.

>>994732
WELP sounds like the demonic fire spirit ability is a separate entity she can talk to. I'm guessing she sent it to burn the estate, so she'd have an alibi.
Also, Max is still alive??? ...that would explain some of the weird things about the event. The Hero's Guild could have taken the chance to fake his death, maybe also the deaths of the other people there.
If that's who Isabella is talking to on the phone, then... the Hero's Guild is working with Nunitus? I guess that wouldn't be too unreasonable since Nunitus is pretty secretive. We can no longer be sure Isabella killed anyone that day. Willamina getting burned might've been on purpose. ...oh hell, what if Max knew about the inheritance clause for the death of all major members, and decided his family needed to die so that the Hero's Guild could get ALL the money instead of just partial support?
Well, there's another possible sequence of events. Maybe Max faked his death using the fires then split with the Hero's Guild for some reason, and Isabella used Nunitus to track him down since she didn't confirm his death; or maybe she asked Iraphena if there was a way to bring Max back to life only to find out that Max was still alive. Max took the opportunity to... start using Isabella as a tool? Is Max a villain? Or does he think Isabella is a good person? That direction of potential events just makes things more complicated...
Also haha this is fucked, Iraphena isn't Isabella's boss at all? It's the other way around. That means... Iraphena was going over Isabella's head when she called Overmind? Or the command structure is very loose in Nunitus. Or... Isabella was lying to Max on the phone about being Iraphena's boss?

Well, shit's all fucked up. We can't fight Isabella's fire spirit if we can't see it. Mint would basically have to take Isabella out before the fire spirit can attack. Also I have no idea if Willamina is in more danger now, or less. ...well, there's one small mercy, we know the fire spirit isn't that strong. It's burning animals but they don't always die? Fighting it would suck but wouldn't be instantly lethal.

Give Mint the lightning god book right now. See how much energy it would take to upgrade her, and how much it takes to upgrade Roach right now. Maybe we should give Roach a real name?

Hell, if possible I'd like to go into the forest right now instead of sleeping, and try to contact the forest lady. She can help, and we really need help.

It's also time for Cat to strongly reconsider his vow of silence considering Isabella's powers. We didn't actually promise anything to anyone! So far we've been doing it out of politeness, but now we know for sure she's up to no good. She's about to get "hands-on".
I want to warn Willamina somehow but I don't know what to say. "Watch out some invisible thing might throw fire at you"? "Isabella's fucking nuts wait you knew that already"? "Max might be alive and hates you"? The options aren't good!

hmm,
>LAUGHING WHEN NO ONE ELSE WAS HOME
Was she watching TV? Or videos on her phone? It's that or the fire spirit but that seems kindof strange for an interaction with the fire spirit.
>>
No. 994746 ID: e4e6e7

>IRAPHENA WANTS ME TO BE HANDS OFF BUT FRANKLY I COULD GIVE A RATS ASS WHAT SHE THINKS, I’M HER SUPERIOR AFTER ALL.
...That's scary if true. I do believe we have our first bad guy. Somebody should tell Will that she's at risk. Maybe set a trap, before Will gets hit.

>SO I TRANSFERRED MY CONSCIOUSNESS
Roach is tough to kill. Would that work with other creatures? Would that work with PEOPLE? Would that work with creatures you give powers? Would that work with people with powers? Roach with more upgrades could prove to be very powerful. Without upgrades... it could still lead a swarm. You officially have motive to raise/breed roaches.
>>
No. 994748 ID: e6a906

I wonder if we should hand Mint the book, and have her pose as Willamina's adopted pet to protect her from Isabella...
>>
No. 994751 ID: f5efea

Real talk. We need to start building our allies up and getting some contingencies in place for an inevitable conflict. I'm talking counter-surveillance, so we know when we're being targeted for a move. I'm talking small armies of Roach-likes. I'm talking people who know about the stakes at play, and willing to defend us should it come down to it.

Cat is sober enough about all this that she should take the lead on planning.
>>
No. 994755 ID: b1b4f3

>>994748
Cat needs protection too! We only have one bodyguard to go around... and we might be better off in the long run sending Mint to a dungeon run, Upgrading Willamina as much as possible, and getting some stronger gadgets and magic items for self-defense against Isabella.

...I wonder if we can use a Favor from Iraphena to get her to protect Cat and Willamina from Isabella? Like, she should be able to precog Isabella going out to kill Willamina and warn her, and possibly be able to tell if Isabella is going to get in a fight with someone she can't predict (Cat). In the end the method of her helping us is up to her though. Maybe she could pull some strings and get Isabella out of town earlier than planned? Iraphena might wonder why we're concerned about it, and we can truthfully say that the story we got from Cannie makes us think Isabella is a psycho.

Alternatively we can get a 5k favor, buy that property, and turn it into a fortress that Isabella would have to assault to get to us. Willamina could stay there too.
>>
No. 994771 ID: f94934

Wakeup REAL early tomorrow and go talk to willamina about this stuff as soon as possible. If Isabella finds out she sounds liable to just snap and straight up murder someone and/or multiple people.

Also new crack pot theory:
Max survived the fire, faking his own death somehow. He orchestrated the whole ordeal and intentionally spared willamina by manipulating isabella into doing his dirty work by promising her his affection. In reality he probably still has eyes for his sister alone and plans to use isabella to get whatever he wants then dispose of her or "save" willamina from her to win back her affection. Iraphena probably works for her under some kind of duress, or whoever they both work for has some kind of semi-workable plan to save the world and iraphena has decided the ends justify the means. Or she's just a greedy bastard and is on the side that benefits her the most materially.
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No. 994777 ID: e71563

We need to inform Willamina NOW.
Check if she's still in the bar. If so, pull her aside. Otherwise, call her and meet Mint and Roach + a couple bodies outside and BOOK IT to Willamina's place.

It is also worth asking Mint if she knows how much time it takes to use a skill book. We may need to use ours very soon.
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No. 994780 ID: 094652

We have concrete evidence that Isabella is a threat; even if she isn't responsible for the fire and the burnings and all the other murders, she's mentally ill and has a psychotic separate entity that loves to burn others to death. I was hesitant about telling Willamina because she might impulsively attack Isabella without a full investigation, but now it would be self-defense.

>Mint wants to grind
"Okay.
Your orders are to do whatever you want until the next demon auction.
Your designated master is Willamina Haydee. If I die, make sure she knows everything."

>Roach
"Please don't make that face, Snopes."
>>
No. 994792 ID: e6a906

Maybe we should text Willamina and tell her we need to talk about this tomorrow morning?
>>
No. 994812 ID: 9a2966

Thank Roach for its literal sacrifice and apologize you got their main body killed - Isabella was more messed-up than you anticipated - then have a quick think.

This is indeed a lot at once. So, put all slave and world-ending related topics aside to focus on the matter approaching critical mass - Isabella, Willamina and the truth of the Hadlee mansion fire. Thanks to Roach's selfless sleuthing we've assembled enough pieces to have an initial go at putting the puzzle together.

>THE HORRIBLE HADLEE THEORY
>Disclaimer: variants and other possibilities certainly exist
The burning of the mansion and its aftermath, whether accidental or premeditated, required the cooperation of two individuals: Maximillian and Isabella.

We still don't know what power Max was sitting on, but he may have Awakened to one that was MENTAL in nature. He may have gotten SMARTER and more MANIPULATIVE as a result of it. Based on Cannie's story, his attitude grew distant and cold shortly after confessing to (and being rebuffed by) Willamina, a shift which both that event and his recent Awakening into a different mindset could explain. A mental awakening might certainly have made him stop acting like the youth he was and begin to lay plans of his own. Especially if he - much as Cat did - discovered the truth of the upcoming demonic invasion and preparing for that began to take priority. Possibly his family was an obstacle both to his incestuous love and to those preparations.

Thus, he could have leveraged Isabella's obsession with him (and own Awakening) into an advantage by getting her to burn down the Hadlee Mansion and getting her to continue to work with him (dangling the carrot of his love in front of her all the while). He either knew about or faked the Hadlees' will to give him another lever with which to monitor Willamina's status - possibly he got the Heroes' League help to set it all up! After all, his family was already a financial backer of the Walpoles (founders of the Heroes' League, I believe) and the League stood to benefit somewhat by absorbing those resources.

He could even have lied that he wanted to pretend to be dead to 'protect' what was left of his family from whatever VILLAIN burned the place down - they'd CLEARLY been after HIM, after all! And not letting Willamina have a hint of access to any of those resources until she Awakened meant she'd be protected from further villainous interests.

Then he proceeded to both work with the Heroes' League and Nunitus, playing a long game. The main link to Max-Nunitus involvement is Isabella becoming a Nunitus player - able to get her non-Awakened sister an in - and setting herself up as the superior of Iraphena (a public Nunitus member), as well as EYES being a very big component of Willamina's trauma back during the mansion fire, while also being Nunitus' main motif. That could admittedly be a red herring... though it also feels weird that all the Nunitus leads back after the mansion fire just up and vanished.

Like someone knew ahead of time which leads Aeglos was investigating - which could point to Iraphena's involvement in the cover-up.

Whaddye think? If any of this is true, we're dangerously close to knocking a conspiracy cabal over, with the attendant attention that'll bring. Speaking of which...

>CAT IS ON THINNER ICE DISCOVERY-WISE
Roach's spying - we keep a terrarium of roaches, figuring out who sent a roach to spy on Isabella won't exactly be rocket science - and our recent publicly revealed presence at Will's Awakening are both things that could trigger Isabella/Max/Nunitus to spy on and confront Cat. With Miss Iraphena tracking Willamina's potential awakening status they could straight up know Cat is the likely 'trigger' here (even if that doesn't reveal the Arcane Catalyst power) since he is the only new element Iraphena can't keep track of.

>WHAT DO WE DO
It's relatively simple. Do we ACT NOW or WAIT AND SEE?

Waiting may be safe as houses, ish. Sure, it could put Will at risk of being targeted or manipulated (we have NO idea how Isabella will react to her sudden Awakening, but I suspect it won't be a positive reaction) - and Cat might find themselves under increased surveillance by Nunitus... but neither of those are like 100% given. As long as we keep cool and don't reveal that Cat knows Isabella is messed up and talking to 'Max' on the phone we should be... pretty safe in their mind still, if an annoyance to deal with and clearly someone to bully into cooperativeness.

BUT... I do not like the idea of giving Isabella - or her 'love' - the initiative here. We should be ABLE to stop Isabella, The Incarnation of Flame, and her demonic flame spirit, if need be, and we should ensure Willamina doesn't get manipulated or abused further. To do that we need to first AWAKEN MINT.

>AWAKEN MINT
SPEND 30 POINTS TO RAISE YOUR POWER CAP to 3/9 BEFORE MIDNIGHT AND IMMEDIATELY AWAKEN MINT WITH THE BONUS 3 POINTS! After midnight we can spend another 9 points - your whole wad for the day - to UPGRADE MINT'S POWER - or however much you can manage (spending any leftovers on upgrading Roach's powers as thanks for their selfless service).

The Awakening should definitely be put towards protecting you and yours and give Mint something to work with for dungeon runs. The exact nature should be suggested on by all as normal, though the one I'd like to propose is one that would at least allow Mint to sense and fight (seal / banish / exorcise) spiritual and otherworldly entities. A shrine-maiden 'Miko' power, for example, allowing her to fight back against Isabella AND the type of entities who fucked over her world.

>GET AID
For aid, you could leverage what you know of the town's residents. Dr. Trey and Gruk are both Awakened who'd probably come to your side if you intimate Will's under threat (although you don't know their loyalties as far as the situation with Max / Nunitus / League is concerned). You've got Trey's number at least - and he might also be in the bar still, and thus approachable, if drunk.

Toni the Illusionist might be, if not trustworthy or at all approached so far, someone we can call in as a 'dude, I'll owe you a big favor it you help me out here' last minute wildcard.

Cannie could get called in to shout at her sister for being a dummy - but I don't have much hope she'll be able, as a non-awakened, to DO much other than lean on her the slightest bit.

>GET BACK TO WILLAMINA TONIGHT
Either she or you could be in danger. An Awakened Mint can only protect you both if you're together - and if this situation is to come to a head soon, you might as well kick the cabal fully over and get her to help play the cards that end up on YOUR side.
>>
No. 994878 ID: afe7de
File 161760032202.png - (10.24KB , 500x500 , C2_027.png )
994878

> Get some rest
You think about awakening mint and the implications of all the info you just learned and suddenly get just so extremely tired. It looks like that Stamina Liquor is wearing off right about now and your adrenaline is dying off. It’s probably better that you figure out what you’re going to do about this whole situation after a night of rest so you don’t make any rash decisions. You’re not used to this kind of high intensity stuff. You strip and head to bed, Mint joins you, snuggling up on your pillow beside your head.

You: I think I’m going to rest for now, this is just a lot to take in. Just… We’ll talk in the morning.
>>
No. 994881 ID: afe7de
File 161760044335.png - (24.47KB , 500x500 , C2_028.png )
994881

> Check your Texts
You cover yourself with the sheets and pull out your comm, deciding to take a look at all the messages you’ve been ignoring for the past few hours.

Cannie: Good fight, you beat me fair and square. LMK when you wanna go again.

Nipha: Yeah Kazu really broke out of his shell.
Nipha: Rudy’s made these cool little spider robots that do all our housework for us and he uses to make gadgets, they’re pretty cool.
Nipha: You’ll get to see one of them when we head over.
Nipha: Oh and my new hoverboots.
Nipha: I’ll shoot you a text when I get there MONDAY.

Willamina: 🧊💕🧊

SPAM LIKELY: Ratiolatry isn’t as scary as you might think, come down to Lyst’s Ratiolatry group meeting this sunday at 9AM at the Community center!
SPAM LIKELY: Tired of your old penis? We at Beast-Kin’s Phallus emporium can offer you a brand new cock of any species you like, increase the virility and potency of your seed or even make it prehensile, all at a low low cost of $99 a month, [CLICK HERE] for more details!

God these dumb spam texts are back again, guess moving to a new area has gotten your number put on a few lists. At least they aren’t calling you and leaving voice-mails.
>>
No. 994882 ID: afe7de
File 161760045258.png - (25.81KB , 500x500 , C2_029.png )
994882

> Warn Willamina
Hearing this information has got you on edge even more and you feel that you should at least say something to Willamina.

To Willamina you reply: I might just be paranoid but be careful tonight okay? Talk to you in the morning.

You then put your phone on the charger and curl up into a ball, letting the sweet, dark embrace of sleep consume you. You don’t dream, but you feel a soul-crushing weight pressing down on your stomach the whole night. Your left leg constantly cramps and your right shoulder is in pain. Not to mention your back is killing you. It might be a good idea to buy some painkillers. You wake up the next morning and look at your COMM. It’s SATURDAY MORNING at 9:30AM. You feel more TIRED than usual. You’ll probably be fine in an hour or so. But you’re most likely still in pain from the fight yesterday. You sluggishly drag yourself through the shower and bathroom, lazily performing your morning routine before dressing, and popping back in the room. You grab your COMM, no new messages, but you hear the telltale sounds of a stomach growling coming from Mint.
>>
No. 994883 ID: 0fae41

Get some Cat food, and food for the cat too.
Is the libarby open to return your book?
>>
No. 994884 ID: b1b4f3

>>994882
Talk to mint about awakening. Ask her what kind of power she'd like most if she awakened. Then text Cannie to ask her what kind of powers she'd want most.

Get some food for Mint. What does she want from the bar?

Use a favor to get 5k, with the intent to buy that property. Also tell Iraphena you heard from Cannie about how fucked up Isabella is and you're kindof worried now; can she protect you? Would she even be able to predict Isabella attacking you? Oh she should be able to protect Willamina at least, could she do that for a favor?
Oh right today is when we check out potential item trades, too.

Do we have to work today?
>>
No. 994889 ID: 8483cf

Time to begin Operation: Delegation. Bring Mint up to speed on who is important to you, who can be trusted, and if she feels comfy about helping plan defenses.
>>
No. 994894 ID: cb6eac

Things are going to start moving very quickly today. We need to go to Willamina's place straight after breakfast to better inform her. Over breakfast though we should discuss with mint if she feels better suited to the Lightning god power, or if she believes it might be a better idea to awaken her normally.
>>
No. 994898 ID: e51896

I find it kind of eerie that we didn't get new texts. Lets eat... food for us will be free, but we may need to pay for Mint's food.

We are taking roach with us today. We might need him to help us talk to Willamina.

Too bad our days off isnt on saturday. At least we got sun and mon off. Potential plans after work: talk to Willamina about her inheritage (she mentioned she can use it to protect you and her), we can also talk to Iraphena and look into artifacts she has after work, but also, we could consider going to the remains of the hadlee estate after work.

During breakfast, talk to Oriel, mention about being happy for Willamina, and ask about Trey on how it felt like he's been making efforts to avoid you even though you've never introduced yourself to him and ask if he is like that to everyone. Also look into your phone about Ratiolatry.
>>
No. 994907 ID: 9a2966

As far as options for food goes, you'll have breakfast at Oriel's, but I'm wondering if it isn't smarter to just hand Mint some money and have her buy some herself. She could join you in-person at Oriel's and you can do the 'official' meet-n-greet in public, or she can sneak off to the Lyst-y-Mart and buy whatever she needs for herself.

Both Roach and Mint will need marching orders for the day. We might want Mint to hang around for protection - as an Awakened! - for the time being, especially if we're gonna dump some more shattering revelations on Will or if we encounter Isabella.

Roach could... spy on someone less dangerous? I'm wondering if we shouldn't just give Roach some time off to shake off the loss of their primary body. He should be careful as well around town now, especially since Isabella's flame spirit might be on guard against spy bugs, or might even actively seek them out for extermination. Basically, they should be careful not to go anywhere 'alone' - and maybe not even be all collected in the terrarium either.

And here's an idea: if you could keep a roach with you - in safe, air-permeable bag or something - Roach would only need to transfer their consciousness over to you in order to talk. If the range of the hive mind is wider than the range of the telepathy that might be an easier way to get in touch. Might not be comfortable for the bug in question - though roaches are pretty durable!

I still feel like we should spend our achievement points on enabling a more powerful awakening for Mint.

Then again, saving up for checking the power use history of Awakened might still be smart and could give us more information. We'd get a lot more context on how their powers work, for one. Imagine looking at Iraphena's uses - it'd be like looking through someone's browser search history for clues.

Anyway, deal with breakfast, deal with Awakening Mint, then consider whether going to Will before the job begins.
>>
No. 994952 ID: 0c5bfb

Im thinking we bring roach along to introduce to Willamina at work,

Mint should consider working at the friendly bean, or Ruffled haunch. She might be able to get more info and get money through there.

One thing to consider is giving Willamina your phoenix ring in case Isabella attempts murder
>>
No. 994955 ID: ce39da

We should check to see if Gadgetry already counts as Mint being "Awakened" before attempting anything with her. If it doesn't count, then we should definitely talk to her about whether we should use our power or the lightning god book - her preference. Being a practicality-minded catgirl, she'd likely recommend that we use the book on her and save the points for upgrading Willamena.

Whatever we end up deciding on, it'd be best to do it now rather than later; we want to have more power on our side by the time Isabella decides to spring her attack.
>>
No. 994957 ID: b1b4f3

Hmm, it occurs to me we should probably find out how law enforcement handles capturing supers. Do they have magic shackles or something that neutralize powers?
>>
No. 995011 ID: afe7de
File 161769232307.png - (10.31KB , 500x500 , C2_030b.png )
995011

> Return book
You haven't finished it yet! Though you guess you could go to the Libarby later to check out a different book.

> How does law enforcement handle Supes
You remember them using these strange foam guns on supes to contain them, but in most cases they send another supe after them if they cant be contained or controlled. You’re not actually sure what happens after they’re captured. You guess they’re jailed or something.

> Look up Radiolatry
That spam message is on your mind so you do a quick PAWNGLE search Radiolatry. They're a religion that started out as a cult around 50 years ago, they generally believe that we live in a machine or are in a simulation of some sort, with the advent of the internet you could see people sprouting up with theories but this only really came to prominance when the first individuals started awakening. When people could start seeing their status windows and collect artifacts that granted powers they took this as evidence of their theory and began worshipping what they called [THE SYSTEM] that managed our universe.

Then you've found some news articles of individuals going out into crowds, shouting "LOG OUT" and using teleportation based powers to incite mass hysteria, these events were apparently caused by extremists of the group. A few of them were caught due to security camera footage but were let off on minor sentences due to the nature of their "pranks."

There's a seperate group that spun off from Radiolatrists that believes in something called [THE BOX] theory, but the articles on it are sparse, something about what lies outside of [THE SYSTEM]. Apparently accidents keep happening to worshippers of this specific theory so not much else is known about it.
>>
No. 995012 ID: afe7de
File 161769233437.png - (12.23KB , 500x500 , C2_031.png )
995012

> Have breakfast with Mint
You look up from your phone and realize you're at a table with a now kin form Mint, food freshly placed in front of you. Huh, you must've gotten too focused on that news article and didn't realize what you were doing. Oriel is staring at you expectantly, it looks like she asked you a question.

You: Huh, uh, could you repeat that?

Oriel: Sure shugah, I asked if you were gonna introduce me to yer friend?

You: Oh, yeah. This is Mint. She's an old friend from my early College days.

Oriel: Hi, I’m Oriel Walpole, you know, like the famous Marth Walpole, one of the founders of the Heroes League?

Mint: I'm uh, I don't know much about the Heroes guild sorry.

Oriel sighs and is about to step away when you speak up.

You: Cool how Willamina awakened huh?

Oriel: Oh yeah! It's stellar. Kind of jealous if I'm being honest. I'm in my 30s and haven't awakened yet. SIGH Maybe one day...

You: Hey, if it can happen to her it can happen to any of us. Anywho, just one more question. Did I uh... offend Trey or something? I get the feeling he's avoiding me.

Oriel: Oh that, nah, well its not YOU per se. More like he just avoids City folk. Anyone from the big city and he just avoids them like the plague for some reason. I'm sure you could have an actual conversation with him if you scheduled a checkup though.

Now that she mentions it, you havent really gotten a good look at his face, just profile shots and looks from his back. Maybe he's someone who used to be important in the city? You speculate a little bit as you bite into the toast prepared before you. Mint on the other hand has nearly finished her meal in record time. It looks like she was starving. You give her half of your meal, you’re not that hungry anyway and she gets back to eating.

You: Thanks, do I owe you for the breakfast?

Oriel: Nah, the room comes with food enough for two visitors so it's alright.

Oriel heads off back into the kitchen and it's just you and Mint. You feel something in your pocket though and when you poke your hand in there you get a resounding "HEY, WATCH IT." Looks like you took Roach with you too.
>>
No. 995013 ID: afe7de
File 161769236186.png - (7.92KB , 500x500 , C2_032.png )
995013

You start going over the situation with Mint, and then take a moment to check to see if mint has a Power, when you mention that you're about to do that she instead mentions you could just look at her status window, confused you do just that.

Mint Bubastis
Age: 39
Powers:
NONE
Innate Skill:
BEAST SHAPE
This creature can morph their body into bestial forms related to their race and back at will.

Turns out because you OWN her you can see her relevant information and her Innate Skill, Neat! You then quietly explain your power to her through roach and she gives you an incredulous look.

Mint: Alright, no, with a power like that, hmm. Okay, a lot more might be possible then I was thinking. Maybe you won't be a good for nothing master.

You give her an eyeroll and suggest awakening her through your power or through the book and she stops you.

Mint: If I had to pick I'd go with using your power, maybe spend your Achievement points to give yourself a larger pool only because then I'd potentially get a power more suited to me and my style. Lightning sounds great and all, but I'd prefer to hope for a potential stealth power or an actual specialization in Tinkering or something. I’d actually caution against that one you’ve been eying, the history one. In all likelihood it’s probably there to waste your points and would just tell you the date and times of the power use and not what it was used for, at least it seemed to function that way in my world.

Mint: I'll caution you though. ANGELS have a vendetta against awakened without the light attribute, they'll leave civilians alone, but 9 times out of 10 when a conflict arose with ANGELS, DEMONS, KIN and I guess HUMANS, they would almost always indiscriminately slaughter the awakened as well.

You ponder this, right now pure fighting power is kind of needed, you might encounter angels at some point, but with your power you can probably have the numbers to support you if this happens. Though now that you're thinking of logistics the most important thing to deal with right now has popped up. Money.
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No. 995014 ID: afe7de
File 161769237498.png - (10.84KB , 500x500 , C2_033.png )
995014

You: So now we get to the meat of the problem. I'm broke. So that means you'll probably need to get a job Mint, that way we can afford an apartment or something. There's openings at the Lyst-Y-Mart and the Ruffled Haunch, or you could go to the city hall and figure it out.

Mint: That would put us behind schedule. Couldn't you just sell one of your more useless artifacts so we could gain the capital needed. I might not know a lot about this world but I'm sure there's some guild or auctionhouse or something that would be willing to trade for the item. Or maybe wait for Willamina to get her inheritance and use that as starting funds?

Roach: THERE'S ALSO THE FAVORS FROM MISS IRAPHENA FOR A QUICK INFLUX OF BUX. AND I DO REMEMBER THE ABANDONED PAPER MILL BEING ON SALE AS A POTENTIAL BASE OF OPERATIONS.

Mint: What would be great is if we could find a dungeon in this town.

You: Arent... Aren't dungeons crazy huge and run by Demons and Fairies?

Mint: That's not the only kind of dungeon out there. There are some naturally formed hidden dungeons, and if you get a dungeon core you can even MAKE ones. If I had time and BUX I could make a device that could measure the ambient mana in the region and use that to track down a hidden site. I'm SURE there's at least one somewhere in a 10 kilometer radius of us, especially if this is an Auction site.

Mint: But you don't look like a fighter so it would probably be hard for you. Though if we could get you to experience a GROWTH that might change, I wouldn’t be surprised if you never experienced a GROWTH by the looks of you.
>>
No. 995015 ID: 031458

Mint, I've been awakened for almost a week.
So no, I haven't. Please, enlighten me.

Ask what artifact your holding would be the easiest for mint to recreate it you had the resources.

Also consider that bux probably won't be a problem if you successfully Navigate Willamina through the coming fire and she receives her inheritance. Though in that case you should use your favors on bux to get started.
>>
No. 995017 ID: 62e901

Well, besides growth, there's gadgets. How much do those cost? Somebody's probably made power armor, but that also probably costs a lot, if they sell it at all. Though if they do, it might be worth it to lose 1 artifact for the survivability it offers.
>>
No. 995025 ID: e51896

hmm, if we sell an artifact, we could probably sell the Coiling Ring and use our backpack again to carry stuff. We should grab our backpack before work in that case. But I also vote waiting on Willamina's inheritance.

How much does the paper mill cost? does Oriel know?

Also ask for a good idea on what Mint can do while you are at work. You were thinking you could introduce her and roach to Willamina and help explain the situation with, or maybe have her pose as her house cat to protect Willamina if we do awaken Mint with a power to protect her, or having her get a job regardless if only to listen in on people. But she's been having really good ideas so far, that I'd like to hear what she would do during your time at work.

But I think for now, we should awaken Mint. I was thinking of awakening her to the power I wanted to give Willamina, Enigmatic Inhibitor >>994121 though stealth or tinkering sounds important too.
>>
No. 995026 ID: 0fae41

You should probably trade one of those favors for bux outright. It’s simply a necessity at this point and will let mint begin work on a dungeon finder ASAP.
>>
No. 995032 ID: 9a2966

Huh. I had forgotten that Oriel was a Walpole. Descendant of Marth Walpole, master energy swordsman and Heroes League founder.

>ANGELS WILL MURDER EVERY AWAKENED WHO IS NOT LIGHT-ASPECTED
Note to self: see about awakening someone who can give other Awakened a light aspect. Or banish angels for the crime of being alignment pricks. Secondary note: anyone you Awaken will have a bullseye painted on their back if/when angels show up. Tertiary note: Mint was a demon slave, so this could be straight up bull or some skewed perspective stuff.

>Upgrade your basic power so you can make more powerful Awakened
Agreed - slot those 30 points into your awakening capacity. Re: the 'power history use' expense trap... aw man, that is disappoint. Still POTENTIALLY useful, mind. Just not as handy as hoped.

>Spend a Favor on cash
Probably the wise move and we really should've done it yesterday. You can do it later today as you have the artifact trade lined up after work. Mint could come along for that, couldn't she? Her opinion or advice on what kind of artifacts might be valuable could be useful - and it's not like Iraphena won't see her about town soon enough anyway and she can put two and two together when she discovers you're hanging together.

Give Mint the overview of how the auction went, what you snagged and what Iraphena wanted. Mention the utility of the Demon Eye Amulet and the Ring of the Phoenix and how you want to keep those two in particular. The skill book, lucky egg and coiling ring are 'sort of want to have' but also expendables. Note that Roach could also keep you two in mental touch, allowing you to converse between yourself silently.

Mint herself is not for trade.

>Dungeon
... sounds like a mid to long-term plan, honestly. A dungeon of your own would give your group more than a fucking leg up, that's for sure, and given your timeline you'll probably need it. If it's a useful place to train newbie Awakened that's a real score, too.

>GET TO WILLAMINA'S PLACE / TO WORK
Still got them obligations.

>>995025
Aeglos told us the place cost a song and a dance - at 4000.
>>
No. 995037 ID: 094652

>>995011
>Radiolatry
Well, they're not complete crackpots, the nature of the status screens would imply you live in a Meta-RPG of some kind.
They might get more followers if they re-branded though. Radio comes from another age entirely.
>[The Box] Radio-theorists have accidents
Other than the typical silencing, cult theorists are expected to have a high fatality rate from their experiments. It's kind of a pity, science of any kind should be both supported and regulated, even from cultists.
>Supes disappear to 'jail'
Yeah this just screams metahuman experimentation. How else are they going to keep a world of supervillains in check 24-7?

>>995013
So it appears that having a higher energy pool when awakening someone increases the potential array of superpowers, with more useful powers like clairvoyance requiring a higher energy pool. Well dang, maybe we should have waited before giving Willamina her power.
>Angels will kill anyone not aligned with the Light and in their way
Racists.
>Wants a tinkering power
"I'll see what I can do. You'll need to wait until I increase my max energy, how long are you willing to wait?"
>>>995014
>Sell an artifact
"No, every artifact we show off or sell garners heat from our potential rivals. If we suddenly gain wealth from someone other than our rivals, just after heiress Willamina awakened (with something other than what they know we have) and received her family's 8-year standing fortune, they're going to connect the dots. We have an advantage by keeping my power obscure."
>Why complicate this? Just use a favor.
"I don't know if your world was chaotic or orderly, but here things are a semi-oppressive mess. Right now, everyone powerful thinks we deserve to be poor, and they'll start staring at us if we aren't. We have to earn wealth in a way they'll never understand. It was never fair or reasonable, it's just what kind of scum has naturally thrived."
>What do
"I'll keep building a network and finding influential/skilled people we can trust, trading power for wealth. Roach continues spying, you start researching. When the time comes to fight, we need half the town informed, and prepared, and on our side."
>>
No. 995050 ID: b1b4f3

Slam 30 points into max energy. We should have done that before awakening Willamina.
Use a 5k Favor, buy the property. This won't be suspicious, you can say you and Mint pooled your funds.

Hmm, when Nipha gets here you'll definitely want a space for her. Is she awakened?

Text Cannie and ask her what kind of power she'd want most if she Awakened. She's the next best target for the book right now. ...maybe the Mayor would work? Since she's been helping Willamina and we can give the book to her without revealing Cat's power? Plus she seems to be amused by the shock gadget. Unless of course she was helping Willamina on Max's behest, and isn't actually loyal to her. I think we need to ask Willamina about what people in town we can trust.
>>
No. 995067 ID: 9a2966

I don't think we should get in touch with the Mayor this weekend. Maybe on monday? Would probably need to talk to her to get the permission to buy the paper mill anyway. We can try to present Mint as a tinker from the Big City who wants a place to set up a workshop and the paper mill place sounds like a potential fixer-upper. Should also probably LOOK at the place before we buy it.

One more thing - can Mint explain this 'light-aspect' angel thing a little better?
>>
No. 995073 ID: 27e0fa

We'll introduce Willamina to Mint and Roach today before work.

Im wondering if we should save that favor for something else if we are patient about Willamina's inheritance.

Whatever the case, the papermill does sound good for privacy but we'll be further from town if we lived there in case emergencies happen that needs us there asap, and it is suspiciously cheap. Meanwhile living in the apartments will give us people to hang out with, and bring us closer to town, but the privacy might be bad, and living space might be smaller...

Id say we need to check both places before making a final decision
>>
No. 995074 ID: 0d245d

Additional issue with that paper mill outside of town, it sounds like a pretty flammable place for you to be holing up in, and you're dealing with a fanatic who's clearly displayed their willingness to burn things down.
>>
No. 995082 ID: b1b4f3

Oh, and let's try not to speak secrets out loud too much in case Aeglos is listening. We don't know how he'd react to finding out about Cat's power.

>>995074
That's something we can easily fix, if it's even true. It's not made out of paper, you know. It's likely a concrete building.
>>
No. 995091 ID: 0fae41

>>995074
Clearly we just need to do a controlled burn to get rid of all the flammable residue.
>>
No. 995107 ID: b1b4f3

>>995091
That could work but it'd damage all the wiring and a bunch of other shit we'd have to replace. Probably better to just rent a pressure washer and hose down all the walls. And make sure it's got a fire extinguishing system.
>>
No. 995141 ID: afe7de
File 161778147893.png - (7.30KB , 500x500 , C2_034.png )
995141

> Growth?
You: What’s this “GROWTH” thing you’re talking about?

Mint: You mean you don’t know? Uh, how to explain it. It’s like… most kin where I came from had it around twice in their lives. The sensation is like of opening your eyes and seeing a beautiful landscape for the first time. Your body improves dramatically and you feel a qualitative change in it, like being reborn? Its like… something about the accumulation of life experience. Kin usually experience it more often when fighting monsters. Like, how can you not know about something so basic, you have dungeons and monsters and stuff here, do your kin not share information or something?

You: This is just the first I'm hearing of it. I guess that’s another motivation to go on dungeon runs, does it affect awakened powers too?

Mint: It varies from kin to kin but usually it has some effect on it, it’s one of the easier ways to get stronger after all.
>>
No. 995142 ID: afe7de
File 161778148934.png - (7.58KB , 500x500 , C2_035.png )
995142

> Light aspect thing?
You: Can you explain what you mean by this ‘light aspect’ angel thing a bit more.

Mint: So everyone’s got a base element affinity, mine has been neutral for the longest while with a slight leaning towards DARK. It’s not something you’d find in your status window because it only really is important for mages and tinkers to an extent. Basically your elemental affinity indicates what aspect of magic you’d be good at casting. Some people speculate it also is a representation of your temperament but that’s a philosophical debate in itself. Anyway, awakening kind of supercharges your aspect, making it easier to do stuff in that domain, like if someone awakened to a wind power, they’d be YELLOW aligned, Ice or water would be BLUE, etc. You can have more than one aspect, and there are 6, well TECHNICALLY 8 aspects.

Mint: Anyway, back to your question. Angels can see your aspect, well, they can see mana and if you’re awakened you kind of glow to them, so if you aren’t of the right element they just see you as a demon. Or so our research has shown.
>>
No. 995144 ID: afe7de
File 161778152288.png - (43.45KB , 500x500 , C2_036.png )
995144

Mint: Oh, and because you probably definitely don’t know this. You don’t need a specific power to cast magic, it’s just WAY EASIER if you have one. For example.

Mint creates some harmless sparks around her paws and they dissipate relatively quickly.

You: Woah could you teach me some magic!?!?!?

Mint: Um, yes Master. Of course. But maybe you should get ready for work, that is if you still want to do that. And umm, if your aptitude isnt good and you’re INTELLIGENCE is too low you won’t be able to learn any. I’m not calling you stupid master, I’d never do that, but um. If you can’t learn it then you just might be…

She gives you a smirk and you take that as a personal challenge to take up later.

> Upgrade your base power
You decide to pump your Achievement points into upgrading your ENERGY TOTAL. It increases to 9 and you’re left with an empty Achievement point bank. Your energy total is sitting at a nice 9/9 so you finish up your meal and head back up to your room with Mint. You close the blinds and pick up your backpack, moving roach to it.

> Awaken Mint
You’ve been thinking about this for a little bit but there’s very few downsides to Awakening her right here and now and she might prove to be a very important asset.

Do you Awaken Mint? If so, what power does she get? Feel free to use the Book instead if you prefer. You can always put this off till later.
>>
No. 995145 ID: 6c227a

so like... Tinker is a POWER but it is also a skill set about building stuff, so some people can do it at a basic level even without being awoken? She said she'd like a specialization in tinker, and I am not sure if that is a thing that we can DO or if it's like, something else.
>>
No. 995148 ID: e51896

Awaken her to either Enigmatic Inhibitor >>994121 (hopefully dungeons will have monsters we can delete abilities from in dungeons to level it up)

or for stealth:

Out of Body Experience

- Anytime you sleep, instead of having a dream, you can choose to have the dream version of yourself have an out of body experience in the real world to travel within a 5(maybe 10 mile) radius from your body. (or maybe the amount of miles it takes to travel through half of the town of Lyst at least)
- Can travel into other people's dreams by entering their mind
- The dream version of yourself can only be seen by other people who are dreaming (unless someone who is awake has an artifact that lets them see them)
- Warning: going too far from your body can make you lose connection to your dream version, making you unable to dream or have an out of body experience again until you are close enough your dream version of yourself again.
- Warning: any pain you receive when visiting another person's dream can cause temporary pain to your physical body when you awaken.

or

Invisibility

-Can spend energy to cast invisibility on your body
-cannot be used with an innate skill (like transforming into a cat and being invisible at the same time)
-items and equipment cannot be invisible as well

or for tinkering:

Mental Craft

-Any object you can imagine that you want to craft, you get a list of materials in your mind needed to craft, or repair said object, and where exactly to get the materials needed to build it nearby.
-Once you get the materials needed, instead of needing to build it, your mind merges the materials you gather together, and forms it into the object you want to craft instantly
-the more complex the object you want to make, the more energy it takes
>>
No. 995150 ID: e51896

I also want to introduce Mint and Roach to Willamina at work. Roach can even talk to her a little bit and we can explain the situation. Though should we introduce Mint in her cat form, or humanoid form?

I'm thinking introduce Willamina to Mint in her cat form for now if Willamina is going to help deliver the mail with us today, just so that Mint can follow her around at a safe distance to make sure nothing bad happens, like if Isabella starts harassing Willamina for example, Mint can become humanoid and ask Willamina to follow her to the post office as she is looking for Cat and get her out of there since Isabella won't do anything to Willamina with a witness nearby.
>>
No. 995151 ID: 6c227a

I say tinker, and also a low key stealth power like:

Cloak of Static - By an act of will about as difficult as holding a fist, the cat can cause surveilance equipment pointed at her to glitch out in a plausible but not necessarily subtle way, and also render herself similarly undetectable to unusual enhanced or power-based senses. Normal mundane vision, hearing, etc remain unaffected, so it becomes a fair game of hide and seek.
>>
No. 995152 ID: e51896

>>995148
Forgot to mention for out of body experience ability, you can phase through walls, and levitate to some extent.
>>
No. 995153 ID: 9a2966

>>995145
We've already seen one Tinker power - Rupert, the goat fellow in the Libarby has the "Tinker: Stabilization" power. If we take a leaf out of that, we can probably offer her any amount of interesting Tinker specialties (should tell Mint about Rupert and the tinkerin' club, by the way, she might be interested in using it for fun / new world socialization practice).

>Magic can be cast without powers
Doesn't surprise me, actually. Powers seem like, well, shortcuts to do amazing things, but don't necessarily confer SKILL, GROWTH or CREATIVITY with the power (as evidenced by the fact that if you have a power you can get 'stuck' with it).

>Job, still want to do that
For now, yes, you want to use the job as your cover. It's a good excuse to get out, socialize and get to know the townsfolk, too.

>Awaken Mint
Assuming it can be done privately, then yes (due to the whole glowing thing and whatnot). I'd maintain her getting a power that can be useful in facing off against Isabella if need be, as well as going on dungeon runs.

As such, and given her tinker experience and suggestion she is an INTELLIGENT woman, I suggest giving her the Tinker: Substitution ability. Let Mint be able to cobble together anything from anything. Missing the Unicorn Horn core for your magitech rainbow-lasergun? Fuck, duct tape on a candy cane instead, it'll be fine. It's practically cheating.
>>
No. 995154 ID: 9a2966

>>995153
Also, pump in the whole 9 yards / points - or however much you can! If there are leftovers (i.e. you can't increase a particular power strength partially) can go to giving Roach a li'l boost.
>>
No. 995155 ID: e51896

>>995154
I have a feeling we might need to use any leftover points we have to awaken another person, just in case. If we can't find anybody, we'll wait until tonight to upgrade roach, or maybe give his buddies a power.
>>
No. 995167 ID: ce39da

Dump 5 points into >>995153's idea, save the remaining 4 for upgrading Willamena's Ice aspect as soon as we get to work; we want her as jacked as possible in the event that Isabella targets her.
>>
No. 995170 ID: 094652

>Growth is like leveling up, but once or twice
You'll need to grow like nine times if you want to survive an apoocalypse.

>>995144
You definitely need to learn magic. If you can focus on one specific spell, you'll have a cover for your power in case Isabella decides to out your ability or something. Try learning magic dedicated to scanning power signatures - and how to disrupt them.

>Awaken Mint?
Awaken her when she finds a dungeon and gets the appropriate gear and authorization. For now, upgrade Roach and awaken animals in the wilderness to earn the druid's trust.
>>
No. 995174 ID: 76bc11

With her affinity for dark element, perhaps a power to refract light around herself would fit. This can be extended to refracting all sorts of EM energy around oneself - yep, force fields.
>>
No. 995180 ID: 031458

I want to see more of mints abilities in action before awakening her.
Put it off till later.

We need to trick out Willamina's ice powers so we have some method of defence against her fire power, though even so her demon power will be rough to deal with.
>>
No. 995187 ID: b1b4f3

Rudy's coming on Monday with Nipha. He's a Tinker, so making Mint a Tinker will be redundant. Unless multiple Tinkers can work on the same project to pool their "powers" and make something more powerful than they could make on their own? Then it'd be good. I'd argue we should make her a MagiTech tinker in that case.

Anyway, Mint wants some kinda stealth power, so how about we make her a Ninja?
Agility boost plus an observation-nullifying ability that works best when someone doesn't know where you are. As in, you just hide normally and people overlook you far more than they should. At high levels, can hide in plain sight and also move slowly without attracting attention. Its one weakness is that you have to break line of sight with someone before it starts working, so the 360 degree vision spear would be a counter to it. Magical detection items/abilities are harder to nullify, as well, but not impossible.
>>
No. 995238 ID: 0fae41

Granting powers specifically to counter Isabella is a bit narrow sighted but even a generalist power should her into consideration. I propose she gets:
-NINE LIVES: Precognitive teleports out of danger when she's about to take a felling blow or critical hit. She'll know when her luck's run out, but it will recharge with time.
-CAT'S EYES: some sort of otherworldly vision that will let her perceive Isabella's imaginary friend, and perhaps sense other things of demonic origin - like magic items.
Soon she'll be abusing every one of her powers and running wild, and that's good for both of us!
>>
No. 995265 ID: 9263d2

If we give her a tinker power, give her your shitty multitool, maybe she can make it better
>>
No. 995295 ID: afe7de
File 161786859143.png - (17.51KB , 500x500 , C2_037.png )
995295

> Awaken Her
You: Let’s awaken you and see how it goes.

You reach over and give her a headpat/scratch and a familiar blue glow beings to suffuse Mint’s body, eventually radiating out from her head as a large halo. You feel the loss of 6 ENERGY as a small notification appears before being replaced with her Status Window.

… PROCESSING … CONDITIONS MET … PRE-EXISTING KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN CONSOLIDATED …

Name: Mint Bubastis
Age: 39
Powers:
TINKER: SUBSTITUTION (4) - UPGRADE? [4]
The user can fabricate or alter existing devices beyond normal means.
Specialty [SUBSTITUTION]
This allows the user to jury-rig their devices using similar, lower quality, resources at hand at the cost of having the devices be more likely to break down. This can be offset by reducing the effectiveness of the device.

ASSIMILATION (1) - Upgrade [4]
The user can passively assimilate with things including their surroundings, higher levels allow for deeper levels of assimilation.

Innate Skill:
BEAST SHAPE
This creature can morph their body into bestial forms related to their race and back at will.

You: Huh, it looks like your skills as a Tinker were… Consolidated? It jumped to 4 in one go.

Mint: UGH hold on, headache. UGh, Great Awakener. Master I hope you didn’t pick that name, a little egotistical if you ask me.

You: UGHHHH I get the feeling literally everyone is going to be saying that. I hope I can unlock an upgrade that lets me change that shit eventually.

Another notification also appears in front of you:

Achievement: “Consolodated Upgrade” Has been unlocked. +15 Achievement Points.
>>
No. 995296 ID: afe7de
File 161786860646.png - (11.00KB , 500x500 , C2_038.png )
995296

You get the feeling that you’ll probably be running out of these easy to get achievements soon, but it’s nice to see your pool get replenished a bit.

Mint: Okay, I’m better now. Huh, I got two powers. Neat. It’s weird, it’s like I got information crammed into my brain I didn't have before and I can actualize some of my projects a bit better now. Too bad we’re still broke.

You: Hopefully we can fix that with Will’s inheritance. Oh, and two more things. We’ve got another tinker coming to town this MONDAY I think, so that’ll be a good time to talk shop.

Mint: And the second thing?

You: There’s a tinker in town, Rupert. He’s in the Libarby and has a focus on “Stabilization” whatever that means, I uh, I havent mentioned this yet but keep my power secret obviously, and he doesn't know that I know. But maybe after we figure out what we’re doing today you might want to chat with him. You suddenly flash back to the other morning when you met him.

> Rupert: Well there isn't really a club per say, more like I have a workshop that I live out of and encourage any aspiring tinkers to come by and swap ideas and make cool gadgets. I have a small budget set aside for anyone who's too broke but can come up with a good blueprint.

Hmmm, that might be a good use of Mint’s time today actually, maybe you should get her to work on that mana detecting device if he can spare the budget for Mint. You ready yourself to head to work, deciding to introduce Mint and Roach to Willamina and then figure out what she’s going to do for the rest of the day.
>>
No. 995297 ID: afe7de
File 161786861810.png - (9.36KB , 500x500 , C2_039.png )
995297

You head over to the post office, this time making TRIPLE SURE you don’t bump into that pole and enter the building. It’s 10AM and she’s already at the desk sorting mail. She looks exhausted but filled with energy at the same time.

You: Uhh, you okay Will?

Willamina: WHAT? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Just, I was too excited to sleep last night. Like, POWERS, you know, so crazy! I called the Heroes league last night, they’re sending a REPRESENTATIVE sometime today, probably in the late afternoon to confirm my powers. They say if I’m telling the truth they’ll have the situation with my INHERITANCE squared away by this evening, so It was kind of hard to sleep for that reason too. But the STRANGEST thing happened last night. My phone overheated while I was browsing the net and like the battery melted. I even tried using my ice to cool it down but it still happened, SUPER WEIRD. So I’m probably gonna stop by the Lyst-Y-Mart and pick up a new phone TODAY.

You can tell that even though she’s fatigued, she’s mentally full of so much energy she’s nearly bouncing around. She continues to talk and eventually looks right behind you, being surprised

Willamina: Anyway, today’s gonna be different PRICK, you’ll be manning the counter and I’ll be making DELIVERIES once we sort this mail. UHH, HUH? Whose your FRIEND, I didn't see her there?
>>
No. 995298 ID: 9a2966

Hand Will your second stamina liquor and resolve to thank and repay Andrea later on - they really came in handy during a rough patch.

Consider the unpleasant prospect of the demonic flame spirit hanging around, invisibly, spying on Will, even now.

>Who's your friend
Introduce Mint. Officially she's a college buddy, fellow wannabe tinkerer and overall cool lady.

Unofficially? She's here to help you SAVE THE WORLD or some shit. She's also property.

Like, yes, you did say both of those right. Shit got weird fast after you Awakened. Like, real hell-bound handbasket express stuff. Anyway, it turns out having your kind of power MAY come with some caveats! Who knew?

Or having Awakened to powers at all really, except not everyone gets to know that? Look, you will discuss it in more detail later, you really want to let her in on things as you understand them, but she sounds real tuckered out, you both have jobs to do and there's no RUSH on anything yet. 's just... she should be aware things will get messy in the future. And that she should be careful. Don't let anyone or anything get under her skin today, m'kay? You don't think her COMM getting messed up was a coincidence.

Oh! You have one other buddy, too. (Nudge Roach to introduce themselves.) Maybe you'll have them stick with her today, they could help fill her in on some things while she does the rounds.

(Mentally tell Roach to not reveal the Isabella-Max stuff to her yet - it'll ruin her day for sure - but to keep an eye out for trouble on Will's behalf. And if she gets like, kidnapped or something, to try to track where they take her and to get back to you, although holy shit if something like that goes down. Don't risk their own life! Worst case you'll approach someone else and give them tracking powers.)

Anyway, she shouldn't worry too much about YOUR shit now - cuz' today's her day, alright? Just focus on getting her power proved and approved!
>>
No. 995299 ID: 9a2966

Also
>at the cost of having the devices be more likely to break down
certainly sounds like something it'd be useful to have someone with a Tinkerer: Stabilization specialty around for, so that's a neat potential synergy to look into. Might mean we'd want to recruit Rupert, which means investigating HIS background and relative trustworthiness.
>>
No. 995304 ID: e51896

>>995299
The only concern is that he might have close connections with Iraphena since she helps budgets for his workshop.

What do? We got a lot of things we need Mint and Roach to do, so sorry if this is too much:

First, give Willamina your last Stamina Liqour.

Then, introduce Willamina to Mint, then Roach (before you show her roach, tell her that you have a cockroach that you awakened to speak to people telepathically in your bag so she doesnt freak out.)

I'm kind of worried for Willamina. Maybe we can ask if she can give Mint a tour of the town today while she is delivering mail, and Mint can fill her in on what is happening. that way if they run across Isabella, she would be less likely to try anything if there is a witness.

But if Willamina refuses to have Mint follow her today, Mint should use her cat form to follow Willamina in a safe distance, and if Willamina runs across Isabella and she starts harassing Willamina, Mint can go to her humanoid form and intervene by asking Willamina to take her to the post office, that way Isabella will be less likely to do something.

We can also ask if roach can hide in her hat and tell her that roach can telepathically tell her everything we know so far. We might need to have roach tell her about Isablella and what we found out about her when he spied on her, but make it clear to Willamina to keep it a secret that she now knows of her fire abilities. It might be most important that she knows this sooner rather than later. If she doesnt let Roach come with her, roach can let her know about Isabella right now.

Also, if Willamina allows Mint to tour with her today, ask if Mint can also speak to Rupert briefly about his workshop if they come across him.
>>
No. 995305 ID: ce39da

> Phone overheating ends in a small defeat.
We need to make Willamena’s ice powers stronger, clearly. If you saved any power energy from awakening Mint, use it on that now.

Do explain that the other people in the room are in the know to begin with, of course - you’ve awakened them, too.
>>
No. 995306 ID: 9a2966

>>995304
I considered having Mint follow Will too, but the thing here is that if something actually serious happens, Mint isn't really gonna be able to help on her own - she needs time and resources first to create devices that can help - and spending her time with Rupert first things first seems like a good way for some of that to take place (and getting a bead on any nearby dungeon seems important too).

I'd ixnay on the 'can awaken others'-ay as much as possible while there's a potential for Isabella's demonic flame spirit to be hanging about - Isabella's supposed to be keeping an eye on Will, which is why I consider that an elevated risk particularly now that she's been Awakened.

That's the reason why I expressed things so vaguely in the above suggestion and why I suggested Roach do some of the filling-in - telepathy should be harder to listen in on (could be wrong here, but it's a safer bet).

At any rate, the two things I think can help Will in a Serious Situation is A) if we empower her more or B) if we get other people to help her (by empowering them or warning them Will's in trouble) - otherwise you and Mint are pretty vanilla mortal still (Although Mint has a battle cat form! Then again, that's still not much protection from, say, being lit on fire.).

And if it's not a serious situation, well... Will's an adult and she's got powers now, so she'll hopefully be fine? Unless taking out her phone was tactical rather than petty, I think Isabella's mostly gonna stick to trying to jinx and sabotage her harder at worst. Maybe light some of her mail on fire, stuff like that.
>>
No. 995307 ID: ac3918

You can be sure the phone exploded *before* Will could read our text. She needs to be warned that she's potentially in danger.
>>
No. 995314 ID: e51896

>>995306
Good points, if it is true a demon spirit has been spying on Willamina and still is, then a worrying thought is that it would mean Isabella now knows about our real power to awaken people if that demon spirit saw us awaken Willamina during their spying.

And since Roach was caught spying on isabella by her, that would mean that if we show Willamina Roach now, the demon spirit will alert Isabella and she will be able to connect the dots and realize Cat was the one spying on her through Roach yesterday!

Hopefully the phone burning incident was just Isabella running to Willamina's house to burn her phone after somebody at the bar called her about it and not a demon spirit that is spying on Willamina 24/7,
but if a spirit is spying on Willamina constantly is true, my strategy now will be to have to hold off on showing Willamina Roach but instead still ask Willamina to give Mint a tour of the town while she works and asking if they can make a pitstop to talk to Rupert about joining his club of course. Next give Mint your backpack which contains Roach and have him from inside the backpack pretend to be Mint communicating telepathically with Willamina, telling her it is Mint's awakened power to not suprise her too much, and let her know secretly what is going on and tell her to stay silent, and eventually reveal to her it isnt actually Mint communicating with her, but Roach instead. Isabella I feel wont do anything if there is a witness like Mint near Willamina if she plans to do anything serious.

We might need to really consider seeing if one of the artifacts miss Iraphena has can see invisible demon spirits that we can trade for...
>>
No. 995318 ID: 094652

>>995297
"Willa, I have more secrets that are even more disturbing and you need to know them, but I'm afraid you'll have a meltdown if I spill them all at once.
So pick one of the following creepypasta punchlines:
- Her Love is More Than a 'Splosion
- How to Min-Max Your Relationships
- It's The End of the World As We Know It and I (Don't) Feel Fine"
>>
No. 995321 ID: 49d925

I really wonder if her fatigue is really excitement, or if it is actually stress from trauma due to her phone burning. Regardless, give her your stamina drink.

Lets see about upgrading Willamina's power a bit just for safety
>>
No. 995331 ID: 031458

Mint here is someone I trust.

There's a lot I need to explain to you, too much to go into now.

I have reason to believe however, that your phone was no coincidence. You may be in danger. I'd go to the police but my source though reliable, wouldn't exactly hold up in court.
I know it's weird ask, but would you let my friend here escort you on your route today? Put her in a uniform. Say she's a new Trainee.
It'd make me feel a lot better.

Upgrade our Max Power to 10 right quick, and Upgrade Willamina's Ice power 2 Levels if possible, otherwise upgrade them 1-1

Give Mint our gun. Tell her she can do whatever she needs to with it.
>>
No. 995334 ID: b1b4f3

>>995297
Isabella broke her phone. Petty bitch. Oh well at least we know Isabella's not gonna kill her over this. We're pretty sure at this point that the fire spirit can be used to spy, though, and... well, it's probably hanging around Willamina and will be tormenting her, so we can't talk about any big secrets with her until we've dealt with Isabella or at least have some way of confirming if the fire spirit is around.
Introduce Mint using her cover story. That should keep Willamina from talking about any big secrets in front of Mint.
Ask her if Max had an ice-type power too.

See if you can Upgrade her ice power. We've got some spare points and obviously it can't counter Isabella's spirit yet. The phone melting thing might have been an attempt to gauge Isabella's power, even. Thankfully doing this in front of Mint will keep her from talking about it and potentially blowing your cover to the spirit.

Send Cannie a text asking her what kind of powers she'd want if she was Awakened.
Get a 5k favor. Yes, I am going to suggest this every update until we have money.
Wasn't Iraphena supposed to send us a list of trade items?
>>
No. 995336 ID: 9a2966

>>995314
Spirit probably isn't out spying 24/7. We know for a fact it at some point hung around with Isabella at the house long enough to detect and burn Roach 1.0. It was also in the park, burning animals, some time BEFORE Will and you arrived there that evening.

We're not even 100 % sure that its range can take it far away from Isabella (though odds are the range of a semi-autonomous entity is at least somewhat better than our measly 1 meter).

The main fear is whether surveillance was stepped up due to Will's Awakening. It certainly must've gotten close enough yesterday to overheat her COMM.

The implicit threat of invisible spirit was actually why I was interested in Awakening a miko-like spiritual strength / spirit binding ability in Mint earlier, before she made it clear it might be better to lean into her tinker side.

Speaking of which, if we do manage to get a mana detection device out of Mint's tinkering in Rupert's workshop today, perhaps it could be made to detect spirits as well?
>>
No. 995401 ID: afe7de
File 161794765036.png - (15.00KB , 500x500 , C2_040.png )
995401

> Give Willamina the Stamina Liquor
You pop your remaining Stamina Liquor out of your ring and hand it to Willamina, thinking she could use it more than you at this point. She takes it gladly and CHUGS the thing.

Willamina: THANKS, I should at least have some energy for the rest of the day now.

> Introduce Mint but use her cover story
You: This is Mint, I knew her from college and she had a similar idea as me, moving out to Lyst to get away from the city. There's UH, a bit more backstory to it than that but we should REALLY save that for when we're able to take a breather and stress out over other stuff. Let’s just say she’s a VERY trustworthy kin.

Mint: It's a pleasure to meet you Mistress Willamina.

Willamina: Aw HELLS yeah, I can dig being called Mistress. And Let me guess, you have 3 other REALLY big important things to discuss.

You: Uhh, approximately yeah. Some of them bleed into the other but yeah, wait, how'd you know.

Willamina: LUCKY guess?
>>
No. 995402 ID: afe7de
File 161794766006.png - (30.01KB , 500x500 , C2_041.png )
995402

> Upgrade Willamina
You: Would you mind if we uh, went somewhere private for a moment.

Willamina: WOW, you HORN DOG you, wanting some HANKY PANKY this early in the morning. Can't get enough of these burnt HAMS over here?

You immediately flush and flail your arms around in a gesture of denial, a chuckle escapes Mint's mouth in the process.

You: N-n-n-n-not what I m-m-m-meant, I uh was uh referring to uh. Doing more of uh, what we did yesterday uh.

Willamina: WHAT, that's what I said, while I'd LOVE to grind and smooch some more, we got to sort this MAIL and deliver it, there's a lot today.

Mint: Wow Master, you had me in bed all night after you got naughty with her, and you want MORE? How salacious.

Willamina: And I thought I was the HORNY one of us two.
>>
No. 995403 ID: afe7de
File 161794767872.png - (108.98KB , 500x500 , C2_042.png )
995403

Willamina and Mint both burst into a fit of laughter at that as you feel yourself shrink into a ball from ebarrasment. Well at least they're getting along well enough. You're not comfortable upgrading Willamina in this room with the open windows and potential spirit floating around, and you don't want to bring up Upgrading specifically for the same reason, so you hold back on it for now.

> Text Cannie
You instead pull out your COMM and shoot a quick text to Cannie in the hopes to distract yourself.

You: Hey Cannie, just a weird, totally out there question, but if you could Awaken to any power you wanted, what would it be? I'll tell you mine first, I'd wanna be a Tinker! I wanted to go to college for it but they basically kicked me out because I didnt awaken.

Looks like you also have a message from Miss Iraphena.

Miss Iraphena: Managed to scrounge together 5 items instead of 3, rather not send pics rn, come by after work if you're interested. REALLY want that ring you're wearing, so I might offer 2 for it.

You pocket your phone and get back up, looks like the two were chatting while you were wallowing.

Mint: Is Mistress some kind of famed warrior? Those burns must be from an epic battle. Or maybe you have flame powers?

Willamina: Ice actually, the SCARS are from an accident like 10 years ago. Is our resident FLIRT back in action?

You: Yeah. Yeah. Let’s get to sorting already.

Mint goes to sit in a corner while the two of you get to work sorting mail, you finish a little while later and Willamina packs up her gear, getting ready to head out. You put on your postal worker outfit and sit at the front desk.

You: Oh, Mint. I forgot you were there…

Willamina: WHAT? Phew holy shit you scared the goddess out of me.

Mint: I uh just sat here the whole time.

Looks like Mint was practicing her power, you didn't even notice her there, maybe she revealed her presence as she saw you were finishing up. Seems like a convenient power.
>>
No. 995404 ID: afe7de
File 161794768625.png - (12.80KB , 500x500 , C2_043.png )
995404

> Mint should meet with Rupert
You: Yeah, uh, I’ve got work, so I guess you should go do whatever for the day. Maybe stop by the Libarby and talk to Rupert about working on that device we were talking about. And if you get a chance maybe look into the Apartments, see how good they are and the abandoned paper mill, see if it’s actually worth it. Try to be back by uhh… 4 or 5? Ugh, this would be easier if you had a COMM.

Mint: I will do as the lecherous Master wishes.

Willamina: Well look at Mr. BOSSY over here, how about she tags along with me, I can show her to the PLACES and point her towards the mill.

You: Good idea, do that. Maybe catch her up to speed on the more important things using our buddy here, please introduce him at some point. Just uh, please don’t talk about my theories on the fire starter, that’s a conversation I’d rather have with Will myself.

Willamina: You’re friends with a BACKPACK? Well who am I to judge, I used to be the same way about my DOLLS. Bye.

Mint gives you a bow and heads out of the place. It’s 12PM right now, you’ve got a few hours of work ahead of you. Who walks into the Post Office first?

A. Isabella
B. Trey
C. Someone you haven’t met yet
D. Other Pick whoever you want!

>>
No. 995405 ID: e16acb

>>995404
Trey
>>
No. 995406 ID: e51896

B. Trey is the first person. However, he walks in, takes one glance at you, then he leaves immediately before you or he says anything.

It would be very scary if Isabella came in later. Just for the creepiness factor, lets have her walk in later today.

but we should also vote to have a new person walk in later

Also sure hope Andrea doesn't walk in looking for action today *TEMPTING FATE*
>>
No. 995407 ID: b1b4f3

>>995404
A. Let's get this over with.

If she kills us, we can immediately go to the cops. Murder is still murder, even if the victim comes back to life.
>>
No. 995411 ID: 2d5a01

A. If we gotta come across Isabella, might as well be now when Willamina and Mint is already gone a fair distance. Whatever messed up shit she tells you, just jokingly say "ma'am, this is a post office" But tell her you didnt reveal anything about her power to her if she confronts you, so you dont know what the big deal is.

Also take some time to sneak some reads into your book, we gotta finish it. Maybe also text some people, like Toni. Ask if he wanted to talk to you the other day, he was giving you looks during the group dinner... send him a silly shitpost pic of yourself also, like a picture of you about to eat your COMM with the phrase: POV: You're delicious! We could use some cheering up from him to prepare for whats to come.
>>
No. 995415 ID: 9a2966

Trey

... what's up, Doc?
>>
No. 995418 ID: 864e49

>>995404
C
>>
No. 995426 ID: 094652

The auditor is early today
>>
No. 995431 ID: 8a51ec

Trey, we really should've talked to him more but that bonus was too great a risk.

...Maybe Toni later, though it probably wouldn't go well.
>>
No. 995438 ID: d7407b

Isabella. Such a nice girl.
>>
No. 995441 ID: 031458

Bobby Slurps
>>
No. 995459 ID: 52d35a

If Isabella shows up anytime today, get your water ready to calm your nerves (and to stay cool if she heats anything up). Most importantly: Secretly Set your COMM to record the conversation you'll have with her, and hide it in your pocket (assuming the COMM has an app to record audio)

Try to steer conversations to things unrelated to Willamina to keep yourself from revealing anything and to help play dumb, like talking about winning against her sister in a fight.
>>
No. 995460 ID: ce39da

Isabella visiting now might be bad for us personally... but it might also mean she's not out there assaulting Will.

... No, that's a false dichotomy; she has all day to do one followed by the other.

B: Trey
>>
No. 995510 ID: afe7de
File 161803791476.png - (13.71KB , 500x500 , C2_044.png )
995510

> Trey
Around 30 minutes of you doodling in your CAT NOTE later the door chimes as someone enters the room. It’s Trey! You look up and lock eyes with the man, you know, actually looking at him straight up for the first time gives you the strange impression that you’ve met or seen him before. But you’re not sure where. You get up to try to greet him, and maybe check his power while you’re at it.
>>
No. 995511 ID: afe7de
File 161803792356.png - (33.87KB , 500x500 , C2_045.png )
995511

Before you make it a few steps he drops what he was holding and backs out of the door. You’re confused so head over to the front door and pick up what he dropped. It’s a small box for prepaid post delivery. Guess he was dropping off a package to be delivered. You read the shipping label and it appears to be addressed to one Inspector McFair in the Big City. You put the box in your pile of outgoing mail and get back to chilling. Looking under the desk you find a book of SUDOKU puzzles. You’re bored so you pick a HARD difficulty one, this’ll probably keep you preoccupied throughout the day.
>>
No. 995512 ID: afe7de
File 161803793123.png - (76.40KB , 500x500 , C2_046.png )
995512

You keep yourself distracted and occasionally look up finding no one entering the store. Eventually you see Isabella walk by, not entering. But a few moments later you see a blurry form phase through the wall. You focus and your demon eye amulet gives you a better idea of what you’re looking at. It’s some kind of… Angel? You can see its lips move but no words come out. It’s scanning the room and hasn’t locked it’s eyes on you yet.
>>
No. 995513 ID: b1b4f3

>>995512
"Aren't you a bit early?"
>>
No. 995516 ID: 0a75ae

DEMON EYE AMULET
>>
No. 995517 ID: e51896

Is that Isabella's Demonic Flame Spirit? but then why would it label it as an angel? and also, Roach wasn't able to see it, so how can you?

Try not to make eye contact and pretend you don't see it. If it notices that you can see it, it might alert Isabella.

but try this: quickly turn on your audio recording on your phone. Maybe someday, you might be able to find someone who can hear spirits and you can play it to them to see what that spirit is saying.

While you're recording audio, send
Toni a shitpost as >>995411 mentioned earlier to make it look like you don't notice it, and maybe get your water bottle out under the counter from your ring, just in case.
>>
No. 995518 ID: 0fae41

Don't look at her! If she knows you can see her, there goes the element of surprise. Focus very hard on the card rack.
>>
No. 995520 ID: afa6f6

>>995517
This, trying not to provoke it sounds good.
>>
No. 995521 ID: 8d4bb7

Idea to get the flame spirit out:
Text Andrea, tell her 'Willamina is away and Im bored, could use a show right about now. Bring potions!' That should get her here quick enough to scare the spirit away before it does something.

...though it might make more problems arise with Andrea trying to fuck us and scare away customers. (I'm not committed to this suggestion, it was more of a joke. Only use this at your own risk!)

Just put away your cat book for now so it doesnt burn and keep your eyes off the spooky ghost. At least now we'll know if we're being spied on by Isabella or not. Im assuming the amulet is letting us see Isabella's spirit. (We may need to consider giving Willamina the amulet if thats the case, despite how helpful it is to us.
>>
No. 995525 ID: 031458

Isabella is Iraphena's boss, so she PROBABLY knows you were at the auction. If she does not, she knows if your "detector" power, as you told it. Seeing the demon isn't a huge stretch.
If say straight up greet it in a friendly, non-chalant way
>>
No. 995536 ID: 9461b5

Care to do a test?

Take off the amulet.
Re-equip it.

I suspect it'll disappear while the amulet is removed.
>>
No. 995544 ID: bbc160

Pretend you don't notice it but don't let it out of your sight.
>>
No. 995545 ID: ce39da

Try not to crack up at how goofy Isabella's flame spirit looks.

Text Iraphena: "Hey, did you give Isabella the OK to be a gigantic creep around me? I don't feel safe." "Seriously, one of my sources literally overheard her expressing a desire to go behind your back vise-a-vise hurting us." "If you let her escalate, and shit goes south, you can kiss that trade session goodbye."

It's entirely possible we could still salvage our relationship with Iraphena even if things escalate with Isabella because I kind of doubt they're necessarily 100% buddies here.

> Trey avoiding us, a city folk.
> Stays anonymous in the papers even when it's not a secret locally.
It's confirmed; Trey, perhaps unrelated to the incident, had a history in the big city - one that means he doesn't want anyone from the city to find him and point it out.
> Investigators in the Hadlee estate incident.
He was either fortunate when the investigators came into town, or he already has an understanding with the Heroes' Association. If it's the latter, then it's most likely that he's in a super version of witness protection. Do you know if "Dr. Trey" brings up any memory of outed supers? The fact that he withheld his name from the papers means it isn't entirely a fake name. (We'd probably need to research this.)

Alternatively...

> Isabella standing over Willamena can't kill her for some reason.
> Trey carried Willamena out, never mentions seeing Isabella (or anyone else for that matter).
> Max(?) still in contact with Isabella.
Did... Did Max pull a switcharoo with Dr. Trey? Is the real Dr. Trey buried with the Hadlees as Max? Add the Hadlee portrait to your list of revisiting research... and we might need to grill Willamena on what happened that night now more than ever.
>>
No. 995546 ID: c50829

>>995545

>I kind of doubt they're necessarily 100% buddies here.

Agreed, one possibility I suspect could be that Iraphena is a slave to Isabella just like Mint is a slave to us.

I'd personally hold off on texting Iraphena though personally, Isabella isn't directly being a creep towards us and is doing it indirectly using her flame spirit, probably thinking we cant see it. Texting Iraphena to tell Isabella to stop may reveal to Isabella we saw her flame spirit and find us suspicious. and we probably dont want to reveal we've been spying on Isabella without getting a full story between their relationship, even if we assume their relationship isnt all 100% good. Best to keep our cards close to our chest for now until we get more info on their relationship.

>It's confirmed; Trey, perhaps unrelated to the incident, had a history in the big city - one that means he doesn't want anyone from the city to find him and point it out.

That makes sense. We should probably look into who he really is and try to remember where we may have seen him before.

Idea: Maybe Kazu knows who Trey was if we text him and tell him Trey looks familiar, then ask if Trey was a big shot in the city or something since Kazu was from the city like us.
>>
No. 995550 ID: 9a2966

>angel?
Mint said the remnants of her world was overcome by a buncha fallen angels and she was sold at a demon auction. There might be a distinction between demonic spirits, fallen angels, actual angels and straight up demons, but it seems fairly obvious they've gotta be related in some way.

>Lips moving, can't hear anything
I'm betting she can talk to Isabella and that Isabella can hear her regardless of distance. Maybe that's why Isabella was laughing to herself when Roach was spying on her? Sounds like they have a good relationship in that case. Isabella showing up nearby may also indicate the spirit's range isn't SUPER good, though. Hard to say for sure, as the spirit might've just been with her coincidentally and split off to spy when she saw Cat was in the post office by themselves.

Anyway, do not reveal you know she's there. Likely she's been around you before and you've previously shown no indication you noticed! Revealing that you can see her now might verify that we bought the Demon Eye Amulet, too (if Iraphena and Isabella suspects its actual use case), although we could definitely pretend it's because you upgraded your power's utility with achievement points.

Anyway, pretending to stay ignorant of her presence A) gives us an opportunity to potentially feed misinformation to Isabella and whoever she is with and B) an opportunity to see what the spirit DOES around people.

>Tips for spying casually back on her
'Bored' poker face it up, gaze idly at things around inside, walk and stretch your legs from time to time, check out the postcards, occupy your hands with the Sudoku or your notebook.

>Tips for feeding misinformation
Doodle misleading things into your notebook! Like, spread in art and keywords that Isabella already knows about or will soon verify to be true - such as you know being Mint's Master, or the demon auction items you plan on trading - with basic misinformation about your own power and what you actually know, such as you still needing to touch people and only getting a sense of number of powers and (possibly) their relative strength.

You could try combining any number of doodles and surrounding commentary, like so:

[doodle of grabby hands] - Detect-touching. Strong. Strength is relative? Knowledge = power? Workshop better-sounding name... (implied to be you, emphasizes that your power is detection based and you need to touch things for it to work)

[doodle of eyes] - TWO! Sees futures??? No clue! Strong + mid. (refers to Iraphena)

[doodle of hand about to poke a panic-wide eye] - Hands beat future sight? ...why? (refers to Iraphena's powers not working on you - suggesting that it's a mystery to you as well as to why might relax them)

[doodle of dat-ass] - TWO! No clue! No clue! Both strong! (refers to Isabella and strokes her / the spirit's ego)

[doodle of glasses] - THREE!! Minor healing? Pain reduction? Unnatural masseuse expertise??? Mid-to-weak. Ask for appointment when less cash-strapped. (refers to Gruk)

[doodle of postman's cap] - TWO! Ice! No pain! Both weak-ish? Cool awakening, though! (Refers to Will, and misleads on the nature of her second and stronger power - and lets us learn what the spirit thinks of terrible puns)

[doodle of stethoscope] - To do: order appointment, shake hands. Last lead on old mystery fire... (Refers to Trey, the doctor, and suggests you're nearing the end of your rope on the mansion fire investigation)

[doodle of Randolph with a crown] - KING of the AUCTION - and more! Way to throw a guy in at the deep end, dude! (refers to the auction and the things you were told)

[doodle of a book, a ring and a stylized cat face] - Sell or keep? Should have bought more stuff. (refers to your auction purchases and misleads as to how many you actually got)

----

>Engaging with the spirit
I don't advice it, but if we DO end up engaging with the spirit, I strongly suggest we play into what Isabella already believes to have revealed about our powers... and that we don't obviously tie her to Isabella.

If the spirit gets close enough - say while we're doodling in the notebook, to check on what we're doodling - just suddenly yawn and stretch and accidentally TOUCH her - at which point you go all "Whuh? Was someone there?" and stare myopically in the spirit's direction, acting confused. Acting no further on it will probably make the spirit more cautious about coming close to you, which'll make it easier to avoid being spied on in the future!

Or you can pretend you can now suddenly see her fully (from the power of your DETECT-TOUCHING) and engage by being like "...an angel? First demons, now fucking flaming angels? ...I mean. Hello?" This plays into pretending to not know the exact nature of Isabella's powers, which is arguably something she doesn't want revealed.

... also, if we do engage, try figure out where the fire extinguisher in this room is before-hand. Y'know. Just in case.
>>
No. 995553 ID: e51896

>>995550
If we decide to give the spirit false information on our notebook, There could be a chance that Iraphena might be secretly protecting us from Isabella and did not tell her we were at an auction, so maybe we can leave out the last two on the list (randolph, and our artifacts)
>>
No. 995560 ID: 9a2966

>>995553
Hey, that's intel as well! If the spirit seems particularly surprised at the mention of either of those, we know Iraphena's keeping info from Isabella. I doubt she's THAT secretive, though, especially if Isabella being her boss is fo' reals true.

Honestly if Lyst is an 'auction site' as Mint called it, then I suspect some Awakened could be hanging about town hoping to become a part of the next one (like Iraphena and CROW). And there could be more empowered items around here than elsewhere.

Remember that the awakenings have been going on for like 50 years now. Two of the families involved in the founding of the Heroes' League (Hadlee and Walpole) apparently hails from here. There's HISTORY in Lyst, sounds like.
>>
No. 995562 ID: 63cfb3

Wait, wait, wait.

Is it possible Isabella believes that Will was supposed to be here?
Might this be a quiet attempt to kill?
If so... uh, I hope you have some type of fire suppressor close by.
>>
No. 995564 ID: e51896

Oh! just got an idea maybe:

If we are going to throw them false information on our notembook, and if Isabella is going to try to sabotage Willamina's chance at getting her inheritance back, why don't we trick Isabella and her spirit by making them think Willamina isn't going to get her inheritance despite being awakened.

Write something like: 'Willamina not getting her inheritance despite being awakened? Maybe the hero's league spent it all? investigate this later.' on the cat notebook. should keep Isabella from pulling tricks to ruin Willamina's inheritance for awhile.
>>
No. 995566 ID: 9a2966

>>995564
Eh, too obvious a lie when it's revealed later - today - that the REPRESENTATIVE already came to town to verify her Awakening. Sabotage should be subtler, like:

"HL REP coming to verify Will's Awakening. Be witness if here on MONDAY?"

Since beelining out to a podunk town on a saturday afternoon doesn't exactly sound reasonable - and tomorrow's the classic day off - this makes it seem like you think the rep will be here on Monday - which would be a valid assumption for Cat to make if Will didn't state the exact time (and you weren't being spied on when Will told you that!).

We're then just transferring 'your' assumption to Isabella, who'll later learn the rep actually came today, and curse her luck. It's not like she can admit she spied on you either!

Honestly, if she's still spying on Will, she might catch the rep meeting with Will anyway, so this tiny bit of sabotage may not matter.
>>
No. 995567 ID: e51896

>>995566
Good idea, I like making them think it might be Monday better. Anything to make sure Willamina can secure her inheritance without making it look like our lying is obvious.
>>
No. 995593 ID: 094652

>>995512
>Implication: Isabella's DEMONIC FLAME SPIRIT is an angel slave
This would explain so much.

Don't make eye contact, watch porn on your phone.
>>
No. 995605 ID: afe7de
File 161812333349.png - (69.61KB , 500x500 , C2_047.png )
995605

> Do not provoke her, don’t make eye contact, get water bottle.

You’re pretty nervous and you think that’s Isabella’s Demonic Flame Spirit. Strange it would appear as an angel-like figure. She’s even got a halo of flames. You as casually and slowly as possible pull out your water bottle from under the table and take a sip, setting it on the counter. When you place it there the spirit snaps their head in your direction.

You attempt to casually flip to a different page in your CAT NOTE but fumble a little bit as the spirit floats towards you, it might just be you but the room feels like it’s getting a little warmer. You’ve got to remain COOL so you take a deep breath.
>>
No. 995607 ID: afe7de
File 161812342078.png - (18.42KB , 500x500 , C2_048.png )
995607

> doodle misleading notes in your notebook
You SUCCESSFULY remain cool under the mounting pressure and heat. You distract yourself by drawing in the CAT NOTE and make a few doodles followed by some notes.

Iraphena’s eyes - “Sees Future? Questions?? Mid-Strong.”
Isabella’s Ass - “No clue! Strong!”
Postmans Cap - “Ice! No pain! Weak. Cool though!”
Willamina - “HL REP verifying Will’s Awakening. MONDAY? TUESDAY? Adjust plans around this.”

The spirit is making the room hotter, it felt cooler when you were writing about Isabella’s ass, VERY HOT when you wrote about Will’s Cap, and SWELTERING HOT when you mentioned the Heroes League Rep. You can’t tell what expressions she’s making without giving away that you can see her at this range.

All of a sudden you see a large rod-like light begin to form around the spirit’s hand. Is that? Is that a SWORD? You continue trying to remain calm and start fidgeting with your Amulet when the sword stabs straight through the corner of your notebook, you accidentally yank the amulet off at the same time and the spirit vanishes from your sight. It’s still hot, but you can’t see the spirit anymore. You look at the notebook again and notice the corner is now singed, worried the corner is going to set aflame you pour some of your water on it in a panic and wave your notebook around trying to make sure it isn't lit.
>>
No. 995608 ID: afe7de
File 161812342960.png - (9.32KB , 500x500 , C2_049.png )
995608

You’re pretty RATTLED from that experience but get back to your seat and put the notebook down. You also re-fix the amulet to your ankle and catch a sight of the spirit laughing and pointing at you, at least that’s what you assume since you still can’t hear anything coming from them. You continue to try to ignore them as she grabs her sword and licks it with her surprisingly long tongue. Suddenly her attention is drawn outdoors, her sword dissapears, and she dashes through the wall, vanishing. You let out a gasp, you didn’t realize you were holding your breath the whole time. How were you NOT supposed to pay attention to her now that you can see them. You’ve sweat through your turtleneck so you strip that off and borrow a replacement tee shirt from the place you got your uniform from, hopefully Willamina won’t mind. You then don your vest and hat again, waiting for the next customer, storing your CAT NOTE into your ring for safety’s sake.
>>
No. 995609 ID: afe7de
File 161812343785.png - (13.59KB , 500x500 , C2_050.png )
995609

> Text Andrea
> Tempting Fate
You gave her your number but, surprisingly from how thirsty she’s been acting you haven’t gotten a text from her yet, so you actually can’t text her. Even if you did, you feel like it would be a little risky, pushing away the rest of your customers. You’re not sure how you would handle it if she just-

Andrea: Well Heloooo Handsome.

Oh shit.
>>
No. 995610 ID: 0fae41

Wow! Anybody take you up on those clothes yet?
>>
No. 995611 ID: 8483cf

You know what, what the hell. Ask her if she's into sailing, because we're looking to get three sheets to the wind tonight.
>>
No. 995614 ID: e7c7d3

"Ma'am, this is the post office not the grocer, so I can't help you with those massive melons. However, if you have a slot needs stuffing, then we may be able to offer some assistance."
>>
No. 995619 ID: b1b4f3

>>995608
Well so much for hiding that you can see it. I don't think that the attempt at misinformation is going to work either considering Isabella is in contact with Max, who is almost certainly working with the Hero's Guild. If anything, what we did just backfired and let Isabella know we are tried to feed her misinformation, which could lead her to conclude that Cat is onto her, which will escalate things further.

>>995609
Logically we should tell her that Isabella has fire powers and shit.
Also let her know that you don't have any plans tonight so she can have you after work. Or until the next customer, but that'll be awkward.
>>
No. 995620 ID: 1a8a7f

>successfully kept his cool
That was a success...? Let’s hope. Bad that the amulet got exposed though. Or at least she probably saw you doing something with something tied around your legs. Maybe swap its location later.

This thing’s a bit of a bully, too. Perhaps bored, getting its jollies where it can.

>Andrea
“... oh my. I really should have kept those liquors on me, shouldn’t I? I mean... hello Andrea! How can I help?”

This woman delights in trying to get you to not do your job.
>>
No. 995622 ID: 2f65b2

>>995619
I think she was only laughing at our reaction to our notebook being burnt. I think we managed to trick her. That said, we should continue playing dumb. It might be too risky to reveal Isabella's flame spirit this soon which could cause her to do something drastic.

I dont think we have time tonight to get some action with Andrea, since we have Willamina's inheritence and looking into Iraphena's artifacts this evening, and maybe check with Cannie about a late night job, but maybe we can plan to meet her tomorrow since we have the entire Sunday off (with strip poker the only thing planned). We can ask if she wants to meet at the Ruffled Haunch or at the park like someone once suggested sometime tomorrow.
>>
No. 995631 ID: ce39da

"You know, if you approach me like this when I'm not on the clock, you'd probably have a lot more luck. Just a tip."

Work and pleasure must remain separate, and we must make that clear to Andrea.
>>
No. 995642 ID: b57dff

>>995608
Well, that proves you have to have the amulet to see the spirit.
So, if it were to, say, go after Willa, she'd be helpless. Hate to say it, but it'd probably be best to give the amulet to her til she gets what's due to her.
>>995609
...This sure would be a good time to take the rest of the day off. Such a shame ya fell a bit ill. I'd say text Will, but hers it busted, so just leave a letter. We'll have the kitty drop off the amulet with Will. Oooooorrrr, we could have them cover the rest of the shift...
>>
No. 995645 ID: e51896

Stay professional. Theres a time an place for everything, and we have no stamina potions. Cant get Willamina mad, especially when we have that inheritance coming up. (Plus I want to potentially meet new people we havent met yet that might come in.)

Take her mail. Maybe we can ask a little bit aabout the third sister Myriad, say that you heard from Adriana that she is actually a part of triplets?
>>
No. 995650 ID: 86aaf2

"Please please PLEASE come on to me when I'm not on the clock? I am actually okay with hookups when my time is my own!"
>>
No. 995656 ID: ad2fd0

Take mail, ask on update on wild animals burning, keep flirting to a minimal (though maybe ask if she is doing anything tomorrow night, we can probably meet her after poker.)
>>
No. 995662 ID: b1b4f3

>>995622
Well, okay, if we fooled her that's fine.
We should still tell the cops though. We have a source for the information now! We can just show them the amulet, tell them it lets you see stuff, and say Isabella walked by then the fire spirit immediately showed up. The cops won't tell anyone who their source is, it's safe.
>>
No. 995669 ID: ac3918

>>995650
This. Well, if she broaches the subject.
>>
No. 995671 ID: ad2fd0

I think the things that worry me most about telling Andrea about Isabella is what kind of connections Isabella might have that could protect her, like her status as the mayor's daughter could help get her off the hook for example (her mother had the same static Isabella did when we tried testing her for powers, which may or may not mean she too has a demon spirit, and could be working closely together with Isabella because of that.)
That, and the possibility that if she could manage to convince the cops she is innocent, and that her flame spirit has no connections with the estate fire or the wild animals burning. she can easily trace the anonymous person who told Andrea towards us since we are pretty much the only person who knows Isabella has a power (besides Iraphena) and will double down on getting in our way. I think of we want to accuse Isabella, we'll need to dig up more proof other than the fact she has a flame spirit with her.

Though I wouldn't be opposed to telling Willamina about Isabella, we really should be more honest with her since she is most likely to get attacked by her, especially if roach is speaking to Willamina about what we know.
>>
No. 995676 ID: b1b4f3

Oh, and spend a 5k favor.
>>
No. 995677 ID: 8a51ec

Whoa whoa whoa, we're not really gonna bang Andrea before getting to third base with Willamina, are we? Have some goddamn faith Arthur. Let her know about Willamina, and if that's not enough... uh... would she consider a threesome?
>>
No. 995682 ID: 830459

>>995614
This.

Also, tell her that there's plenty of space under the counter if she can keep quiet.
>>
No. 995683 ID: 6c227a

I am as in favor of waiting for Willamina as the next person, because we are at a relationship moment with her right now, but in general this town and her specifically are pretty casual about this sort of thing. I'm down to bunny in principle at a later time. Besides, at this point, playing hard to get and keeping Andrea wanting more is a fun game and like, I promise you have been more prominent in her brain lately than you would have been if you'd just banged her first chance you got. Just look how bad she wants you. There is probably not much further she can really escalate, but the "I'm on the clock, I'll fuck you inside-out later" approach could keep us going.

Just be sure you have the stamina to deliver when you finally do hook up.
>>
No. 995757 ID: b1b4f3

I mean, we can just text Willamina and ask if it's ok to hook up with Andrea-- wait shit Willamina doesn't have a PHONE anymore
>>
No. 995760 ID: ca2950

It is important that you bang that rabbit... for plot reasons.
>>
No. 995770 ID: 228277

Go over to the door, switch the open sign to closed, and get to bangin'
>>
No. 995772 ID: e51896

If we're really going to get some action with her, at least set an alarm for when she has to leave, especially before 3 since we know Willamina will be back at around 4.

But plz, don't set the open sign to close if we decide on doing this, we'll definitely get in trouble that way.
>>
No. 995775 ID: 8483cf

While I'm all for some healthy sexy fun times, this rabbit needs to go to horny jail to think about her crimes.
>>
No. 995776 ID: 894419

Take a deep breath and center yourself. You've lived a good life, always tried to do the right thing. Dying here via secondary bleeding caused by pelvic isn't the worst way a good man can die in the grand scheme of things. There is no reason to fear the inevitable.
>>
No. 995777 ID: afe7de
File 161820725882.png - (10.76KB , 500x500 , C2_051.png )
995777

> Flirt with her
You: … oh my. I uh… really should have kept those liquors on me, shouldn’t I? I mean… Hello Andrea! How can I help you?

Andrea heads over to the counter and pulls out a STAMINA LIQUOR from her back pocket placing it on the table along with her letters. She gives you a big ol’ wink.

Andrea: I’ve got you covered.

> Narc on Isabella
You don’t have enough evidence for that and are worried if you reveal the Demon Eye Amulet that she might confiscate it. It has too much utility for them not to, or at least to try to borrow it all the time, which could leave you and Willamina vulnerable. Andrea starts messing around with the bottle and uses a more seductive voice to speak to you.

Andrea: I’ve got a few… parcels that your… dexterous fingers could help me out with. You wouldn’t happen to have any… stamps I could lick just alllll overrr and put on these letters would you? You know, my tongue is just sooo wet that it makes the job easy.
>>
No. 995778 ID: afe7de
File 161820727704.png - (7.42KB , 500x500 , C2_052.png )
995778

> Horny levels rising
> Do your job
You: You know, if you approach me like this when I’m not on the clock, you’d probably have a lot more luck.

Andrea: But it’s so much more FUN if you know you’re not supposed to be doing it.

You shuffle around your desk, trying not to show her that you do have a hard on right now and are feeling pretty aroused. Not nutting in the past few days has got you a little HORNY, but you still want to be a good employee. You pull out a swatch of stamps and put it on the table, she hands over 2 BUX for the stamps and then proceeds to lasciviously lick the stamps as her eyes lustfully glaze over you. Eventually she places them on the letters and wipes her mouth, a little bit of drool remaining on the table.
>>
No. 995779 ID: afe7de
File 161820728695.png - (10.11KB , 500x500 , C2_053.png )
995779

> Make plans for tomorrow
You: Please please PLEASE come onto me when im not on the clock? I’m actually okay with hookups when my time is my own!

Andrea pouts and uses her big beady eyes in an attempt to act cutesy and innocent.

Andrea: I came to visit you on my day off and all, how about you reward me by spending some A~L~O~N~E T~I~M~E with me tonight?

You: I uh, I’m a bit busy tonight, but maybe tomorrow we could like go to the park or the Ruffled Haunch or something.

Andrea lights up at that, like REALLY lights up, she almost becomes radiant.

Andrea: R-r-r-r-really?!?!? No take backs, can’t have you going back on your word to a-a-a-a woman of the law. Now all that’s left is to seal the promise with a ceremonial kiss. There’s j-u-s-t enough space under that counter for me to fit after all.

Do you accept Andrea’s offer? You’re still on the clock.
>>
No. 995780 ID: b1b4f3

>>995779
Fuck it why not. Blowjob won't stop you from doing your job if someone comes in, it'll just be awkward.
>>
No. 995781 ID: ac3918

No under-the-counter transactions, you just KNOW someone's bound to walk in.
>>
No. 995783 ID: 8483cf

Ceremonial kiss huh? Do I look like a sucker? Because one of us does...
>>
No. 995784 ID: cdabe3

Oh god just fuck her rabbit hole under the table >:3c
>>
No. 995785 ID: 0fae41

>>995781
That's the point!
>>
No. 995786 ID: 830459

Imagine doing something other than long-term planned sex in a missionary position for the purpose of procreation.
Also, "tomorrow" would be like, one to two chapters away based on the current level of min-maxing...

Accept her offer. It's fine, no one would notice even if they did walk in.
>>
No. 995788 ID: 228277

>>995785
Indeed, we actually do want the risk of getting caught, otherwise it wouldnt be exciting. We need to work on raising our stealth, and lower our horniness after all, and exhibitionism play is the best way. (Speaking of, we should totally do it in the park instead of the Ruffled Haunch tomorrow! Yay exhibitionism!)

And I vote the person who will walk in on us is somebody who is either really close friends with Willamina, like Gruk or Cannie, or someone who is a big deal like the mayor herself or even the person who is dealing with Willamina's inheritence... (or if even the hero Shocker, but what are the odds of that happening?)

(Bobby Slurpps entering will also be a good contender though)
>>
No. 995790 ID: ca2950

Get that risky blowjob. What's the point of a non-risky blowjob anyway?
>>
No. 995804 ID: e51896

My main vote is against it and would rather not let Willamina down if she finds out what we were doing, she has been respecting us for putting in good work after all. Plus, I think holding out until tomorrow will make us feel really good when we finally let it out in Andrea

If we do this however, then we will need to prepare ourselves first.

Important to remember that we have a pretty bad cool stat after all, so acting like nothing is going on towards an inevitable customer will be very difficult.

So instead, we will need to use our intelligence to think up excuses and get our water bottle ready for drinking if we start thinking we might be acting and looking weird for the customer. We can explain to the customer that this is your first time working behind the desk instead of delivering the mail, so you're very nervous and antsy about screwing up, and drink water to pretend to calm your nerves.

Second, come up with some safe words, and code words. Let Andrea know that this is your first time participating in a form of public sex, so you're very nervous about getting caught and would like to use some safe words during the blowjob to ease you into exhibitionism like for if you two decide to screw in the park for example... (even if this town is alright with public nudity.)
we'll use One code word to go faster and help us finish up quicker,
one safe word to go slower as to help control our composure towards a customer
one safe word to temporarily stop if it is too much to handle in front of a customer
and one safe word to completely stop if things get far too risky.

finally, set up an alarm on your COMM to let her know when it is time to leave so that we can get ready to clean up our mess before another customer arrives after the next one. maybe set it for 30 minutes just in case (though logic says we'll be able to finish up much earlier than that, the alarm is for just in case) (If it goes off while a customer is here, we'll let the customer know that the alarm is to alert you to snack time, and start eating some sweets.)(Let Andrea know not to get up from under the desk until the customer leaves when the alarm goes off.)
>>
No. 995805 ID: d8e21f

>>995804
Just pull on her ears if you want her to go faster or slower, there’s no time to set up a punch clock to suck cock.

Hell, upgrade her powers while she’s at it since she’ll be touching you anyway.
>>
No. 995809 ID: 228277

>>995805
Agreed, it'll be weird to just blurt out random safe words at a customer.
Maybe Tap shoulder once for faster, two for slower, three to temporarily stop, continously tap to emergency stop.
>>
No. 995825 ID: 6c227a

wait wait wait

Ask how she KNOWS there is room for her under the counter
>>
No. 995828 ID: ce39da

"To be fair, a woman of the law should not be encouraging such irresponsible behavior - it might even be possible for me to report you for that kind of nonsense, you know. Just take the W and have fun with someone else for now. You'll find my word alone is as good as gold...bond."
>>
No. 995834 ID: 2b3343

Come on guys, we're a professional.

We should have no problem doing our job while getting our dick sucked.

Just go for it.
>>
No. 995844 ID: 9a2966

Sigh, smile, tell her that she'd best not get A HEAD of herself here, sacred promise or not.

... you do owe her a bit, though. Those stamina liquors really came in handy, today and yesterday. You were gonna buy replacements before meeting her again, but, well, here she is already.

So what the hell. If she's so down for it, get down for it!

... but you'll only buckle up for the full ride tomorrow, damnit! You've still got a work ethic and you're not normally this pervy despite what some say, it's just - holy moley, you haven't ever had someone aim this hard for you either!

Even if she's just excited to boink someone new, you're a little flattered, to be honest! and intimidated
>>
No. 995849 ID: b1b4f3

>>995805
Why would we waste energy upgrading a terrible ability, and at the same time expose Cat's ability to the cops, who would definitely try their best to convince him to spend all his energy on them?
>>
No. 995879 ID: eb1fcc

>>995825
hahaha oh shit she's done this for our girl will before ain't she
>>
No. 995891 ID: b0655a

>>995825
>>995879
Willamina said the courier outfit we are wearing used to belong to her old partner from 5 years ago before he left for the city. He probably got some action with Andrea.
>>
No. 995893 ID: b0655a

Also, since Andrea has done this before here, ask for tips on how to not get caught if a customer arrives.
>>
No. 995902 ID: 094652

"Just so we're clear, from this point onwards I fully intend to communicate with you in vulgar, debasing language because every overt signal you've displayed, including written public messages on your clothing, indicates that you want it. tl;dr, let me know if you want me to talk cheesy and dirty."
>>
No. 995921 ID: afe7de
File 161830031399.png - (36.85KB , 500x500 , C2_054.png )
995921

> It's risky BJ time
> Horny levels rising
You: A Ceremonial Kiss huh? Do I look like a sucker? Because one of us does...

She giggles and wiggles her eyebrows at you as she saunters on over around the counter plating a firm paw on your chest, pushing you slightly aside as she glides her digits down your chest giving a light bop to your crotch. Damn, it's nice to have someone so very excited for you. You're insanely flattered since well... no one's chased you THIS HARD before. Even if it's just pure lust the feeling is pretty good. Even if you are a BIT intimidated by her overt sexuality.

Andrea: Here, some motivation to get our little buddy up and ready.
>>
No. 995925 ID: afe7de
File 161830038867.png - (25.92KB , 500x500 , C2_055.png )
995925

Andrea lifts up her shirt and lightly slips down her shorts, giving you a good look at everything, her chest looks soft and you feel an intense desire to shove your face in her fluffy chest. It's been a reflex for you for a long time with your fetish for soft things like fur and feathers but you hold back that urge for now. One thing that catches your eye is that she has a womb tattoo with the words HORNY JAIL written out. You let out a snicker at the pun and in a surprise attack Andrea slips forward and drops her shirt over your head, shoving her chest in your face.

It's blissfully soft but unfortunately your COOL fails you in this moment and you're unable to do anything to manipulate the situation in any direction, not that it bothers you as you stutter and fluster with nonsense words. You can feel the press of your member against the inside of your pants. She's doing a very good job of pressing your buttons. And she smells of a nice, earthy GREEN. Not your favorite, but it mak es a potent combination against your senses. She squeezes you a bit in a hug and lets off a breathy moan.
>>
No. 995926 ID: afe7de
File 161830041202.png - (9.17KB , 500x500 , C2_056.png )
995926

She pulls her shirt off of you and gives you a wink before popping down underneath the front desk. You feel her slide the chair over to her, conveniently placing you in a seemingly innocuous position to the outside viewer while you can look down and get a face-full of what she's doing. And what she's doing is rubbing her face against your crotch, staring at your face.

> How do you already KNOW there’s room for you under here?
You: So uh, how did you already know there’s room for you under here already?

Andrea: Wouldn’t you like to know. ;3

> Dirty talk?
You: Uh, so you seem REALLY into this, do you want me to be really vulgar and debasing. I’m no good at it bu-

Andrea: OH YESSSS, CALL ME YOUR LITTLE RABBIT SLUT CUMDUMPSTER.

She whips her head up to the top and grabs the zipper in her buck teeth, huh, you didnt notice them before. She pulls your zipper down in one fell swoop.
>>
No. 995927 ID: afe7de
File 161830042204.png - (59.38KB , 500x500 , C2_057.png )
995927

- 7 years ago -
>>
No. 995929 ID: afe7de
File 161830078951.png - (9.54KB , 500x500 , C2_058.png )
995929

Guess it’s time. You’re finally going through with it, you pull up your medical sheet and do a last confirmation. You’re getting top surgery for sure, but as for the rest…

~ITS PENIS CUSTOMIZATION TIME~
Please note penis customization WILL have an effect on your stats, you might even be able to do stuff better than you could before!

You have 4 Points, spend it however you want
You get to pick the PENIS TYPE from this list:
Human (+1 pts)
Canine (+0 pts)
Feline (+0 pts)
Equine (+0 pts)
Delphoid (+0 pts)
Hemipenis (+0 pts)
Prehensile (-1 pts)

You get to pick the LENGTH from this list:
Short (+1 pts)
Normal (+0 pts)
Large (-1 pts)
Massive (-2 pts)

You can pick a PENALTY if you want to gain an extra point, but only one:
No Balls - Provides +1 pts and removes your balls, but where does the semen come from now…?
Can’t Jizz - Provides +1 pts, you can no longer jizz, but you can still orgasm!
Easy - Provides +1 pts, you’re super easy to arouse at the consequence of getting distracted more easily from Flirting.
Blue Balls - Provides +1 pts, if you don’t have sex every 3-5 days you suffer penalties to your skill rolls.

And finally Pick from this list of PERKS, each perk costs 1 point, and if something is picked twice it’s effect is improved:
Arousing Musk - Your musk is lightly arousing to people who like your smell, be careful! Most effective on Beast-Kin.
Big Balls - Your balls are larger than normal, and more sensitive!
Flavor - Your cock and semen have a flavor you decide upon. You can change it nightly.
High - You feel a sense of extreme sense of euphoria when you orgasm and those who drink your cum feel the same. Don’t get addicted!
Ice Cold - Your Horniness rises much more slowly than before and you get aroused slower, but your erection lasts longer.
Knot - If you don't have a knot, now you do! And if you already have one, now you have two!
Lots of Jizz - You'll cum a LOT with this, leading to a nice filled sensation to your partners.
Multicock - You've got more than one cock, you can get this multiple times.
Noise - Your cock can make noises and SFX that it naturally couldnt, you can even have it say words, but they come out a little weird…
Oviposition - Your jizz comes out as little egg sacs filled with cum, they burst after a little while leaving a warming sensation.
Pussy - You've got a pussy still, you just couldn't part with it after the transition.
Sensitivity - You're a quick shot, but as a trade off you can have multiple orgasms and stay hard post nut easier!
Shape changing - Your cock can change girth and length at will, the longer it is, the thinner it is and vice versa. You can also make it ribbed and provide other minor changes.
Sheath - If you didn’t have a sheath before you get one now, comes in SLIT form and SHEATHE form.
Speed - You can pump harder, faster. Rabbits especially like this one!
Stamina - You go a lot longer in bed and remain harder longer!
Stretchy - Your cock and ass are more flexible allowing for deeper penetration, sounding, and with practice even penis to penis penetration!
Subdermal Implant - You've got an implant to prevent your seed from impregnating anyone (or getting yourself pregnant if you have a pussy). You can always get this removed.
Tongue - Your cock gains a sense of taste and naturally produces lubricant when aroused like a tongue. You can turn off this sense of taste at will.
Tough - Your cock is harder but less sensitive
Virility - You always cum a decent load, even after you just came. Careful of combining with Lots of Jizz!

>>
No. 995930 ID: 1d109c

Prehensile -1
Large -1
no balls +1

Multicock -1
Multicock -1
Shape changing -1

Just imagine three giant tentacle dicks that can reach out and grab things!
>>
No. 995936 ID: e51896

Human (+1 pts) or Canine (0 points, we are part Jackal after all)

Normal length (0)

no penalty

perks:

Pussy (so we can mate with both genders!)

Stretchy

Shape changing (i feel will be a good combo with stretchy I think)

Ice Cold (can't have that horniness meter get in the way)

and if we go with human dick for that extra point instead of jackal:

flavor
>>
No. 995937 ID: ca2950

Small +1
Hemipene 0
No balls +1
Multicock
Multicock
Multicock
Multicock
Multicock
Multicock
>>
No. 995938 ID: b0655a

Rather not go too crazy. I prefer something normal

Human

Large

Speed
Stamina
Tough
Ice cold
>>
No. 995939 ID: f8fa51

Human (+1)
Large (-1)
Blue Balls (+1)
Pussy (-1)
Lots of Jizz (-1)
High (-1)
Stamina (-1)
Arousing Musk (-1)
>>
No. 995940 ID: b448f0

Blue Balls
Large
Prehensile
Shape Changing
Speed
Stamina

This penis is designed to give our partners the MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ORGASMS
>>
No. 995941 ID: 1a8a7f

Canine (duh)
Normal (always be ‘just right’)
Blue Balls (for reasons described below)
Stamina
Speed
Knot (double knot was honestly an administrative mistake, but double knotting was worth it enough not to sue even if it leaves you frequently blue balled)
Arousing Musk
Virility
>>
No. 995943 ID: 830459

Human +1
Large -1
Easy +1

5 points. It would be useful if we could save these points or get a different type of perks for them, because it feels like we're being forced to get all these unnecessary bonuses. But if we can't, then...
Arousing Musk - Strategic advantage
Sensitivity - Goes well with Virility
Subdermal Implant - Fun without worries
Virility - Goes well with Sensitivity
Big Balls - Goes logically with Large; Alternate choice here would be Speed

In other words, don't get anything weird like an animal penis on a human.
>>
No. 995944 ID: 82a182

>>995943
Seconding this one.
>>
No. 995945 ID: 12b116

Normal sized
Delphoid (prehensile? -1 point)
No Balls
Slit (sheath)
Virility
Stamina
Ice Cold
>>
No. 995949 ID: 5a76c0

There is a clear optimal dong design here.

Human
Massive
Easy
Knot
Big Balls
And either High and Lotsa Jizz or Lotsa Jizz x2.
>>
No. 995951 ID: 4950ab

>>995943
The only thing I'd want to consider swapping out from this one is Musk for Stamina.
>>
No. 995959 ID: afa6f6

Human (+1 pts)
Large (-1 pts)
-Arousing Musk
-Lots of Jizz.
-Shape changing
-Stamina
>>
No. 995960 ID: f0f78a

Large -1
Prehensile -1
Multicock -1
Pussy -1
No Balls +1
Noise +1

Now you can fuck yourself and your partner at the same time and put on amusing puppet shows on the down time.
>>
No. 995963 ID: e85a08

Delphoid (+0 pts)

Large (-1 pts)

No Balls

Arousing Musk
Knot
Sheathe - SLIT form
Subdermal Implant
>>
No. 995965 ID: 7f1230

If Cat is biologically related to his Jackal parent, then
Canine, normal, musk, ice cold, knot, virility,
otherwise no vote
>>
No. 995969 ID: 88de73

Normal, prehensile, no balls, slit, virility, ice cold, speed.
>>
No. 995978 ID: 1f3395

Human (+1 pts)
Normal (+0 pts)
Blue Balls - Provides +1 pts, if you don’t have sex every 3-5 days you suffer penalties to your skill rolls.
Arousing Musk - Your musk is lightly arousing to people who like your smell, be careful! Most effective on Beast-Kin.
Big Balls - Your balls are larger than normal, and more sensitive!
High - You feel a sense of extreme sense of euphoria when you orgasm and those who drink your cum feel the same. Don’t get addicted!
Shape changing - Your cock can change girth and length at will, the longer it is, the thinner it is and vice versa. You can also make it ribbed and provide other minor changes.
Stamina - You go a lot longer in bed and remain harder longer!
Virility - You always cum a decent load, even after you just came. Careful of combining with Lots of Jizz!
>>
No. 995979 ID: 2b3343

Equine
Massive (-2 pts)

Blue Balls

Subdermal Implant
Shape changing
Stretchy
>>
No. 995983 ID: 831303

>>995978
this seems to be pretty rife for shenanigans
i like it
>>
No. 995986 ID: 85038e

>>995979
seconded
>>
No. 995987 ID: 7b8730

>>995978

I like this one too.
>>
No. 995988 ID: 19da02

Human
Short
No balls
Sheath (slit)
Shape Changing
Stretchy
Multicockx4
>>
No. 996000 ID: 4d4f11

I like Arousing musk, lots of jizz, big balls, and virility!! The others don't even matter!!
>>
No. 996006 ID: b1b4f3

Human
Large

Blue Balls

Stamina
Shape changing
Shape changing
Subdermal Implant
Lots of Jizz

What kind of dick is it? Any kind you want, baby.
>>
No. 996012 ID: 4874ce

>>995978
this.
>>
No. 996024 ID: 217b17

>>995941
Sure, lets roll with this
>>
No. 996026 ID: a1b263

I think we can all agree we want to see eventual Cat-tanukification. Judging by the fat cum suggestions. So let's just go all in.

So in that vein,

Short,
Easy
Blue balls
Big balls x2
Virility
Taste (honey)
Alluring musk
Shape change?

MAAAAYBE pussy. Up to general consensus.
>>
No. 996039 ID: 864e49

>>995929
Canine or Delphoid

Normal

Blue Balls
Easy

Flavor
High
Lots of Jizz
Multicock
Pussy
Shape changing
>>
No. 996044 ID: 0fae41

Prehensile
Large
No Balls
Multicock x1
Sheathe(Slit)
Stamina
Also they're green.
>>
No. 996047 ID: 80125e

>>996026
Seconding
>>
No. 996054 ID: 6c227a

I'm with >>995951 >>995943 and >>995938
Cat just wanted to be a guy, not have a hyper-customized designer penis.

Human +1
Large -1
Arousing Musk (may as well make sure they like yer dick, but this is the one I would trade out first)
Subdermal Implant
Stamina
Sensitivity

My reading is that stamina+sensitive would cancel out to a fairly normal time-to-orgasm, but being ready to go again immediately
>>
No. 996055 ID: eb1fcc

>>995929
+1 for a knot because you're all blind or cowards
>>
No. 996061 ID: 86aaf2

delphoid +0
prehensile -1
large -1
no balls +1
easy +1
shape changing -1
sheathe - slit -1
pussy -1
subdermal implant -1
>>
No. 996063 ID: 5b7e10

Human +1
Short +1
Blue Balls +1
High x2
Virility
Lots of Jizz
Subdermal Implant
Tongue
Flavor (Peaches)

Ok but imagine, You can cum lots, taste your cum, and get QuAdRuPlE HiGh!!! twice on cumming and twice on tasting your cum with your tongue dick. Also what if the dick was like studded, maybe cat got piercings?
>>
No. 996066 ID: 9f8373

Canine
Large
High
Speed
Stamina
>>
No. 996077 ID: b1b4f3

Second dick suggestion:

Human
Large

Sheath(slit) (balls are internal with a slit, right?)
Shape Changing
Tough
Sensitivity

Closest we can get to dragon dick.
>>
No. 996084 ID: 0fae41

Instead of a dick, why not get a FROG TONGUE?
Prehensile
Large
No Balls/Can't Jizz
Shapechanging x2
Tongue
Noise. Ribbit.
>>
No. 996095 ID: 275bde

Soooo. How did we get the BUX for this operation?
>>
No. 996096 ID: 031458

>>996095
The bank of Thisaintamericadontworryaboutit.
>>
No. 996100 ID: 0fae41

>>996095
Our family was killed in a dungeon outbreak.
>>
No. 996127 ID: f93930

>>995978
My vote's on this one
>>
No. 996129 ID: afe7de
File 161838542822.png - (8.81KB , 500x500 , C2_059.png )
996129

> How did you get the BUX for this operation?
You think back to THE INCIDENT, well, that was about a year ago. Your parents weren’t insured against monster attacks and were living paycheck to paycheck, so you only really had a few months of rent worth of money left by them. But your awesome big bro Callan, Goddess rest his soul, had a life insurance policy in case he died to a monster since he was a dungeon crawler. It was written in his will that his savings and the insurance was to go to you on his death. He wanted to surprise you on your 18th birthday (that’s today!) with the money for you to get your transition surgery.

He went the extra mile and was willing to let you get all the bells and whistles you were super interested in. The rest of the money is enough to pay for your first year of COLLEGE, since he also knew you wanted to be a tinker. You really miss them. But, you can only move forward. You’re super excited to learn basic tinker stuff and maybe Awaken to be one. Too bad it took a year to get this all sorted out, the Big City’s infrastructure was basically destroyed in the attack.

Anyway, today’s supposed to be a happy day, can’t go crying today, you promised him you wouldn't cry on your birthdays. You’ve narrowed down your decision to 6 choices, there’s so many customization options, you’re super excited.
>>
No. 996130 ID: afe7de
File 161838544289.png - (5.98KB , 500x500 , C2_060.png )
996130

A. The Meat Bat

Human
Large
Easy
Arousing Musk
Sensitivity
Virility
Subdermal Implant
Big balls

This one’s a safe choice, nothing too crazy, but nothing really interesting about it either. You’re not too interested in it, but maybe it’s better to just have a “safe” cock.
>>
No. 996131 ID: afe7de
File 161838545387.png - (5.21KB , 500x500 , C2_061.png )
996131

B. The 2K9

Canine
Normal
Blue Balls
Stamina
Speed
Knot
Arousing Musk
Virility

Double knot seems like it was originally an administrative mistake but it became popular by word of mouth. You’re interested in it because it reminds you of your Jackal Heritage a bit. It comes with a sheathe since it’s a Canine cock.
>>
No. 996132 ID: afe7de
File 161838547199.png - (7.40KB , 500x500 , C2_062.png )
996132

C. The Mile High

Human
Normal
Blue Balls
Arousing Musk
Big Balls
High
Shape changing
Stamina
Virility

This one’s probably the one you’re most interested in, you like the idea of being able to get a really good natural high when you nut and share that with your partner.
>>
No. 996133 ID: afe7de
File 161838548243.png - (8.71KB , 500x500 , C2_063.png )
996133

D. The Go Fuck Yourself Combo

Prehensile
Large
No balls
Multicock
Pussy
Shape Changing

Now this is starting to get into the strange territory. But you have to admit, the idea of being able to secretly fuck yourself whenever you want is an attractive one. And even though you’re transitioning, you’re kind of attached to your pussy.
>>
No. 996137 ID: afe7de
File 161838558018.png - (25.73KB , 500x500 , C2_064.png )
996137

E. The Grabbler

Prehensile
Large
No Balls
Multicock x2
Shape changing

Popular for lazy people who want to watch movies in bed but not use their arms, this lets your three cocks reach out and grab things, they can also twirl together to make a pretty massive dong.
>>
No. 996138 ID: afe7de
File 161838559570.png - (6.96KB , 500x500 , C2_065.png )
996138

F. The Tanuki

Human
Short
Easy
Blue Balls
Big Balls x2
Virility
Taste (AMBER) Honey
Alluring Musk
Shape changing
Lots of Jizz

Apparently this one is based on an old folk tale from the Wano continent. There was a specific breed of beast-kin that was a raccoon dog that died out hundreds of years ago. They apparently had massive balls and were famed for getting drunk and manipulating their balls into different shapes to impersonate humans. It costs the same but apparently there’s some side effects.
>>
No. 996139 ID: afe7de
File 161838562736.png - (10.91KB , 500x500 , C2_066.png )
996139

You hear a knock at the door and in comes one of your surgeons, apparently it takes two surgeons to get these specific jobs done.

Doctor: Hey there uhh… Cat. We’re about ready for you, oh, and I checked with our supplies and that HIGH implant you brought us does work, so we can include it at no extra charge to whatever you’re getting. But the Flavor mod you had was discontinued for wearing off after a few months and making them taste like sour milk, so we can’t in good conscience let you use it, so we’ve reimbursed you for it.

You give a silent thank you to your big bro for buying that HIGH MOD ahead of time just in case they were sold out, he definitely knew you well...

What Cock do you get?

A. The Meat Bat
B. The 2K9
C. The Mile High
D. The Go Fuck yourself Combo.
E. The Grabbler
F. The Tanuki

And what’re some dirty talking lines you give to Andrea ?
>>
No. 996140 ID: 1d109c

E: GRABBLER!!!
>>
No. 996141 ID: b1b4f3

C, use your free High mod there ofc but instead of High x2 get a double dose of Shape Changing.
>>
No. 996142 ID: f8fa51

D is hot, but lacks stamina, which both B and C have. Still, there's ways to make up for that.

So D with the HIGH mod, although I'd still like to trade out shapeshifting for stamina if possible.

For dirty talk, I can only think of cringy shit: "Oh yeah, take it." "You like that?" Maybe "How's it taste, you slut?"
>>
No. 996145 ID: e51896

C, our bro got that HIGH MOD for us after all

otherwise, B, or A.

for Andrea, can't think of dirty talk, but since our COOL Stat is abysmal and we can't act cool towards a customer, lets use our intelligence plan some safe words/actions with her like it was mentioned before: >>995804 >>995805 >>995809

and ask for tips on how to not get caught like >>995893 mentioned. You're not used to doing any sort of exhibitionism before after all, so some tips to help you get used to it would help.
>>
No. 996148 ID: 830459

A or C. But mostly A.

Tell Andrea to please be gentle and caring... because her slutty mouth better get a good taste of your juicy meat if she wants to feel what's going to come crashing into her womb tomorrow.
>>
No. 996149 ID: 82a182

C or A
>>
No. 996150 ID: 8042df

>>996132
I say C, it's a good choice!
>>
No. 996151 ID: 864e49

>>996139
D. Can we add High to this?
or
C. because High is free can we get this in Canine?

>Dirty talk
My I've never seen a whore more eager to choke on a cock, how can I deny such a slutty face?
>>
No. 996153 ID: e85a08

C with large instead of the free HIGH

>dirty talk
I bet a slut like you is already dripping wet and can't keep her hands off herself, huh?
>>
No. 996154 ID: 1a8a7f

B it.

Or at least add Canine to C if High is free.
>>
No. 996155 ID: 12b116

Grabbler is literally the only reasonable choice.
E
>>
No. 996161 ID: 0fae41

Guess E is the closest.
>>
No. 996162 ID: 1f3395

C with canine instead of double high
>>
No. 996163 ID: f93930

C
Let's just go 2x High
>>
No. 996164 ID: c223a4

c with canine sounds good if we're part jackal
>>
No. 996165 ID: 692a53

G: leave now and create a time paradox. Invest the money instead so you have BUX now.
Or E since that’s not happening
>>
No. 996169 ID: e0f68b

The Tanuki is the best one. F
>>
No. 996170 ID: 031458

I can dig the C
>>
No. 996171 ID: 9a2966

>>996139
Surprised no-one's spotted it yet (actually I'm not surprised, not with what's going on), but that totally looks like Doctor Trey there, which probably adequately answers the mystery of why he doesn't particularly feel like talking to us.

>Dirty talk
Well, if you're inexperienced, just stick to the truth but modify the tone. Say you can't believe what a lusty, needy police-bun she is, but if she's going to cream herself just from the taste of your dick, you'll happily allow her to quench her outrageous thirst... though she gotta know. You don't got no garden-variety carrot and it's not regular ol' juice you're serving.

Add a few appreciative moans and 'fuck yeah', 'suck harder', 'lusty beast, give it your all' and 'you're so needy, I'm gonna stuff you 'till you burst tomorrow evening, it'll be criminal, I'll fucking go to jail from how much you're gonna come and then you can fuck me whenever you want'.

Y'know, as you nervously eye the entrance.
>>
No. 996178 ID: 2b3343

C. It won't scare anyone away, and has some interesting features.
>>
No. 996185 ID: 6c227a

I still like A best, but I'd accept B or C without much grumbling. I'd like them more if they didn't come with Blue Balls attached.
>>
No. 996190 ID: 1f4fe1

If you can save a point from the high module and get a canine one instead of human, then C's looking pretty sweet. If not, B's pretty good too.
>>
No. 996192 ID: 3a102c

>>996185
could always use the saved point on C to toss the blue balls penalty
>>
No. 996193 ID: 031458

>>996171
More like we spotted it, but as this is back in time, there's nothing to address, yet.
>>
No. 996208 ID: 5241b7

>>996169
Agreed F is best
>>
No. 996209 ID: eb1fcc

>>996139
B is the obvious choice, since we can slap that high mod right in there no charge
>>
No. 996210 ID: eb1fcc

>>996209
and to follow up on my own post, two words:
Oral Knotting
>>
No. 996238 ID: 037256

Do F, it is the best choice after all
>>
No. 996241 ID: cdabe3

C
>>
No. 996255 ID: 037256

F is the best I think even if it isn't canine... Maybe we can add the knot later
>>
No. 996265 ID: 9f8373

C, but since the high is free, remove blue balls
>>
No. 996278 ID: 412a26

F isn't bad since D is doomed
>>
No. 996287 ID: 11d286

>>996265
this tbh
>>
No. 996290 ID: afe7de
File 161847729256.png - (12.34KB , 500x500 , C2_067.png )
996290

> C… but
You decide to go with the Mile High, but you check with the doc if you can make some changes.

You: So uh, Because I’ve got the extra High mod I was wondering if we could exchange the one that comes in the Mile High with making it a Canine dong.

Doctor: Hmmm, well we’re actually all out of pure Canine Cocks. We’ve got some 2K9s on ice, getting one of those on the Mile High is out of your price range I’m afraid. But let me propose an alternative. Since we’re already reimbursing you for the discontinued flavor mod, how about we take the money you would have gotten from that and spend it on an extra shape change mod. Doubling up on that mod lets you basically make your cock into whatever you feel like with some practice.

Doctor: So if you really want to make it a dog cock with the knot and everything it would just take like a month of practice. Given more time I’m sure you could figure out how to make it swell up when you climax too. The color wouldn’t be the same, and you wouldn’t have a sheathe, but it’d provide you with some flexibility for your partners.

You: I’m uh… surprised I’m getting reimbursed that much from the flavor mod.

Doctor: Well it was actually purchased from us and was a mistake on the manufacturer’s end that we were partially responsible for. Plus the actual tech behind changing the flavor of your sperm actually is a recent development, so it costs more than the other mods. If it wasn't purchased directly from us it’d be a different story but our company prides itself in customer retention and reimbursement for faulty products.
>>
No. 996291 ID: afe7de
File 161847733313.png - (13.37KB , 500x500 , C2_068.png )
996291

You: Uh, then yeah. Um sure. It’s my birthday, I guess it’s okay to splurge on this since I don’t want to have to change it later. But I have another question. What about the High mods, how will having two affect it?

The doctor goes on a pretty long explanation about the whole thing, some of it goes over your head. You can read the full explination here:

https://questden.org/kusaba/questdis/res/134892.html#135352
To summarize, here are the key points, these metrics are based on how much you will cum on average which is 3 fl oz.
It’s a natural high that lowers Anxiety, stress, and depression, providing a sense of euphoria.
YOU will feel a 1.7x intensity high on cumming that lasts around 30 minutes.
The TAKER will feel a 1.5x intensity high that lasts around 40 minutes if they eat or are injected with all of your cum.
Drinking all of your cum while orgasming will provide a 2x intensity high that lasts around 1 hour.

Here’s some metagame knowledge too, your COOL/FORTITUDE/SKILL stats will improve during the cum high, but your INT/POWER/SPEED stats will drop

Your questions over you decide to agree to the terms provided by The Doctor, you look over your cock’s specifications one more time before signing off on it:

Human
Normal
Blue Balls
Arousing Musk
Big Balls
High x2
Shape changing x2
Stamina
Virility

Whelp, you’re excited for your new cock, you head over to the operating table and lie down, getting a glance at your two surgeons in their scrubs before they put you under anesthetic and you drift off to dream-land.
>>
No. 996292 ID: afe7de
File 161847742277.png - (62.59KB , 500x500 , C2_068b.png )
996292

- THE PRESENT -
>>
No. 996293 ID: afe7de
File 161847746003.png - (11.91KB , 500x500 , C2_069.png )
996293

She manages to pull your underwear down enough that your cock and balls come flopping out on her face. You can spot a twinkle in her eyes. As she takes deep whiffs of your cock.

Andrea: OHHHH SHIT YOUR COCK SMELLS SO GOOD. You had some work done didn’t you?

You: Uhh, haha, yeah. *AHEM* *AHEM* I uh I mean. I can’t believe what a lusty, needy police-bun you are. If you’re going to cream yourself just from the smell of my dick, I’ll happily allow you to quench your outrageous thirst… Though you’ve got to know. I don’t have a garden variety carrot and it’s not regular ol juice I’m serving.

Andrea: MMMM~ You even smell pent up. This lusty bun NEEDS a taste of your carrot juice.

She begins to go down on you sucking on your sensitive balls gives you a rush of excitement and pleasure. She’s refusing to use her hands, licking your shaft and coating it her her saliva. You feel an unfamiliar arousing tingle in your loins as she does this.

>>
No. 996294 ID: afe7de
File 161847748672.png - (10.04KB , 500x500 , C2_070.png )
996294

Andrea: You’re not the only one with some M~O~D~S. Come on, I’m your personal cock sleeve, treat me like one!

Andrea’s open mouth is taunting you, it looks like she wants you to make the first move. You try your best to be COOL in this moment… and it’s a SUCCESS.

You: I’ve never seen a whore more eager to choke on a cock, how can I deny such a slutty face?

>>
No. 996295 ID: afe7de
File 161847752386.png - (21.29KB , 500x500 , C2_071.png )
996295

So in a surprising twist you find the courage to grab her head, place your rod on her lips, and shove your cock balls deep into her throat. The sensation is pure bliss, you can feel her throat pulsing against your member and contracting as if she was trying to suck you in deeper, maybe she has a throat mod? Her tongue pops out of her mouth, locked to your crotch and she begins licking your balls in a surprising manner as she doesn't have much room to stick it out. Honestly, if you didn’t get that STAMINA mod when you were younger, you’d probably have nutted just now.

You feel like you could probably change your cock once during this session, you consider if you want to change it’s shape into something else, maybe give it a knot to mess with her. You know, come to think of it, she doesn't seem to be choking, and it’s been around 50 seconds, you pull out and she takes a deep breath, gasping, but not coughing. She wipes your saliva coated cock against her face, getting herself soaked in the process. You can’t see below her neck, but you think you can hear some squelching noises. She breathes heavily towards you.

Andrea: GODDESS YES. AND HE DOESEN’T CUM INSTANTLY. J~A~C~K~P~O~T

> Safe words? Signals? Anything?
You: Uhh So should we have a safe word or like a signal or?

Andrea: *HIC* *BURP* Oh, excuse me. Uh, probably no words since people could hear that. Unless you want our code word for when you’re about to cum to be saying “You slut” which would be HILARIOUS to whoever you were talking to.

You: Maybe I can like tug on your ears or tap you or something.

Andrea rolls her eyes before thinking and then responding, she licks and sucks your balls for a moment before popping back out and continuing.

Andrea: Just go with the flow, be rough if you want, push me off if there’s an emergency, unless you’re hiding a knot in there in which case uhh just drag me around. Honestly I’m down for whatever. If you want me to speed up or something just yank on my ears really hard, don’t worry it feels good. Honestly even if you asked me to slow down I’d pr~o~bably just speed up instead.

> Mention your High mod

You: There’s one mod I should mention, I’ve got a double-

Andrea: Don’t tell me, lets keep it a surprise! Now call me your little fuck gremlin and let’s keep this going I’m soaking the floor over here!

>>
No. 996296 ID: afe7de
File 161847757132.png - (11.67KB , 500x500 , C2_072b.png )
996296

You reposition yourself in your seat to be a little more comfortable and Andrea pulls you closer. She sucks on your head and starts going to town with a purpose. She gives out a few squeaks but is doing her best to keep as silent as possible. You’re getting close to nutting and say as much when the door rings and opens, you look up, surprised. It’s Gena. Andrea stops for a moment to catch her breath, you hope that Gena can’t hear it as you feebly wave at her and she walks up to your desk. You glance down and see Andrea give you a mischievous smile, rubbing her face against your cock, teasing you and stalling your orgasm.

Gena: Aww, did I miss Willy?

Feel free to suggest cock changes as well as dialog. Andrea’s going to mess with you, so feel free to also include dialogs of you fucking up.
>>
No. 996299 ID: eb1fcc

>>996296
consider: we are going to be cursing randomly as she does things with her tongue

also consider: the Willamena Experience:tm: as it stands is getting cursed out in casual conversation.

further information: We are naturally dorky and will flub any attempt to be aggressive in ways that will soften most verbal blows.

Solution to the current predicament:
"You just FUCKING missed her, but I can give you the full COCKDAMNED experience if you want!"
>>
No. 996302 ID: 8d14f2

"Actually, My Willie is out getting hea... *gasp* I MEAN Willamina is outside getting ahead of her schedule with delivering mail early and will be back at around four... please cum!... I MEAN!... wait yeah nevermind that works, come in.

If she asks what is wrong, say

"Sorry, it's my first time working at the desk and I'm really nervous!"

If she asks for measurements for your new outfit, tell her

"Can't right now, I'm hard right now... Atwork! Hard at work right now! and I cant get distracted in case another customer shows up, I can't let Willamina down after all on my first time working the desk, but maybe you I and Willamina can get together tomorrow for food and help me get my uniform ready, yeah?"
>>
No. 996306 ID: e51896

Be careful, you have Arousing Musk! Since she is probably a beastkin, if you cum and Gena smells you, who knows what she might do.

We might need her to stay a healthy distance away from you. Tell her: Trey walked in earlier with a nice package... err... a parcel! and just dropped his pack... his mail on the floor in order to hurry off somewhere. If she wants, she can drop her package on the floor too and try to catch up with Willamina quicker. Should probably be near the mall by now. You'll even pay for her parcel if she does that to make things quicker, on the house! (hopefully it is below 10 BUX, or maybe Andrea can pay for it if we asked nicely. Otherwise, we'll just ask Willamina to take some money out of what we'll earn to pay for it when we get paid today)

Hold out until after she leaves so she doesn't get a whiff of Arousing Musk. Maybe consider shapeshifting the thickness of your cock so that Andrea has no choice but to slow down since it'll be larger for her mouth?
>>
No. 996310 ID: 1a8a7f

>>996299
>>996302
Some combo of these two seems good. Be careful about making plans though, you’ve already promised yourself away to Andrea for part of tomorrow.

>>996306
I wouldn’t worry too much. Musk’s not mind control, just a pleasant and alluring scent for those already positively inclined. It’s also focused on the groin region, so any whiff she catches should be weak.
>>
No. 996323 ID: e51896

>>996310
If we are not going to suggest her to drop her package off at the door like Trey did, We should at least let her deliver what she wants for free to make up for how weird we may be acting towards her by offering to pay for her parcel. Plus it'll be a nice thing to do for her. Just say 'since she's Willamina's friend, it is on the house today.' she will be less likely ask too many questions, at most thinking 'Cat is certainly acting weird... but who cares, I got to send my mail for free today!' (We'll let Willamina know and she can take the money off our pay today if we cant afford it with our current BUX.)
>>
No. 996346 ID: f8fa51

Sorry, Willamena's out doing deliveries. Is there anything I can help you with?
>>
No. 996370 ID: 031458

rolled 16 = 16

Don't mind me, just rolling a d20 to see how cool we can play it off should we cum while talking to this person.
>>
No. 996375 ID: 0fae41

I got your willy right here, if ya knowwhatImean.
>>
No. 996435 ID: afe7de
File 161855467408.png - (10.78KB , 500x500 , C2_073.png )
996435

> Time check
It's 1:30 PM, Will should be finishing her route at around 4PM, probably with Mint in tow.

> Give her the Willamina Experience(tm) cursing and all
That could maybe give you a bit of an outlet in this situation since Andrea paused temporarily and it's driving you NUTS. You're finding it easier to be COOL in this moment since the pressure's not on, so you do your best Will impression.

You: You just F-FUCKING missed her, haha. Willie is getting head... *gasp* I MEANT Willamina is delivering mail today, we S-S-SWAPPED jobs today... p-please cum! I mean! Wait yeah nevermind that works. Come by then if you wanna see her.

Gena: Heh, Nice Willy impression. You're being a bit more breathy with it then I would though. Maybe add more shouts that are expletives if you’re talking to someone she doesn't really care about.

Gena: But yeah, she was supposed to text me this morning and she never got back to me so I wanted to check on her. If she's on her route she probably won't be there until 2:30, so I've got an hour to kill.
>>
No. 996437 ID: afe7de
File 161855477430.png - (36.85KB , 500x500 , C2_074.png )
996437

She turns around and pulls her dress against her legs, hopping up on the table facing towards the door. A bead of sweat starts to form on your brow when you realize she's probably not going to leave anytime soon without you explicitly kicking her out. Andrea takes this time to give you a smirk and begins tonguing your balls. It's arousing as fuck and feels good but damnit you were so close to cumming and now its just a distant dream, you bet if you got a second Big Balls mod back oh so many years ago you could probably CUM just from this stimulation. You cough a bit to cover the quiet slobbering noises. Gena tilts her head slightly in your direction and smirks.

You: Umm, h-h-her phone's battery melted last night, so she's GETTING a-a new one today. Anything important she wanted to talk a-b-bout?

Gena: Again? That’s like the 5th one this year. She should really get a different phone brand. I wanted to find out when she was free so we could throw her a party for her Awakening!!!

A bump from under the table causes you both to jump, looks like that surprised Andrea, luckily nothing got bit.

You: Hahahah, sorry, uh I bumped uhh into something yeah.

Gena: Aaanyway, me and Cannie are like the only ones who really throw her a birthday party, so I thought it'd be nice if we did something similar maybe MONDAY NIGHT if you’re free, she’s only had nothing but nice things to say about you, so I think it’d make her happy to have you there.

Andrea starts pumping your cock again, she’s doing SOMETHING with her tongue, almost feels like she’s coiling it around your cock. You kind of trail off for a moment and Gena sniffs the air for a bit, looking confused continuing.

Gena: Oh, and we're supposed to get you measured for a uniform soon. I left my measuring tools at home though. Should I go back and get it so we can do it now?
>>
No. 996438 ID: afe7de
File 161855478792.png - (10.51KB , 500x500 , C2_075.png )
996438

You: Uh. I’m hard right now… atwork!! Hard a-a-a-t work right now! Can’t get distracted in case another customer shows up. I-I-I dont want to let Willamina down after all on my first day at the desk. But maybe you, I and Willamina can get together tomorrow for Lunch and help me get my- *YIP*

Andrea bit you! You guess she didn’t like you making plans for Lunch. Gena sniffs the air with her eyes closed and leans in more towards your direction.

Gena: Are you okay? You’re acting a bit weird. You know, mice have a pretty good sense of smell and something under the desk smells good, but I can’t help but feel like there’s something I’m missing here…

You: Sorry! I-It’s just my first time doing this and I’m really nervous! Ha, hahah.
>>
No. 996439 ID: afe7de
File 161855480181.png - (15.22KB , 500x500 , C2_076.png )
996439

Gena plops back down onto the floor and turns around to face you. You’re sweating bullets and Andrea’s picking up the pace, you try to subtly tap her to get her to stop but she just increases her speed, so you increase your cock’s girth just to slow her down and it’s successful in reducing the speed, but it has the unintended side effect of making a bit of a SHLORP noise. Gena’s ears twitch in response and she gives you a sly smile.

Gena: Hey Caaaaat. What’re you hiiiiiding there Caaaaat?

Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck does she know? Goddess you can’t think straight, this is a rush. Maybe you could distract her and talk about your tattoos, you’re not sure what to do.
>>
No. 996441 ID: e51896

"One moment Gena!"

We are going to pretend what she smells is hardboiled egg with our lucky egg!

Reach behind Andrea so she doesn't see, use your coiling ring to bring out your duct tape, and the lucky egg, then place the egg on the middle of the roll of duct tape (on the hole) and place it on the desk to show it to her.

Tell her it is hard! Hardboiled egg! just got done cocking... COOKING it and you're waiting for it to cool down! Don't have a plate, so I'm using my duct tape.
>>
No. 996444 ID: e51896

you had it under your desk because you didn't want to have customers see you eating ou.... eat during your work shift. the sound you heard was my mouth making slurping sounds from anticipation to eat it! Please don't tell Willamina.
>>
No. 996445 ID: e7c7d3

A monster. Don't worry though, the police are handling it surprisingly well.
>>
No. 996446 ID: 82a182

Answer that a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.
>>
No. 996448 ID: b1b4f3

>>996439
She knows.
Just say it's Angela.
>>
No. 996450 ID: 098194

>>996441
I like the egg idea, if Andrea asks where it came from later, tell her that it was behind her the whole time, she was just too focused on your cock to notice.
>>
No. 996451 ID: 894419

>>996444
No ones gonna believe you, but say this
>>
No. 996453 ID: 5f4030

>>996441
This. Let’s get it.
>>
No. 996460 ID: 68a897

Oh that's just the last remnants of my work ethic being sucked out of me. Absolutely nothing to worry about.
>>
No. 996462 ID: 830459

Tell her that you're busy filling some buns with cream. AuroraBorealisMeme.jpg. And if she gets any closer, some might get on her face.

Then, if she gets closer: Pull your dick out of Andrea's mouth and cum over Gena's face.

Tell her that you warned her.
High x2 to the rescue!
>>
No. 996464 ID: 12b116

Just say you're getting your cock sucked under the counter and ask if she wants to help.
>>
No. 996479 ID: 8a51ec

Okay, Gena clearly already knows, so no need to bullshit out of it. What we should do is express relief that she reacted... "positively", with this being only our second time meeting her and all.
>>
No. 996507 ID: e7c7d3

make sure to tell her that it's not Will, be fore she peeks
>>
No. 996508 ID: 460e5a

Showing the lucky egg is too risky, people! It is a magic item that we want to keep a secret. Plus Gena might want to stay and have you prove to her it is a hardboiled egg and demand you eat it which we dont want to do since we instead want to incubate it (plus eating a raw egg? Ew)

Just sigh sadly, and reveal the truth. Explain that Andrea was just way too forceful the past few days that it got to the point where your will broke and you had to give in or else Andrea would try to bully you into getting with her harder. Tell Gena that you will do anything to make up for being a bad worker and have her not tell anyone, especially not Willamina. 
>>
No. 996518 ID: 9a2966

You're not hiding your Willy - uh, you mean Will - under there or a--ah-anything! It's... uh...

>she seems intrigued
...it's actually Andrea, pulling out a-ah-ll the stops. And she's really good at this, damn her cute, fuzzy, floppy ears.

Drag yourself back a bit - bringing Andrea with you - for Geno to see and start petting Andrea's head as she suckles on your currently-enlarged dick. Really stroke those long ears to see if Andrea's into that. You definitely should be - soft things are a fetish of yours, after all!
>>
No. 996533 ID: becd7c

If we do decide to reveal whats going on, and worst case scenerio, if she threatens to tattle on you or run out screaming, maybe we can... bribe to awaken her to keep her quiet? (Might heighten chance on her joining Andrea too) Cover Andrea's ears if you say that.

Power could be "SPECTATOR MODE VISION"

(Acts kind of like how spectator mode works in Online fps games, can look around the environment around you when you shut your eyes and vision can noclip through objects to see past them. Length is only 100 feet though)
>>
No. 996564 ID: afe7de
File 161864677654.png - (8.26KB , 500x500 , C2_077b.png )
996564

> The truth!
You come up with the idea of using the Lucky egg as a ruse but realize it’s too big and would raise more questions. So then you think of a joke about monsters and cops, and even about just whipping your dick out and cumming on her face to get her high (which you’re sure would not end poorly at all). No, you’ll just go with the truth.

You: SIGH… I’m f-f-filling some extremely horny buns with cream.

She squints her eyes, at least, you think that’s what she does, her hair makes it hard to tell. And leans forward a little bit before speaking.

Gena: So you’re telling me there’s an Andrea Borealis, at this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the town, localized entirely under your desk.
>>
No. 996565 ID: afe7de
File 161864685091.png - (7.87KB , 500x500 , C2_078b.png )
996565

You: Yes…

You shrink into your chair embarrassed when Andrea pops your cock out of her mouth, gagging and taking some deep breaths.

Andrea: Dammit, now I have to share…

You’re confused at this response but Gena speaks up, the smile on her face widening and her ears twitching.

Gena: May I see? I promise I only bite a l~i~t~t~l~e

You: HUH? I’m relieved you’re reacting… positively but you want to join?

Gena: Oh, you can bet I’m going to be taking lots of photos of this SLUT too for my onlyFaunus.

She slaps her hand down on the table. And Andrea bumps her head on the desk but just starts going at your cock even harder, you think she’s trying to get you to cum before Gena gets back there. You’re insanely flattered, extremely confused and aroused and are having a hard time thinking. This shit’s straight out of a porno, is it just this town? Did you suddenly become more attractive because you awakened? Is it the postal workers uniform?
>>
No. 996566 ID: afe7de
File 161864689704.png - (10.42KB , 500x500 , C2_079.png )
996566

You: O~oh~ohh, uh, suuure?

Gena slides around the counter and pulls out her COMM, snapping a photo of the now, seemingly embarrassed Andrea who’s flipping Gena the bird. You give her fuzzy, floppy ears a stroke with your free hand, she slows down and starts moaning. You then give them a tug and pull her to the base of your still enlarged cock, she gags a bit and spittles going a little ahegao faced before sliding off and making room for Gena. Gena pulls out a pillow you didn’t see before from one of the nearby cubby holes and plops it down next to Andrea while she takes a seat, sniffing your cock and pushing back Andrea to get a good sniff of it. You’re surprised there’s even room for the two of them under here.

Gena: Uh, This is w~a~y too thick for me. I probably could barely even fit the head in my mouth…

You: Oh, uh, one sec, I did that to slow her down. One sec.

You reshape your cock back to normal, you also note that you’re DRIPPING precum. You’re probably going to cum very soon.

Gena: Mods? Nice. Wait is that why it smells so damn good.

Andrea: I know right. You better not steal all the juice… I’ve been hard at work!

You: I uh, I can go multiple times pretty easy.

Andrea: In that case…
>>
No. 996567 ID: afe7de
File 161864690712.png - (34.46KB , 500x500 , C2_080.png )
996567

You feel a piercing glare from both of them and notice their eerie smiles. You probably shouldn’t have said that.
>>
No. 996568 ID: afe7de
File 161864694871.png - (10.17KB , 500x500 , C2_081.png )
996568

In a surprise twist, Andrea uses her hands, grabs your cock and Gena’s head and with a forceful thrust she’s balls deep on your cock, you can see a few surprised tears and eyes rolling back to her head from Gena. There’s also a pretty loud SPLASH under the table, you look down and a puddle has formed underneath Gena. Andrea’s sucking your balls the whole time. Andrea pulls her off and you can hear a coughing and sputtering Gena. Damn her throat was tight, it’s a different sensation to Andrea’s throat for sure, not as suction-y, but it has a lot more pressure to it. Eventually Gena sputters back and the two glare at eachother and start fighting over your cock. All the while Gena’s taking selfies with your dick, she even shoves the COMM underneath hers and Andrea’s legs, but you can’t see that far down since your bodies are in the way.

Andrea: What’s a TRAMP like you doing in a place like this ANYWAY?

Gena: I was here to see WILLIE, but looks like I found a WILLY instead. Got a problem with it ya damn WHORE?
>>
No. 996569 ID: afe7de
File 161864699188.png - (13.10KB , 500x500 , C2_082.png )
996569

She slaps Andrea’s ass and you hear a moan and quiver. They’re both sucking your shaft at it’s sides now and are pushing and shoving each other off trying to have their mouth on your head as much as they can without the other stopping them. The actual act itself isn’t that much more stimulating physically, but mentally you’re very intimidated and aroused.

Andrea: How do you think the town would react if they knew you were such a PERV Gina? Do you think they’d freak out at your fake innocence bullshit?

Gena: HEY! I have an a~e~s~t~h~e~t~i~c unlike someone who wears a fucking KNOT ME shirt. At least I don’t have the LOOSEST LEGS in town.

Andrea: Oh yeah, says the girl who got one whiff of a cock and came to suck it?

Gena: I’ve been pent up, busy, and he was HONEST that something was happening under here. If he lied I would have buggered off and told Will later.

Andrea: Fucking NARC.

Gena: Hey, I reward good boys.
>>
No. 996570 ID: afe7de
File 161864703539.png - (13.10KB , 500x500 , C2_083.png )
996570

She gives you a wink and you can hear some squelching underneath the table and Andrea is shaking with a really pleased look on her face. Gena pulls out a soaked hand and rubs it all in Andrea’s face.

Gena: Look at that, that’s how wet you are, only a fucking SHAMELESS STRUMPET would immediately take off her panties just to blow someone.

Andrea: Hnnnf fuuuuuck. Welll…. Hngggg, At least I didnt cum just by sucking on his cock once, look at the mess you made, are you even wearing panties?

Gena: Do I look like the kind of lass that would wear panties? STOCKINGS are what’s in these days.

You: uh, s-s-should I close the store I don’t think we can hide this if you two are arguing…

Andrea: PSST, CAT, BE MORE ASSERTIVE.

Gena: Yeah, come on, read the mood.

You: Uh, LADIES PLEASE, put those SLUTTY mouths to work on the task at hand and SHUT IT. Was that assertive enough, im sorry…

They both murmur about how this is better but could use some work. So they both make their way to the head of your cock and start making out on it. Now this you can get behind. You’re starting to feel the onset of your PRE-HIGH coming on, that usually means you’re ready to burst. You’ll probably cum in about a minute, hopefully no one walks in while it happens.

Who walks in at this exact moment? You can also vote that no one walks in and everything goes smoothly. Majority vote wins!

And how do you cum?
A. You cum on both of their faces
B. You cum on both of their open maws
C. You cum in one girl’s mouth (which one?)
D. You cum on one girl’s face (which one?)
E. You cum on the roof of the desk.
F. You cum all over yourself.

>>
No. 996572 ID: b1b4f3

>>996570
No one walks in.

C, Andrea. She's first, Gena can earn hers if she sticks around.
Actually, you should tell Andrea to share the load.
>>
No. 996575 ID: e51896

I really want to say it would be hilarious if TONI walks in with his crafty illusions to pull a prank on you after witnessing this moment, keheheheh

or Nail (haven't seen much of him, and he'd be most understanding of what is going on

But nah, we'll go with nobody coming in, have this go smoothly

(either of those three really with nobody being my main vote)

as for the choices, we don't want people smelling us, so hard NO on E, and F. Probably go with C, in Gena's mouth, (letting them both share means some of our sperm will end up in parts of the floor/desk, best to have one girl take it all. Andrea might have a high mod on her too which will mess her up Plus we can tease Andrea a bit more until tomorrow if we choose Gena, get Andrea to want us more if we don't give her any :P)
>>
No. 996576 ID: b1b4f3

and don't forget to check your phone. that message could be important.
>>
No. 996577 ID: e51896

>>996576
Good catch, I missed that. check that text. It is probably Cannie responding about what power she would want.
We should also get Gena's number. And Andrea's too (she got our number, but we didn't get hers)

Ask if they both would like to stay to surprise Willamina when she returns... though it may take a couple hours.
>>
No. 996578 ID: 864e49

>>996570
Either Kazu or Nail walk in.

While attempting B you also get a little of A.
And then they clean each other and make out 0wO
>>
No. 996579 ID: 9a2966

Andrea’s the one been asking for (and working for) it the hardest, so do C. You can do Gena next, but then you really need to wrap thi-

Iraphena walks in. She then just laughs and mumbles about how she didn’t need her visions to see that one coming.

She then wonders if there’s space for one more under there, and you’re really starting to wonder at what point you left reality and/or when will you wake up?

What else is there to do but say yes and hope this blows over before Will is expected to return?

(Don’t worry Cat, you just accidentally’d into the three biggest pervs in town.)
>>
No. 996582 ID: bd6753

No one walks in, I think that is enough risk and excitement for now.

In Andrea's mouth, let Gena record a video to compensate. (Though probably request not to share it to anyone, let it be for her eyes only)

(Though imagine if we had a G option: run out the post office and release your load out there... though Cat might not be cool enough to do that)
>>
No. 996583 ID: 3637bf

Nobody walks in, its been a stressful enough day.
>>
No. 996585 ID: cdabe3

B
>>
No. 996587 ID: 864e49

also
>>996564
>>996565
Fucking meme at us.
>>
No. 996588 ID: 6f22fe

You notice that Fire Daemon is back, you didn't see her enter.
She's watching and masturbating furiously.
>>
No. 996589 ID: e7c7d3

Trey tries coming back.

Adriana comes in, just checking in, doing the rounds on patrol

A. Full disclosure, I want to then see them lick it off of each other
>>
No. 996596 ID: 830459

>steamed hams
lmao, even though she wasn't fooled, things somehow still worked out quite favorably

C+A (or C+B)

You cum in Andrea's mouth, but then Gena really wants those pictures, so she steals your dick in the middle of nutting, making you shoot over Andrea at first and then over Gena's face too. Of course, this is before they discover your High mod...

I'll vote for someone walking in. Whether it's Adriana, or Kazu, or Nail, it don't matter, altho I feel it would be funnier if it was a male hehe
>>
No. 996597 ID: e7c7d3

>>996566
>>996576
And yeah, check phone
>>
No. 996598 ID: 9f1e2b

Mainly nobody.

Though it would be hilariously awkward if Cat's ex (mentioned https://questden.org/kusaba/questarch/res/986604.html#988675) shows up at this moment (just passing through Lyst looking for directions towards a different town)

C (andrea)
>>
No. 996611 ID: f7b1ac

B
>>
No. 996621 ID: 6c85e8

Nobody, and C andrea!
>>
No. 996627 ID: f8fa51

This scene is complicated enough as is. Nobody walks in, only cum in horny buns.
>>
No. 996633 ID: 0fae41

Mint, B.
>>
No. 996640 ID: eb1fcc

>>996570
Morgan Freeman, face of god, is the man who walks in right as you bust a fat intoxicating nut in the face of two furries beneath your desk.
>>
No. 996642 ID: e51896

>>996598
you know what, yeah, I'm changing my vote >>996575
to either be nobody, or Cat's ex to walk in (leaning towards Cat's ex), depending on which has more votes. The situation is already highly improbable, and having his ex walk in will add to that and make things uncomfortable in a fun way. (plus new character introduction!)

Also changing my vote to B
>>
No. 996648 ID: 031458

>>996640
Actually?
This.
>>
No. 996662 ID: c5d2fe

We're fine. No one's coming.
>>
No. 996665 ID: 094652

>>996640
This, but as the South Park Taco Guy who narrates your embarrassing cum-fart.
>>
No. 996667 ID: 6c227a

cum in rabbit's mouth, don't make her share. She put in the hard work on this one.
>>
No. 996670 ID: afe7de
File 161872828179.png - (21.17KB , 500x500 , C2_084.png )
996670

You’re mostly looking at the girls under the desk, keeping one eye on the door at all times, but it looks like you’re in the clear for now. Gena starts to suck on the head of your wang when Andrea grabs her head and does another forceful balls-deep shove. Gena stays there a moment, her throat pulsating. You feel a fog starting to grow on your mind and a light giddy feeling. Andrea then looks in your direction and pulls Gena off. The feeling dissipates a little bit. Dammit, you were so close. Gena’s glaring at Andrea now but eventually recovers her cool.

Andrea then orally mounts your cock and hands you one of her ears. You rub it forcefully and scratch at the base of where her ears meet her head. It’s an extremely pleasant sensation for both of you as you hear her almost purr in excitement. It’s in this moment that Gena does the same thing Andrea did to her, shoving her face balls deep on your cock, you’re at your limit, Andrea’s throat starts to squeeze pretty hard on your cock, like it’s trying to pull it in deeper down your throat. Her eyes look like she’s smiling, like she expected this outcome as you begin your nut.

>>
No. 996671 ID: afe7de
File 161872835116.png - (11.99KB , 500x500 , C2_085.png )
996671

> Andrea’s mouth
The pleasure is overwhelming as you go slightly limp and moan that you’re coming. The first spurt goes into Andrea’s throat but Gena is trying to force Andrea off. You hear Andrea moan, it looks like she felt the dry orgasm from your cum.

Gena: God dammit, you and your NUT SENSE, you’re gonna share some with me if you want it or not. Here CAT, you record.

She tosses her COMM at you and you fumble about to try to get a good angle when the second spurt hits the roof of Andrea’s mouth with the third dribbling down her tongue as your cock leaves her mouth with a loud pop.

>>
No. 996672 ID: afe7de
File 161872839468.png - (46.93KB , 500x500 , C2_086.png )
996672

Your fourth and fifth spurts come out rapid fire and are split between the two girls, covering their maws and snouts. Your HIGH is increasing in intensity with each SPURT and the last one is a bit on the weaker end of fluid as Gena manages to get her mouth on your head, sucking out as much as the greedy little mouse can. Which is actually a decent bit more since the rest dribbles out. You can feel her body quiver through your cock as she has her light orgasm. You haven’t had a good NUT in like a year after all. Why did you stop masturbating or having sex? You forget.

As the HIGH fully settles on your mind you feel like you could do more than you could before.

For finally getting rid of your blue balls after the past while, your STATS have returned to normal, you’ll find that you’re a little COOLER, a little TOUGHER, and a little more SKILLFUL. The high is balancing it out, so you’ll only feel the changes when it wears off. You also feel a little bit more POWERFUL and this isn’t being effected by the high.

Goddess you need to remember to cum more often. Your cock twitches as you enjoy the afterglow of your post-nut high.
>>
No. 996673 ID: afe7de
File 161872841290.png - (44.85KB , 500x500 , C2_087.png )
996673

Gena: YOU TRAMP, SLUT, HOOKER, uhhh CALL GIRL, UGH. You took all the good NUT.

Andrea: Hehehehehe. Oh noooo, there’s some left on our faces, here’ let me get that for you…

She begins to lick the cum off of Gena’s face and after getting most of it off, taunts her by showing off her winnings on her tongue.
>>
No. 996674 ID: afe7de
File 161872844366.png - (20.39KB , 500x500 , C2_088.png )
996674

Gena retaliates by grabbing Andrea’s face and sucking on her tongue, sneakily taking Andrea’s winnings. Gena then licks the rest of your mess off of Andrea’s face, but Andrea does the same thing, stealing the nut off of her tongue. A large amount of saliva is dripping between the two. Gena does a peace sign and you take a picture of the two before handing back her COMM.

Your cock was getting a little limp as you were cumming, but this sight you’re rock hard again. You could probably go at least 4 more times with little to no effort due to your Stamina and Virility mods, but you’re not sure you want to let the two of them know that or you’d be here all day.

The two girls lean against your legs, cock between the two of their heads, it looks like the HIGH is just hitting them too. Andrea’s is probably more intense since she got that majority of your load.

Andrea: MMmmmmmm, yeahhhhh, that’s the stufff. Fuckkkkk, you were holding out on me, you should have railed me the second we met Cat.

Gena: Ohhhh, he hehe *BURP* *HIC* hm. Hah. Ahhh, dammit, why’d y~o~u take soo much Andyyyyy. Hehehe. You need to learn to share when you find these things.

You rub the two girls ears and gently thrust your cock between their cheeks. Hnggg they’re so soft. You didn’t realize you missed this so much. They limply smooch your cock and balls with a hungry look in their eyes.

Gena: I’m still t~h~i~r~s~t~y

Andrea: M~e too.

The two use both of their hands to stroke your cock while sucking your balls, it looks like they’re pushing past the initial high and aren’t satisfied. They’re probably going to be giggly and giddy for the next 15-20 minutes, you did cum a lot more than normal since its been a while.

>>
No. 996675 ID: afe7de
File 161872851818.png - (29.76KB , 500x500 , C2_089.png )
996675

You decide to check your phone since you saw a few texts come in.

Cannie: Ehh, I havent thought about it in a long time. When I was a pup I wanted to have powers like Max, something like teleportation.
Cannie: But as I got older I thought that Lightning powers would be much cooler, eventually being able to move at the speed of lightning, shooting lightning bolts like some god, etc.
Cannie: Plus if anyone ever had a heart attack or their heart stopped I could act as a defibrillator. That would come in more useful then you’d think with the stuff I deal with.

Toni just sent you a picture of his toe beans, they’re kind of cute.

Willamina: New phone, who dis? Heheheheh. Got Mint a COMM. Her number is xxx-xxx-xxxx

?Mint?: Your humble slave now has a communication device. This one is surprised that communication devices cost anything at all. This one is also surprised our written language is the same, strange. Will probably be researching any logical consistencies I have while chatting with W.

Huh, Mint has a Comm now, that’ll make things easier, looks like they got it like 2 minutes ago. You wonder just what exactly they’ve been talking about. Your luck was pretty good and no one’s shown up yet.

Do you:

A. Try to cum as fast as you can to satisfy the two
B. Let them keep suckling and focus on work You can focus a little better now that you’ve nut, but you’re still high!
C. Hang out with the girls until the high wears off.
D. Say fuck work and take them to the bathroom to fuck their brains out as fast as possible.
E. Skip past the rest and get on with the plot.
F. Other

And who shows up next? This time it’ll be decided randomly from all the suggestions! (you can suggest no one)
>>
No. 996676 ID: 0fae41

Iraphena, just hanging out in the post office.
>>
No. 996677 ID: 8483cf

Just a reminder that Andrea was already sex crazy before she got high off Cat's load. So. Uh. We might have problems going forward.

A: Cum and bring them down with some petting I guess?

Also let's have some Oriel!
>>
No. 996681 ID: fb89c5

B, and how about Fivin?
>>
No. 996683 ID: fb89c5

>>996681
oh, and don't forget to clean up after. Of all the things to make your boss do "clean your cum off the underside of her desk" isn't one you want hanging over you.
>>
No. 996689 ID: f7b1ac

F. Seeing Toni's beans gives you an idea

Ask Gena and Andrea to give you a footjob. Just so you can discover if they have beans or not.

Cannie will get our lightning book.

Cat's ex sounds interesting... either her or maybe Nail! He is someone we havent seen in a while since near the beginning.

Clean up afterwards
>>
No. 996692 ID: fd1757

Darth Vader shows up next!
>>
No. 996694 ID: fb89c5

>>996681
Changing my vote (and also my VPN so ID may differ) to C
>>
No. 996699 ID: eb1fcc

>>996675
still suggesting morgan freeman, with the caveat it's not actually him but a hallucination brought on by our intoxicating druggo nut
>>
No. 996702 ID: e51896

C, That's enough excitement. lets clean up, and ride this high off and chill out with Andrea and Gena. suggest that they stay until Willamina comes back to surprise her. Ask Gena and Andrea what powers they would like to have, make scheduled plans with when to meet Andrea tomorrow, and when to meet Gena on Monday for outfit measurements (or Sunday if Andrea will allow it, she's not going to have us all day... is she?) Give Mint a confirmation her Comm is workin'

E or A is my second and third choice

Hard no on D.

as >>996598 suggested, the person who comes in is...

Cat's ex bird girlfriend, she's just passing by Lyst because she got lost while trying to go to the next town over, and is looking for directions, and as luck would have it, she entered the post office you're working in. Things get awkward between you two (regardless of Gena and Andrea playing with your cock or not).

Lets introduce this character, and learn about Cat's mysterious past!
>>
No. 996703 ID: 864e49

>>996675
B or D
Maple or Nail
>>
No. 996704 ID: b1b4f3

>>996675
C. Cmon girls you gotta get back to work. That was lovely though.

Guess Cannie's getting the book. I bet she'll be excited.
Text Mint back and tell her you're thinking of giving the lightning god book to Cannie. She has a good heart, and you can do this without revealing your ability to her, but you're not sure how to prevent her from immediately trying to join back up with Nunitus. Not without telling her about Isabella's powerset and also that she's Iraphena's boss.
I feel like you should reply to Toni. He showed you his beans, please respond. Send him a silly photo or a hand emoji (gotta touch the beanz) or... something.

>who's up next?
Cuphead lady!
>>
No. 996706 ID: eb1fcc

>>996699
oh shit I got the triple-dub sex number combo now it HAS to happen
>>
No. 996708 ID: 377056

>>996699
I want this
>>
No. 996713 ID: f8fa51

B, and how about Xana. We don't know much about her yet, but just enough hints to raise some questions.
>>
No. 996714 ID: 9a2966

>Girth snapping Gena's collar
Hot damn.

>"You should've railed me the moment you met, Cat."
Tell Andrea sorry, but, uh, you've got double High mods, you needed the time to settle into town and not everyone responds well when the high wears off. Depends on how sore they're feeling and whether you disclaimer'd your mods - which you now generally try to do, at least in situations where sexy girls don't literally start fighting over the right to eat your dick, holy shit.

Regardless... perhaps just do one at a time, ladies, and end on an even score? That should settle any quibbles. The other can, uh, take pictures and chat meanwhile, maybe?

(and help cover for you if someone else enters the office)

>>996713
I kind of want to F in a combo of B (one sucks, then swaps) and C (one chats, then swaps), with a visit from Xana.

And we do know she works at the Ruffled Haunch as its most popular girl! So this place suddenly having turned into a porn scene isn't going to be shocking to her sensibilities. She might even offer constructive feedback.

>If some variation of C is picked.
Anyway, where'd they get their mods - the Big City? You lucked into some money way back, but how'd they end up with theirs?

>Max teleports, Cannie wants lightning powers
Eesh. Max has/had teleportation powers? That does making it fucking weird - and unlikely - that he died in a fire. 's almost too convenient that Cannie wants lightning-specific powers too. Did Iraphena tell her? It'd suck if they were conspiring to get you to give up one of your items for free. Then again, the demons might've known Cannie was a-wantin' some lightning powers when they included the item into the auction.
>>
No. 996716 ID: 506f7b

C. The sooner we can ride off this high, the better. Though maybe ask Gena if she can flash you and you can snap some nudes of her on your comm.

>>996704
We can probably talk about that with Mint when she gets back instead of texting her, with Isabella using her flame spirit to spy on us, and was intending to use it to spy on Willamina here in the office, theres a chance she can use the spirit to spy on mint's COMM if she intends on following Willamina. But yes! Text Toni a pic.

Who shows up? Nail
>>
No. 996780 ID: d09be1

C, clean yourselves first
>>
No. 996867 ID: 818286

D!! I think we should at least fuck the mouse. That would give her something over the slutbunny
>>
No. 996886 ID: afe7de
File 161882144570.png - (9.17KB , 500x500 , C2_090.png )
996886

> C. Hang out with the girls
You give the heads of the two girls some pats and rub your cock on their facial fur to dry it off before stowing it away in your pants, you think you’re done for now, there’s a group “awww c’mon, just one more nut” that you chose to ignore. You take a swig of your water and hand the bottle over to the two girls who proceed to empty it.

You: Alright ladies, that’s enough for now. Let’s just enjoy the high and clean up. Gotta at least pretend to be professional.

Andrea: Grumble Grumble, I wanted another nut or three. Hnggg, if I weren’t high and feeling good I’d tear those pants off right now…

Gena: HEY! At least you got most of the nut, I barely got sloppy seconds! Thanks for the snack C~a~t.

You roll out of the desk and let the two girls get out, taking a look at the floor below. It’s SOAKED. Gena made a small puddle of juices surrounding the pillow she was sitting on but the pillow itself is absolutely saturated in mouse musk and juices. You take a look over to Gena and notice that her dress doesn't seem to be wet, she must be experienced in this kind of thing. She pops over to the back room as you turn to look at Andrea.

Andrea’s side on the other hand has a massive puddle, her panties are fully soaked on the floor all the way through and now that she’s moved you notice it’s got the strong smell of PINK. You turn to your left to see Andrea bending over provocatively, pulling up her shorts, but she leaves them only half-way up before she bends over and picks up the soaked panties, tossing them on your face.
>>
No. 996887 ID: afe7de
File 161882150080.png - (12.74KB , 500x500 , C2_091.png )
996887

Andrea: H~e~r~e, a little present

The smell is intoxicating and before you lose your reasoning after smelling your FAVORITE FLAVOR, you pretend to put them in your back pocket but store it in your ring. You guess nows a good time to see if the ring just stores things by freezing them in time, or if it’ll dry off after a while. Gena takes this time to return with a towel and starts wiping down the mess. Andrea’s just rubbing her pussy right in front of you with her eyes closed.

Gena: Oh yeah Andrea, don’t help or anything, just keep jilling off over there I guess… FUCKIN SLOOT.

The two girls are both humming some tune you don’t recognize, it sounds like a Wano Cartoon, but you haven’t watched Wanomay a few months, been too busy. You kind of hum along as they clean up and continue to enjoy the high. Everyone’s in good spirits.
>>
No. 996888 ID: afe7de
File 161882152232.png - (15.24KB , 500x500 , C2_092.png )
996888

You: So Gena, mind if I snap a pic of ya like this?

Gena: Ohhhh ye~aahhhh. Like I’m one of your slutty Wano maids or something, just lift up my skirt a little so you can get a pic of my soaked gooch. Make sure you send it to m~e~e too! I’ll send ya both some of the clips I took later after I edit them.

You do so and get a nice view of her tiny ass and pussy, you think you see a little extra slit there too, but its kind of hard to tell, she’s got a soaked little bush. You grab your COMM and take a few commemorative photos and then give her ass a nice firm slap as she quivers and juices the floor a bit more. Andrea takes this moment to stop rubbing herself and gestures for you to come closer, she pulls up her shorts, the interior of which is soaked, but the exterior looks dry and motions for you to snap a pic.
>>
No. 996889 ID: afe7de
File 161882154723.png - (25.26KB , 500x500 , C2_093.png )
996889

Andrea: O~oooh, get one of me too, just look at how wet you made meeee. Hee Hee

You get a picture of Andrea’s glistening pussy. Now that you think about it, you’re starting to collect nudes from quite a few people in town. Cannie, Andrea, and now Gena. Might as well ask whoever you fuck going forward if they’re down for you to take a nude or two, that seems like a fun side-objective. Gena finishes cleaning up and takes the pillow back, she wipes down her crotch, hands it to Andrea who does the same, then she heads to the back and you hear a door open and shut and after a few moments it opens and shuts again with Gena returning.

Gena: I just shoved the wet stuff into Will’s laundry, she won’t notice. It’s not like she can smell or anything.

Andrea: Oh right, I forgot about that.

You guess her sense of smell was ruined by the fire, she doesn't have a nose after all. Maybe it was fixed when she awakened, it probably wasnt though. You motion the two over to the booth at the side of the room that you and Will played cards on the other day and you all take your seats.
>>
No. 996890 ID: afe7de
File 161882159432.png - (18.16KB , 500x500 , C2_094b.png )
996890

> “You should’ve railed me the moment we met, Cat”
You: Oh yeah, sorry, I’ve got double high mods, and not everyone is super keen on them or when it wears off. I tried to give a disclaimer but you didn’t wanna hear it, and then two extremely sexy girls were fighting over the right to eat my dick, holy shit this really happened.

Gena and Andrea: H~e~e Hee, don’t worry about it.

You: So where’d you guys get your mods? I came into some money cause of um… Well I came into some money and was able to get the surgery in the Big City like uhh 7 years ago.

Gena: Oh, I only have two, ones a Subdermal Implant. Medical science has advanced in the last 5 years so they’ve become super cheap, it’s a great form of birth control that’s easy to renew and completely stops periods. God I used to have the worst cramps. You can actually get one at the Doc’s office. I heard Trey used to be a big time Surgeon in the city before he moved down here, so he’s licensed in that kinda stuff. The second one’s a double prehensile tentadick. I just watched soooo much Wano Porn growing up when I probably shouldn’t have and really wanted one. What’s cool about it is that my fur covers up the slit, and I can keep it in there even if I’m fully erect due to a sub-mod since they’re thin but long, so if I don’t want anyone to know, no one will ever find out I secretly have 2 cocks!

Andrea: Oh shit have you ever tried fucking yourself?

Gena: Why do you think I don’t wear panties?

The group chuckles at that, goddess it’s nice to be amongst actually cool people, fuck the big city.
>>
No. 996891 ID: afe7de
File 161882161184.png - (44.97KB , 500x500 , C2_095.png )
996891

Andrea: And as for me, I’ve been a cop for a while, and I work 24 hour shifts 5 days a week because I have crazy high stamina and am physically incapable of sleeping. Like I can go into a sleep-like meditative trance for a few hours if I really feel like it, but I get bored of that easily unless I’m cuddling. Anyway, I’ve made bank. I’ve got like what, a couple Million BUX in the bank, so I splurged on mods like uhhh 12 years ago in the Big City, they were pretty expensive back then.

Andrea lists out her mods like a shopping catalogue:

Nut Sense - Can sense when their partner’s getting close to orgasming
Flavor - Smells and Tastes like PINK Peaches
Shape changing throat pussy and ass - can manipulate her genitals slightly, mainly used to make an intense sucking sensation
Ear Oriface - You can fuck her ears, something about pocket dimensions? She’s not sure on the exact science but damn does it feel good
Subdermal implant - Prevents pregnancy and periods!
Extra sensitivity - More sensitive, easier to orgasm
Arousing saliva - Gives wherever it touches on her partner the tingles that lightly arouse them
Arousing Pheromones - Her sweat, Musk, and smell exudes sex appeal, but only when you’re horny. It only lightly arouses people, and it’s easy to dismiss it’s effects.
Drunk - Drinking a significant amount of their juices produces a drunk effect similar to the high debuff, you’ve got to be dedicated to do it though or you’ll only get BUZZED.
Denial Gland - A salivary gland that can be activated to increases her partner’s pleasure but stops them from cumming, she can use all of it at once to delay an orgasm by 30 minutes or spread it out and delay the orgasm by a longer period of time.
Lots-o-jill - You produce moisture from your pussy at an accelerated rate, and when you cum, you can spray lots of love juices if you’re hydrated!
Stretchy x3 - You can take pretty much anything in you. Want to take a horsecock the size of an elephant trunk? Go for it!
And more she can’t remember

Andrea: Honestly I got pretty much everything on the list that I could fit together, goddess, some 15/20+ mods, I can’t even remember them all.
>>
No. 996892 ID: afe7de
File 161882163446.png - (18.47KB , 500x500 , C2_096.png )
996892

You and Gena: Daaamn, that’s a lot of mods!!!!

Andrea: Haha, yeah. I even got this one mod that lets me engorge my clitoris so it acts like a small to medium length penis, it can even ejaculate! But only if I want it to. It’s the quickest way to get drunk off my juice if you’re into that. It cost a lot, but my sex life has never been better. The only thing I didn’t get was a high mod because I’ve figured out this way to masturbate that lets me get like continuous repeating orgasms and it kind of simulates the effect. And like, I wanted to be able to have sex with people that had high mods, you know? Don’t wanna go over the legal limit and have bad trips, not after last time. Also, like no one has a drunk mod because they take drinking like wayyyy too much to actually do anything, I think of it as a reward for anyone willing to go down on me for that long, ya know.

You: Oh yeah, the doc I had told me about it, something about like lots of jizz in each hole and x2/x3 high mods basically causing hallucinations?

Andrea: Yep, I was a part of the original case study, since my ears also count, we tried ass, pussy, both ears, and mouth. Like, I disassociated pretty hard. Ughh, I can still remember the hallucinations, it was like a jumped into another reality where my entire being was a faction of individuals and other people were the same and we were having a civil war over who would remain in control of my body. The voices were the worst part, couldn’t tell what was real or not, some were sweet, some were hostile, a lot of them wanted me to stay in the drug-state saying it was the real reality and I only just woke up. They restrained me and eventually I came to. Never going that far again, let me tell you, took a year-long break from high mod sex after that. But they did help pay for some therapy and give me a stipend as thanks for participating in the test.

Gena: Damn, it’s crazy hearing about that actually happening, I only read about it.

Andrea: Yup, when you’re hypersexual like me, you like to test your limits. They tried to diagnose me as a Nymphomaniac but then I proved that I wasn’t uncontrollably compulsive to sex by stopping for a few months and still putting myself in situations where sex was easy. Then I got this cop job and well, considering I only have weekends off I dont really have much of a social life outside of work. It’s work, work, work, work, work, fuck, fuck, repeat. At least I can watch my Wano Cartoons on the job when I’m on call.

Gena: So it’s not that your sex crazy it’s just that you’re really pent up from working crazy hours?

Andrea: Can’t it be both. I just like sex, the intimacy, the affection, the release, the attention. I mean I could quit work and do whatever, I’ve got tons of money saved up, like 3 MIL or something, not bragging, I’ve worked hard for it, but I’m kinda waiting until I figure out if there’s something cool I wanna do or invest in. I mean, I donate like 1/2 of my yearly earnings to charities for sex workers and the Ruffled Haunch so they can help downtrodden kin, and this town’s got good people so I’m not really too worried and I’ve still got tons left over. So, I guess I’m saying if any of y’all need money and can convince me you can just ask I guess. I’m not gonna just give it away, but I'm always interested in listening to ideas and investing if it seems worth it. Hmm Hmmm Especially you, you handsome man. I’ll be your s~u~g~a~r momma. Well, if you can please me in bed anyway.

You blush harder then you already are and cover your face, the two of them lightly chuckle. That gives you something to consider going forward, though you’ll have to talk with her about it when you’re not high, it could be the high talking and she’s not actually serious.

Andrea: Plus I don’t really care about having kids right now. Though I have enough saved up that I could quit my job and dedicate myself to it if I really wanted to. But I wouldn’t want to curse them with potentially having this sleepless body too.

You: I dunno, that could be seen as a pretty big boon, you could become a scientist and dedicate all your time to researching and curing world hunger or something. I’m sure lots of people would kill for not having to sleep.

Andrea: Kin say that, but like ACTUALLY having it like that I can tell you shit gets boring fast, especially when everyone you know is asleep for 8 hours a day while you’re over there twiddling your thumbs bored. Also, like, I’m not smart. I’m not STUPID by any means, but like I really suck at academia for whatever reason. I actually became a cop because I like fighting a wee bit, I’m street smart, and protecting people’s a sweet gig. I thought about joining a guild and going dungeon hunting once, but eh, I never had enough motivation to do that. Wow is this the high, I just feel really good and open right now. It’s a nostalgic feeling really. Sorry for gabbing so hard, Gena what about you? You talk for a bit.

You head into the back room and grab some cups of water, bringing it back for the three of you to drink.

Gena: Yeah, I l~i~k~e it a lot. I get so pent up just working on my crazy detailed lolita dresses and other commissions that I lose track of stuff. I mean, I’ve got an OnlyFaunus so I’ve got extra income coming in from that cause there are so many pervs out there who just love short, petite, mouse gfs like me in lolita garb. But at least I’ve got a hobby I really like that’s bringing in the dough. Andy I already offered the last time we hung out, but if you ever need an outfit I’m yer gal.

Andrea: Haha, you know you’re the first person I think of when it comes to clothes, with my capital I’d rather have custom made shit then any mass produced thing online. Well except for Wano Cartoon Merch. Ooooooh, we should make some cosplay maybe. Find a con in the next few months, take some time off and buy a bunch of cool shit.

Gena: HELL YEAH, that’s what I’m talking about.

You: Goddess, you’re making me wanna watch Wanomay again. Maybe if I get some free time.

Gena: HAhA, oh damn, you guys might think this is funny, so there’s this one human that commissioned me to make her a bodysuit right, but get this, she wanted a helmet that was like simulating like a wolf head. She called it a fursuit.
>>
No. 996893 ID: afe7de
File 161882165045.png - (16.65KB , 500x500 , C2_097.png )
996893

You all get a good laugh out of that.

Gena: Like with the money they could have saved from buying that they could start on some gene therapy to get an actual wolf’s head. But whatever, I took the money and made the outfit, that basically paid for my rent for like half a year. Oh, Right, gimme yer number Cat.

You give her your number and receive a text a few seconds later from her, you also send her both of the nudes you took a few minutes ago. She gives you a thumbs up in return. Andrea then fumbles to text you, with a grabby hands emoji asking for the nudes, you comply. The high’s about halfway done but you’re happy everyone’s having a good time, not everyone reacts so well to it after all. You pull out your family photo.

You: Ya know, I thought about getting gene therapy to go full jackal, my Mom and Bro were Jackals. My parents were against it though, they were very positive about my body and any changes I wanted to make, heck they were supportive of me transitioning too. But in the end I just got tattoos of jackals and my family’s names instead, it was more about my bond to them then actually wanting to be a jackal.

Gena: Wow, That’s great! I’m glad your parents were so supportive of you. I grew up in West Fluxtopa and they were VERY anti-trans. Well they were racist, speciesist, elitist fucks that flew too close to the sun and destroyed our continent, but also that. Couldn’t be happier to be out of that hell hole and get my cocks, let me tell you. Gotta thank Midland for offering citizenship to anyone requesting Amnesty from that place.

You: Yeah, they were really shitty, but damn if I’m not gonna miss their tea, used to have their imported tea when I was a kid.

Gena: Eh, It’s not like you can’t get that shit from East Fluxtopa, though their exports aren’t as strong and its probably more expensive.

Andrea: My third twin is actually in the wastelands of West Fluxtopa. Adriana doesent like that she’s there since it’s a war torn non-country. Personally I think it’s kind of cool she’s running around being a merc over there. But she’s probably doing some pretty morally gray shit, you know, fighting warlords, taking on hits, etc. It’s about as lawless as a dungeon over there, not to mention it’s overrun by monsters too. I heard Toni’s from West Fluxtopa too, but it’s kind of hard to get him to talk about the past, I’d bet money he was at ground zero with how dodgy he can be about it.
>>
No. 996894 ID: afe7de
File 161882166665.png - (11.45KB , 500x500 , C2_098.png )
996894

You: Speaking of Toni, he’s been sending me random pictures, he seems to be a goof.

Gena: Oh yeah he is, here, snap him a pic of my foot paws, he’ll love that.

She lifts up her leg and you snap Toni a pic of her paw pads. She’s got beans!
>>
No. 996898 ID: afe7de
File 161882361473.png - (21.83KB , 500x500 , C2_099.png )
996898

> Fivin Walks in
At that moment Fivin walks in and gets just a FULL view of Gena’s fluffy pussy since she decided to lift up one leg and spread the other wide. He stutters and drops the packages, covering his eyes with his hands.

Fivin: G-g-g-g-gina! You’re n-n-ot w-w-w p-p-p-

You all look at each other and realize the situation and burst into laughter, this ones even more raucous then before. Gena lowers her legs. Eventually Fivin bends over and picks up the packages before wandering over to the group.

Gena: Pff, hahaha, I hope you liked the free show, hahahahaha. Oh gawddess my gut. Phew, sorry Fivin, I know you don’t like girls.

Fivin: You should really wear panties Gena.

Gena: N~E~V~E~R!!!

You, Andrea, and Gena laugh again. Good times, good times. You wipe a tear off your eye, its been a while since you’ve laughed this hard.

What do you do? Feel free to suggest conversation topics as well for when you’re done doing your job.
>>
No. 996899 ID: e51896

As an apology for him getting a view of Gena, offer to pay for his packages, on the house. If it is more than 10 bux, we'll ask Willamina take that money off of our pay for today.

Ask Fivin how Nicky is doing, like if he knows when and how she became mayor of this awesome town. Also ask him to tell Nicky thanks for the jerky. (get his number too because why not).

We can probably ask what he's delivering if he doesn't mind us asking.
>>
No. 996901 ID: f8fa51

Don't need to be paying for things when a simple apology will do fine. I'm sure it was just a bit of a shock.

Say hi, sorry about that. We haven't had much chance to chat. We were just discussing fandoms and hobbies. What do you like to do in your free time?
>>
No. 996903 ID: e7c7d3

Process the package like a good employee. Apologize and ask if anything in the package was fragile.

Ask what a pretty, young 'bold is doing in a town like this? If there's a rebuttal of "what do you mean, 'a town like this?'" Just wave towards Andrea and Gena
>>
No. 996922 ID: 87a628

Ask Fivin "wait, i thought this town was legally alright with public nudity?"
But yeah apologize and take the packages, ask if anything was fragile
>>
No. 996933 ID: b1b4f3

>>996898
Time to do your job! After you're done, tell Fivin you're happy to handle his package any time.
>>
No. 996940 ID: 6b648e

We could potentially ask Andrea to use some pf her money to buy the Paper mill, and open up a tinker workshop and keep running for Mint and Rupert to hold the club in, and make stuff in. then we can use Willamina's inhertience to buy a place at the apartments. We can talk to Andrea later about the tinker workshop idea when her high passes later, or tomorrow.

Ask how fivin came to work for the mayor, and thank him for recommending the post office to work in.
>>
No. 996950 ID: 9a2966

Wow. Lots of immigrants in town, sounds like!

Well, anyway, since we've got a nice little group together keep the talk going. Process the package, tease Fivin' by asking him if he'd be more or less abashed if that had been - say - Nail in a dress sans shorts.

Bring up the topic of Lyst's history to the gang. When you came here you actually had no idea the place was, well... sorta storied? What with the connection to the Walpoles (Marth Walpole, founder) and Hadlees (financial contributors?). Although you do wonder how those founders would react to the way things've turned out.

Could also hop onto the topic of the Mayor. How'd she get so good at makin' jerky - and how long has she actually BEEN the mayor of Lyst?
>>
No. 996954 ID: 094652

>>996940
Agreed, we almost cashed in a favor for a paltry sum when we can just request an investment from Andrea. Mint and Roach can build up a gadget factory, giving you a cover for your artifact collection, and since Andrea doesn't really care about money you can give her new sex toys to minimize her dividends and generally screw around in preparation for the apocalypse. And since the building will be under the registry of a cop, you just need to pass regular drug tests and the public won't suspect a thing.
>>
No. 996980 ID: e51896

>>996954
>>996940
Good idea

If we want to get Rupert in on this, Lets see about texting mint to get his comm number.

Maybe text "awesome! Can't wait to see your new comm, bet it's better than mine, lol. If you haven't met Rupert yet, can you get his comm number? I Want to talk to him. If you already met him, dont worry about it, we'll get it tomorrow :)
>>
No. 997003 ID: c377cb

>>996903
This sounds pretty fun
>>
No. 997009 ID: afe7de
File 161891044020.png - (13.20KB , 500x500 , C2_100.png )
997009

Authors Note: I’m in the process of finalizing some stuff, but here’s some notes going forward. The BIG CITY will from now on be known as DONJON, there is also a small rival town near list called FAUST. Once I have the new time-line finalized I’ll let you all know the in-game date which will be useful going forward.

> Apologize for Gena Flashing him.

You sputter for a bit and cough, finishing up your water before inspecting the packages, looks like it’s a few packages of different sizes. You grab them and bring them over to the counter so you can start processing them. Fivin follows you.

You: Sorry about that Fivin. We were talking about fandoms, hobbies, and I wanted a picture of her toe beans to send to Toni. Anything fragile in these?

Fivin: Uh n-n-no sir. It’s just paperwork and other odds and ends. Gotta send over some stuff to Donjon’s City Council. And uh. It’s fine sir.

You: Uh, you don’t need to sir me, we’re probably the same age anyway.

Fivin: I’m 21, and uh, if it’s alright with you, I’d rather show you the respect you’re due while you’re on the clock.

You: Fair enough. And uh I thought this town was legally alright with public nudity?
>>
No. 997010 ID: afe7de
File 161891045669.png - (7.91KB , 500x500 , C2_101.png )
997010

Fivin: Hmm, how to explain… Yes and No. Basically anyone working for the city needs to be dressed appropriately on the job. Food service, town hall, postal workers, police, etc. Need to wear proper attire.

Fivin: The Park and nearby Lake are both always nudist friendly zones. And so is the town after dark, so around 8PM also fully becomes a nudist friendly zone. Unless you’re working food service. Oriel hates that rule.

Fivin: She skirts that rule a little bit at times, but it doesn't hurt anyone so we don’t really enforce it too hard. Gawdess I remember one time she just wore furry pasties to work and it looked like she didn’t have nipples, she argued her case and so she does that from time to time now.

Andrea: And I’m not gonna arrest her for it!

That gets a chuckle from the room as he continues.

Fivin: But this town was founded on inclusivity and open-ness, one of our founders wanted kin and people to wear whatever they wanted within reason. The rule’s lifted on the first Sunday of every month and we have a big party down by the lake. It’s been tradition since the town’s founding around 150 years ago.

Fivin: So yeah during daylight hours it’s not a fully nudist friendly zone, it used to be until like 40 years ago Midland had a law passed about public nudity during daylight hours in non designated zones. But we’re lax enough on it that you could get away with it if you just claimed you were walking to/from your house and the park or something.

Fivin: And I kinda freaked out cause there’s a difference between seeing someone nude and getting flashed? One’s got more… sexual connotations? I don’t really like to participate in those events anyway…
>>
No. 997011 ID: afe7de
File 161891048447.png - (14.63KB , 500x500 , C2_102.png )
997011

Gena: And he’s only got bedroom eyes for a certain MILF and BOYS! Hehehe.

You finish handling the packages and put them off to the side to be shipped off with the next pickup, billing Fivin 10 BUX for the group of packages. He pays.

You: Thanks for suggesting the job for me by the way, it’s a nice gig.

Fivin: That’s quite alright sir, I think Willamina’s needed the help for a bit. Just, you know, not many people want to move to a town thats kind of in the middle of nowhere with not much to do.

You head back to the table and take a seat gesturing to Fivin to have one if he wants. He remains standing.

Fivin: Sorry, I have to run some more errands for Mrs. Dalton, so I can only chat for another minute or so.

> Ask about Lyst’s history
> How long as Nicky been the mayor
You: Mind if I ask about the history of the town a little bit? And how long Nicky has been mayor?

Fivin: Sure, I’ll give you the abridged version.

Andrea: I can help a little since I’ve been here a while too.

Fivin: Basically Lyst was a Mill Town that was founded around 150 years ago by a kin named Arthur Lyst. It focused on textiles and supplied the nearby towns of Faust and Donjon. But then it went under around 100 years ago and was expanded into a paper mill.

Andrea: The Daltons are actually the closest decendants to the Lysts if I remember correctly.

Fivin: Yup, though most of the Lysts moved away from the town when the Textile mill went under.

Andrea: But yeah then accidents started happening at the paper mill like 20 years ago, advances in tech made it obsolete without investing too much in it, blah blah blah, it closed down 15 years ago, and now is abandoned. I thought about buying the mill and the land around it since it’s so cheap, but I have literally nothing to do with it so I’d rather spend the BUX on charity or someone’s startup or save.

Gena: I heard it’s H~A~U~N~T~E~D and that the spooky ghosties will come and murder anyone who overstays their welcome.

Andrea: I distinctly remember The little Hadlees and Daltons spending a lot of time there before the fire and none of them were ever injured when they left.

Gena: Whose to say they weren’t C~U~R~S~E~D by something there and that’s why Max is… You know I just realized how fucked up that was and am really glad Willy isnt here, sorry.

You were going to interject and ask about the Walpoles and Hadlees but you feel like you’d better hold off for now.
>>
No. 997012 ID: afe7de
File 161891051003.png - (11.50KB , 500x500 , C2_103.png )
997012

Fivin eyerolls and starts moving to walk out.

Fivin: Looks like you kin have got this. But yeah, Nicky became the mayor 25 years ago after her wife died. Laura was the original mayor, but uhm. It’s not really my place to talk about that. I gotta go. Thanks for your work Cat, Andrea, and Gena.

And there Fivin goes, he was probably a little uncomfortable.

You: Did we uh, mess up.

Andrea: Nah, we’re fine. He just doesent like to talk the goss about his big ol crush Nicky, well he mostly likes guys. But I remember when he was just 13, coming to Lyst, only to find out his uncle had died and he had no family. Who wouldn’t fall in love with the person who gave you a job and a place to live at that age, even if you’re not inta gurls HIC.

Gena: Wow, that’s so sad, I didn’t know that.

Andrea: OOPS, I UH, I didnt say that. Please don’t tell anyone.

You: Your secret’s safe with me.

Gena: ditto.

The high’s about 2/3 of the way done, it should be wearing off soon on the girls, but yours will probably last an extra 10 minutes past theirs. A friendly bell chimes as your next guest enters. This time It’s Nail.
>>
No. 997013 ID: afe7de
File 161891052253.png - (14.42KB , 500x500 , C2_104.png )
997013

Nail: Oh, Hiya… errrr uhhm, sorry I forgot your name.

Andrea: It’s Cat.

Gena: Hiiiiiii Nail! We’re high!

Nail: OOhhh, Hi Andy, Hi Gena. I’ll talk to you both in a sexond.
>>
No. 997014 ID: afe7de
File 161891055815.png - (6.21KB , 500x500 , C2_105.png )
997014

Nail walks up to you and hands you a slip, looks like there’s a package that needs to be signed for. You head to the back room and find the package, it’s kind of big so you put it on a dolly and wheel it over to him.

You: Uh, this is kind of big, need me to roll this somewhere?

Nail: Nah, I got it!
>>
No. 997015 ID: afe7de
File 161891057901.png - (6.25KB , 500x500 , C2_106.png )
997015

Nail then reaches over to the box and it vanishes. You’re extremely confused, so you do a power check and scan your demon eye over his body. He heads over to Andrea and Gena and they start gabbing.

Your power check results in finding out he has NO POWER. But you notice he has a pinky ring that does come up with a result.

Interspacial Ring [MASS PRODUCTION VARIANT II] - Can store up to 2 different objects each of which can be up to 1 cubic meter in size.

Huh, maybe your ring is special? Since it’s not called a generic inter-spacial ring? But the Demon Eye amulet didn’t say anything about it. You scan your ring again.

Coiling Ring - An inter-spatial ring, can store 1 cubic meter of objects.

Maybe it was a part of a set and they could combine, you think about the act of coiling, it’s a series of loops or spirals right? The ring looks like an snake eating itself, maybe it needs to be fed something? You wish your Amulet would give more information. The idea of smashing the lucky egg against your ring or your amulet comes to mind, but you shake it off and eventually return your attention to the people near you.

Nail: So, you coming by tonight Andrea? It’s always a pleasure to see you.

Andrea: Hmmmmmmmm… I’m thinking about it. Trying to convince Mr biggus dickus over there to dick me down.

Gena: Yeah dude, like he hangs dong. Can even make it change shape slightly. Smells good, gets you high.

Nail: Ahhhh, so that’s why you’re all so blushy and giddy. Dammit if I got here sooner I could have had some too…
>>
No. 997022 ID: e51896

Ask about the ruffled haunch, its history, does he own it, or somebody else? Who else works there?

You also heard Leshanna Iraphena donates a lot of money into that place (and other places) and remember him mentioning telling you to see him at the Ruffled Haunch when he's not with Leshanna. Ask about Iraphena's donation habits, and Nail's connection and history with Iraphena as well.

Ask if they're open all day, might come over there, or at the park with Andrea tomorrow depending on what time it is open.
>>
No. 997023 ID: f8fa51

I guess that's another kin to throw in the "interested" column, but your social calendar hasn't gotten any less full in the past 30 minutes so that's as far as that thought'll go for now.

But, you can still chat! Let's think of some small talk. We've gone over hobbies and a bit of geek culture with Gena and Andrea already, so how about...

"Fivin was just telling me about the lake parties. Are there any other local cultural events coming up I should be prepared for?"
>>
No. 997028 ID: f8a83a

Tell Nail that if you and Andra goes to the Ruffled Haunch tomorrow, maybe he can get some action from you... and help you deal with Andrea, if ya know what i mean *wink*

Agreed, best to keep it in your pants for now, gotta get rid of this high before the auditor and Willamina show up after all.
>>
No. 997033 ID: b1b4f3

>>997015
Tell them you can change it more than just slightly.

>coiling ring is different from hers, might eat things
I bet if you got a ring like hers, you could feed it to the coiling ring to increase its capacity. Hmm, or you could try feeding it energy? See if testing it with Upgrade works. Oh, try that on the demon eye amulet too once you can do it without anyone seeing it.

Ask her how expensive her ring is.
>>
No. 997055 ID: 6c227a

I mean, she just did it in front of you. Ask how she got so good at hiding packages *eyebrow waggle*
>>
No. 997059 ID: 0eb11f

>>997033
Upgrading it with our power has to be the best idea to try.

Probably do it when we're alone though, our power gives off a bright halo

Ask when the haunch opens and closes, something we will need to know beforehand since we have poker night with Willamina at Bobby's house tomorrow night, so we can figure out if we want to go to the haunch with Andrea, or go somewhere else with her like the park once we figure out the time.
>>
No. 997069 ID: eb1fcc

>>997015
ay, we're free for more after work
>>
No. 997088 ID: 0b4dd6

>>997069
Probably not, we got Willamina's inheritence to make sure goes smoothly, possible visit to Iraphena for the artifacts, and maybe that job with Cannie tonight.

But we got plenty o time tomorrow. Let be patient.
>>
No. 997114 ID: 864e49

>>997015
>Interspacial Ring [MASS PRODUCTION VARIANT II]
MASS PRODUCTION implies that his ring is commercially manufactured and he bought it. The difference with our ring is that we can store any number of objects so long as there combined space dose not exceed 1 cubic meter.

Also why are we hiding our ring? The existence of Artifacts is common knowledge and our brother was a delver, we can just say he found them/they were his. Same with the book if Cannie asks.

>>997028
yes

>>997059
>poker night with Willamina at Bobby's house
Oh so that explains the strip poker quest.
>>
No. 997116 ID: afe7de
File 161899549280.png - (12.62KB , 500x500 , C2_107.png )
997116

Authors Note: Today’s date in game is SATURDAY MAY 21 2029 and time will be referred to more specifically going forward.

> Upgrade the ring or Amulet
You can’t do that, looks like the target has to be a sentient creature. Maybe if you can hatch the Lucky Egg you might be able to awaken whatever comes out of that.

> You can change it more than slightly.
You: I can change it quite a bit actually. If I wanted I could turn it into whatever kind of cock I wanted technically.

Nail: Oh shit you too? Leshanna and Laverne paid for my mods as an 18th birthday gift a year ago. Now I can control my dicks size at will! Among other things. I think I got it up to 20 inches long once, but it gets kind of unweildy at that point.

Nail: Gotta say, it’s a great feeling to be a cute lil effeminate catboi that can just slap a fucker around with her cock. Hehehe.

Gena: Damn, if you tried to fuck me with that monster it’d comedically pop out my mouth or something! That or like I’d have to use my whole body or something. Hmm actually that sounds like it could be a lot of fun…
>>
No. 997117 ID: afe7de
File 161899551029.png - (8.25KB , 500x500 , C2_108.png )
997117

> Ask about the ring
You: So Nail, how are you so good at… hiding packages.

You wiggle your eyebrows at them. And while everyone gives a little chuckle you notice Andrea squint her eyes at you a little bit.

Nail: Ah, this ol’ thing? No idea! I just use it to pick up the larger packages that don't get delivered right to our door. It’s a loaner from Laverne, so you’d have to ask her.

Gena: Cmmoonnnnnn Cat, we could all go have some fun at the Haunch after work. You’ve left me horny and unsatisfied, take responsibility!

Andrea: Such a shame Cat’s working, AND busy tonight. Huh. Wouldn’t happen to wanna change your mind? C’monnnnn, pleaassssseeeee. I’m sure you can ditch whatever yer doing tonight?
>>
No. 997118 ID: afe7de
File 161899552861.png - (8.16KB , 500x500 , C2_109.png )
997118

> You’re busy tonight
You think about all the things you have to deal with tonight, the inheritance, Iraphena and the items, maybe the job with cannie, potential magic learning with mint, coming up with a long term plan, explaining just how fucked everything is to Willamina, Isabella. It’d be nice if you could just drop it all and go have a wild fun night of fucking (And probably the day after too), but it’s not in the cards today.

You: Ughhhhh, don’t you think I want to? Ive just, there’s a lot going on right now that I cant really talk about. Tomorrow, please. Maybe we can do stuff at the Haunch.

Andrea: SIGH Let’s not pressure him anymore ladies. But hey, Cat, if you do need some cash to get you started, since from what I’ve heard around the block is you’re broke, just let me know. I’ll of course expect about an hour of your time a day for a little while, but y’ cant get nothing for free. ;3

Nail: UUUGHHHH Why was I a minor for so long, so many problems get solved when you can just fuck people for money.

Looks like the high is wearing off of Andrea and Gena. They’re still a little red, but it should taper off fully in a few minutes. Yours on the other hand is still going strong but’ll wear off soon. At least the high is keeping you from feeling too bad about this missed opportunity. They’ll be around town still, you’re sure this won’t be the only chance you get for this sorta thing. You attempt to move the conversation forward slightly.

You: So uh, about the Ruffled haunch.

Nail: Hm?
>>
No. 997119 ID: afe7de
File 161899556837.png - (115.69KB , 500x500 , C2_110.png )
997119

You: Can you let me know a little bit more about how it works, maybe Miss Iraphena’s relationship with it?

Nail: Not much to tell really. It’s a brothel, been open since 2014 as a community for sex workers and as a bordello. Before that it was the old Lyst families home, but seeing as Nicky and Leshanna are the only remaining blood relatives of the Lysts in town, Laverne inherited the property, and in an attempt to get enough BUX to renovate it changed it to a bordello.

Nail: Leshanna donates so Laverne can offer free therapy and services to anyone who really needs it, and so any beaten or battered or sexually abused kin can have a place to recover. Really she’s a lifesaver. It’s kind of nice to have that kind of support.

Nail: Though we do have another anonymous donor, we keep trying to figure out who it is but they just keep claiming they don’t want special treatment.

Andrea then quietly gives you a shhh gesture, you assume she doesent want you to let Nail know.

Nail: Oh and we’re open 10AM-2AM. The sex workers just rotate shifts, sometimes there’s no one on call or everyone’s busy, but there’s almost always someone on call between 6PM and MIDNIGHT.

Gena: How many kin work there?

Nail: Uh, so there’s me, Xana, uh, there’s that one priest girl, Pazuru, Hyun, and sometimes new kin stop by and work with us for a little bit. But there’s 5 employed members, 6 if you count Laverne since she does offer her services, just barely anyone takes her up on it cause she’s so big y’know.

Nail: OOH, but if you like group play stuff, every wednesday we have this hole in the wall event where you can fuck anyone while their ass is hanging out of these holes. Someone saw it in a porno once and it’s kind of popular.

Your group murmurs and chats about random stuff for a little longer before the conversation lulls.

Gena: Phew, well, that was fun, but we should probably get out of your hair soon Cat.

Andrea: Yeah, can’t be tempting you like an apple from eden all day or you’ll lose your sanity.

Looks like your high wearing off now. Is there anything you want to talk about or do, you get the feeling the next person to come through the door is going to be important. You also feel a little COOLER, more SKILLFUL, and TOUGHER, your stats are back to normal!
>>
No. 997125 ID: e51896

The next person is most likely going to be the auditor. It is important to be prepared, so keep whatever closing conversations brief.

Ask Andrea what time and place she wants to meet you tomorrow so you can prepare yourself, like buy stamina potions, and sex toys if you can find them.

As for the place, you're thinking the haunch since we've never been there before, but if she is daring, maybe we could try somewhere a bit more public (park, forest, etc.)

mention a little to Andrea that you have an investment idea for a tinker workshop, maybe one that can make some sex toys for her from time to time, but you'll discuss more with her about it during your meetup with her tomorrow if she is interested. Don't want to give out too much details since you're still a bit high after all.
>>
No. 997127 ID: aeb455

Ask andrea if meeting you at the Haunch at 12pm in the afternoon tomorrow sounds great for her. You tend to wake up late.

Prepare for your next customer.
>>
No. 997131 ID: e7c7d3

Oh man, Xana? The hot library unicorn? She works at the haunch too? New goal for this suggestor!

Take note of shadow next to you. That Gena or Mint?
>>
No. 997132 ID: aeb455

>>997131
Pretty sure it gena. She's been sitting next to us the whole time: >>996892
>>
No. 997170 ID: b1b4f3

>>997118
>money from Andrea comes with an agreement to fuck her on the regular
Of course it's not free. No idea why anyone thought it'd be. Ask exactly how much she's willing to give you in exchange for those services. You were thinking of buying the paper mill property.

>>997119
>Laverne is big
How big we talkin' here?
>>
No. 997178 ID: 9a2966

Did we ever power-check Gena? I forget.

Say it's been nice chatting with them all - you should hang more often and, uh, other things as well.

>Andrea-funding
Flag her down for a private convo before she leaves. Say that while rumors of you being SKINT are (somewhat) exaggerated, you could actually use a Nail-style problem resolution cash infusions. Like, you have project ideas. It's not like dropping out of college due to not Awakening as a proper tinker managed to crush ALL of your hopes and dreams! People can, after all, learn to do that shit without. Heck, even magic's possible to just LEARN you've, uh, HEARD.

Maybe that could be something for her to spend all those spare waking hours on, eh? Fucking MAGIC. Or FUCKING magic, if that's even a thing, haha.

Anyway, the main reason your hopes are way up of late is that a, uh, close college buddy - name of Mint - dropped by, and she's actually a decent Tinker. She wanted to get a fresh start from the Big City as well, so the two of you basically decided to look at your options and see if you could pool resources to maybe get something going here.

Honestly you're seriously STARTING to come around to the idea of snapping up that old paper mill to maybe renovate into a Tinker's workshop and cool kin hangout spot. Bit out of the way maybe, but with Tinker inventions sometimes blowing up in your face privacy is a PRO. Mint went with Will on her rounds to check on it today actually - and to talk shop with Rupert about HIS workshop. Hopefully they'll get along like a house on fi--- a house that is really chill and cool with things.

Main point here being you might honestly seriously yes actually take Andrea up on sponsorship on a, uh, FAVOR for FAVOR basis - whatever that's worth to her. You do need to see how some other things shake out - Willamina sounded pretty enthused about maybe lending some support now that she's likely got some manner of inheritance coming in, so it comes down to what your needs end up at in terms of material, refurbishing, amenities and so on. Heck, even Miss Iraphena was interested in offering some tit-for-tat. Non-literal tit, you just HAPPEN to have some HEIRLOOMS she was interested in. That's one of the things you're off to deal with this evening and why you had to put a hard cap on the foolin' around - though the foolin' that did happen went way beyond your expectations. Uh. Thanks. It was good to let off some steam.

>Andrea-screwing
Anyway, hookup tomorrow should still be on, as promised! She's working during the day, right? When and where should you prepare to, ah, well, get wrung? You'd be up for visiting the Haunch, or go wherever. But pillows or something soft to be sounds like it'd be a definite plus.
>>
No. 997196 ID: 4b3ed5

>>997178
I'd say we just tell her all that tomorrow, but tell her for now that we have some plan brewing regarding a huge workshop that can make very helpful things for the town, and you'll let her know more tomorrow.

Best not talk about this when high, as Cat previously mentioned >>996892 plus, gotta prepare for the important visitor.
>>
No. 997220 ID: 6e8c51

Wait, ask Gena before she leaves of she can invite Gruk to the party on monday. He's done so much for Willamina so it could be a good idea to bring him over too. (Maybe Trey too)
>>
No. 997231 ID: afe7de
File 161907075217.png - (7.43KB , 500x500 , C2_111.png )
997231

> Power Check
You do a quick check on both Gena and Nail, the results are negative, they both HAVE NO POWERS.

> Ask some last minute questions!
You: I haven’t met Laverne, how big is she? We talking like just really tall or?

Nail: She mentioned something about having MEGAFAUNA blood in her. Shes like 8 feet tall, give or take a foot. Whenever you come by you’ll notice we have really tall ceilings, apparently it used to run in the family more often.

You: Huh, that probably explains the priest girl.

Nail: Yeah, she worships her basically, kind of makes me uncomfortable, but I’m not one to complain.

Gena: Psst, lemme pass, I need to use the bathroom so Imma head out first.
>>
No. 997232 ID: afe7de
File 161907077651.png - (12.61KB , 500x500 , C2_112.png )
997232

You pop out of the seat and let Gena get by you, but in a surprise twist she gets up on her tippy toes, just barely tall enough to reach you and gives you a SMOOCH on the cheek. You sputter and are surprised by the sudden affection. Andrea’s stuck in the seat with Nail but is trying to get out.

Gena: Later cutie, give Willy a good dicking when she’s ready~

You: Oh wait maybe invite Gruk or Trey to the thing on MONDAY.

Gena: Was already planning on it!
>>
No. 997233 ID: afe7de
File 161907079650.png - (13.41KB , 500x500 , C2_113.png )
997233

Andrea is finally able to shove Nail out of the way, Nail’s just laughing as Gena just skips out the door. She comes up to you, grabs your arm and gives you a smooch on the other side. Before walking back and getting Nail up off the floor, you’re just giddy at the situation.

Nail: I don’t just give out my smooches for free, where I come from they’re a hot commodity! In my country SMOOCHES were the currency! Hahahahah. Later uhhhh Cat, yes that was your name.

Nail gives Andrea a smack on the ass and whispers something that causes her to go a little red. Nail then walks out of the post office just leaving you and Andrea. She’s sorta rocking in place, leaning towards the door, not sure if she should leave yet.

Andrea: Sooooo uhhh where/when do you wanna hang tomorrow? I know I’m kinda pushy but you seem to be genuinely busy and I appreciate you taking time out to do this so I can be reasonable and only take a little bit of your time or a whole lot of your time. I don’t wanna like uhhh, nevermind. Tomorrow’s my other day off and I have stuff in the morning, so I’m good after 11AM.

You: Hmmm, well I like to sleep in so I probably won’t be ready to do stuff until NOON tomorrow, I like my sleep, but we can meet wherever at that time.

Andrea: O~k~a~y. You won’t have to worry about food or stamina liquors, I’ve got all that covered. I’ll come up with a cool plan for our d~a~t~e tomorrow. Been a while since I’ve had one of those.
>>
No. 997234 ID: afe7de
File 161907081531.png - (11.16KB , 500x500 , C2_114.png )
997234

> Sex toys and Liqors?
You: Before you go, I was curious, where do you get your stamina liquors? And is there a place to buy sex toys here too?

Andrea: Oh yeah, I get all of that from the Haunch. They have this little gift shop and sex toy store attached to the place, it’s super cute. It was a request I made when I made a big donation some years back.

You: Why didn’t nail bring that up earlier then? I feel like that’d be a good advertising point.

Andrea: *SHRUG* She probable forgot. She’s a little ditzy.

> Andrea funding and your plans
You’re kind of in a flux state with the plans. You’re not sure if you’re going to make it a workshop, a home base, a training ground, hangout spot, all of the above? You’ll need a place to test everyone’s powers and a place to make things. But one thing you know is that most brand new tinker devices take DAYS to WEEKS to build. Not to mention supplies, space, and BUX. And if they’re crazy complicated it can even take MONTHS. And with Mint’s power, they might be more volatile and harder to sell. All of this really depends on how Willamina’s inheritance plays out, if you can convince Rupert, maybe even Rudy and Nipha when they get here, if it’s going to be anything like Willamina implied, she’s going to help out with funding and plans. You still have to tell her about the apocalypse and everything. There’s also the favors and artifacts from Miss Iraphena, which you’re less interested in cashing out for now that you actually have ways to get money. You know, thinking about it, there might eventually come a point where you and Willamina will probably have to quit your jobs. Maybe Andrea if you can snag her into this too. Mint said she was good at administration, if you end up building an organization she might become even more useful. But this is all just speculation at this point. Andrea looks at you with her head tilted before giving you a rough headpat and taking off.

Andrea: Later Cat. Try not to stress over it too bad, I’ll make sure you have a good time tomorrow, it won’t just be sex, dont worry!
>>
No. 997238 ID: f8fa51

A real date... sounds nice, actually. I'm looking forward to it! I can head by your place?
>>
No. 997239 ID: afe7de
File 161907101897.png - (101.45KB , 500x500 , C2_115c.png )
997239

Andrea leaves and you’re left alone with your thoughts, you shake your head and clean up the leftover water cups, heading into the back room to toss them. You refill your water bottle and notice a nearly discarded bottle of smell neutralizer. It’s covered in dust and cobwebs but you give it a dust, shake and a sniff and it looks like it’s not expired. You spray the front desk and under-side once over just in case your musk was still lingering so it doesn't offend anyone. Your sweater is also dry and no longer feels damp with sweat, so you switch back into it and put on your uniform proper. Making sure to actually remember to wear your hat, you didn’t notice but it fell off multiple times during the blowjob.

Time passes and you get a random customer, but they don’t come in, they just shove their mail through a mail slot you didnt notice before. You pick it up and sort it as normal. It’s 3:15 when your next customer actually arrives, they’re outside the door talking to someone. As a matter of fact he’s a little blurry, like, you can see what he looks like, but its almost like you’re looking at him through your peripheral vision and can’t quite get a good look at him. You rub your eyes and squint, tilting your head as they walk in. They hold the door open fully, looking side to side and you notice directly behind him there’s someone, they say something but no words actually come out. You look down and they’re floating?
>>
No. 997240 ID: afe7de
File 161907104933.png - (96.51KB , 500x500 , C2_116.png )
997240

Something’s off. Is that another spirit? You focus on using your demon eye amulet and it gives you a little bit of eye strain but you’re able to make out the actual appearance of the man you recognize as not being a beast-kin anymore, but the door closes and you don’t get a good look at whatever that was behind him. Is Isabella’s spirit acting up again? Was he talking to it? Confusion is completely on your face as the man approaches you. His voice is deep, masculine, and surprisingly soothing.

Man: Hmmmm, you’re not Willamina. She was supposed to be working here today. She hasn’t answered her messages though. Ah, where are my manners.
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No. 997243 ID: afe7de
File 161907125121.png - (17.17KB , 500x500 , C2_117.png )
997243

The man pulls out a badge and his ID. It’s the appearance you can see when you stop focusing so hard on your amulet.

HEROES LEAGUE
HERO RANK A
LIMINAL AXAM HIRO
AGE: 26
AWAKENED ABILITY:
BONDED WEAPON

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
DUNGEON BREAK DEFENSE
FLOOR 15+

The Badge says something in Latin you think, something about Awakening and protection. Featuring a sword glowing with energy stabbing through an eye supposedly symbolizing a monster core. The top of the badge has the Tinker’s logo as well.


Liminal: Liminal Axam Hiro. [A] Rank hero with the heroes guild. I was sent to ascertain the validity of Willamina’s Awakening.
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No. 997245 ID: f8fa51

So, either this person is who he says he is and got that picture while using the disguise, in which case there isn't a problem, or he's lying, in which case there's a big fucking problem. I can think of one way to easily confirm his identity before you kick up a stink about this: What's his power?
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No. 997246 ID: b1b4f3

>>997243
Rings. Identify them. Also the earring. ...the text on his ID looks a bit off, can you focus on that?

...OH FUCK
THIS IS MAX. REMEMBER THE PHOTO >>993980
That's him on the right.
Oh god, LIMINAL AXAM is even an anagram of his name. Maxamillian.

Text Willamina. Tell her the hero's guild rep is here, but he's MAX. Ask her what Max's power was, this is really fucked.

Excuse me a second I need to panic for a minute before coming up with a plan.
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No. 997247 ID: 0fae41

You're a big guy to come out to this small town. Do you have a power that helps identify powers or something?
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No. 997249 ID: f8fa51

>>997246
Oh fuck is right. What do we even do about this? The real problem we have is that confronting this conspiracy directly is just going to get us burnt to a cinders. How do we get enough people on our side to prevent that before it gets that far, seeing as we already seen pretty fucking close?
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No. 997252 ID: b1b4f3

I think he's got an Angelic Ice Spirit because of course he fucking does.

Ok so, he's an A rank hero which means he's extremely powerful. Fucking up his plans will either result in a quick death and some excuse made up by the Hero Association to avoid getting prosecuted(or he just hides the body so nobody knows he killed you), or he'll make Cat's life miserable in some other way and there's nothing we can do to fight it considering the H-A will likely back him up. Therefore, it's in our best interest to passively gather information without revealing what we know, until we can conclusively pin him and Isabella to something that will get them both out of our hair permanently.

Instead of telling Willamina that it's Max, just tell her the hero rep's here and she might be surprised at who it is. Keeping her in the dark is important because there's NO FUCKING WAY she's gonna be able to hide this knowledge so soon after finding out.

Tell "Liminal" that Willamina's phone's battery melted last night, which is why she missed his messages. Just out of nowhere, and cooling it down with her power didn't work. Sounds like sabotage to you considering it's happened to her rather frequently. Maybe someone with a remotely activated power is messing with her?
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No. 997254 ID: eb1fcc

>>997243
"Bit crass sending family for that, innit?"

then just kind of stare at 'em.
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No. 997255 ID: b1b4f3

Ugh I just thought of a potential way for Max to be a good guy. He might want Willamina to get the entire inheritance, because he loves her and blames himself for the fire. He doesn't want people to look into the estate fire too much because they might find out he's not dead.
So after the fire he assumes a new identity and becomes a hero (there are a lot of potential motives for him becoming a hero, haha). He keeps in contact with Isabella because she's obsessed with him which means she'll keep his secret, and she'll tell him if Willamina awakens or finds a way to fake being awakened, at which point he swoops in and makes sure she gets everything. Maybe he even reveals himself to her afterwards, because at that point it's a done deal, right?

If that's true, we can tell him that Isabella's been up to no good and possibly caused the fire, in which case he'll be able to handle her for us. That would, honestly, be the optimal outcome. Especially since Isabella is likely planning on killing Will. Maybe she's trying that right this very instant.

Instead of texting Willamina, call her on the phone. If she doesn't pick up, tell Liminal that you think Willamina's in trouble, Isabella-shaped trouble.
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No. 997256 ID: 031458

Realize you've been staying suspiciously this whole time.
I'm new, Willamina's been cycling me through all the duties and today I'm here. Sorry I'm staring it's just you look familiar. You two know each other right? I'd swear you were in some of the photos she showed me.
Or maybe I'm just tripping.
Anyway, she actually shouldn't be long. I imagine she'd be almost done with her route by now.
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No. 997257 ID: c016f5

>>997254
No.

Stay frosty, don’t get overly flustered (a bit is fine). Just kind of blink at ‘em and say well met. Offer a hand to shake, don’t expect him to since Isabella made sure he ‘knows’ how your power ‘works’, but it’ll be a great excuse to act uncomfortable at his Big City elitist attitude if he declines.

Tell him the truth as you know it - he could have lie-detection things if he’s really here as an assessor of the Heroes’ League - that Will is out on a post run, will be back around 4, and yeah she did Awaken yesterday evening - he’s the evaluator, right? Her phone overheated in the middle of the night, though, even her new ice power couldn’t stop it. Apparently a regular thing for her? Loses one every few months from the sound of it.

Lean sort of conspiratorially forward over the counter and say that’s not the only thing in town that has gotten overly warmed up of late, too. Animals have been found burned - alive, but hurtin’, scorch marks probably indicating power use. He can check with the Lyst PD. You think something weird is going on, to be honest. Does he know about the Hadlee estate fire? You’re new here, but you’re worried there’s a connection between old pyro events and new.

Essentially make it seem like you’re entrusting a authority figure with your worries, while catching his own response to it.

While you talk, power sense. Armlet check rings, earring and the ID too, why not, could be a faker thing.

...haha, what if we tricked ‘em so well that Max is here as a fake inspector while the real inspector is also arriving?
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No. 997258 ID: b1b4f3

I think what happened with the estate fire is this: his spirit protected him from the burning building but it's unable to produce physical force so he was stuck somewhere until the fire burnt enough to let him get out, at which point everyone but Willamina was already dead. Either he then got Willamina out and forced the others present to swear secrecy, or someone got Willamina to safety before he got out, and he was able to sneak away without being spotted. After that he met up with Isabella and announced his plan to let Willamina have all the inheritance money because OBVIOUSLY she'd awaken from such a traumatic event right? Isabella got him the disguise earring(?) somehow (was she already in Nunitus at that point? did she beg Iraphena for help?) which then he used to join the heroes' association with and start his new life. Possibly with something else that let him fake having a Bound Weapon power, because otherwise the H-A would be suspicious about him having the same power as Max. Maybe he fakes that power via clever use of the spirit? Or maybe the H-A didn't know what power he had so he didn't need to fake anything, and that's his primary like Isabella's incarnation of fire power is her primary.
He likely has no idea who caused the fire, and probably blames the League. I wonder if Isabella knew Max had a power that would protect him from the fire? In that case the fire could've been a plan to make him the only survivor, which she would then comfort and get him to fall in love with her etc.

Anyway, after Willamina came out of the coma and wasn't awakened he was stuck in a tough spot. If he revealed he survived, he would get all the inheritance, but the H-A would probably pressure him into using it for their ends instead of helping Willamina. So he waited, and had Isabella keep him updated, and here we are now.
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No. 997259 ID: b1b4f3

>>997257
This is a good plan.
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No. 997267 ID: e51896

>>997257
lets do pretty much this, but no power search. If toni was able to figure out what you were doing, I'd imagine a rank A hero guild member would know what you're up to.

afterwards, offer him to take a seat where you, Gena, and Andrea was sitting to wait in. Offer a lighter if he smokes, or give him cards to play solitaire to pass the time.

>>997255
I'm thinking this a little bit too, he did really love his sister after all, and I don't think he has any motive to hurt her. It is probably best if we just not make any hints that we know his identity and pretend nothing is wrong to respect his privacy. but probably don't mention Isabella. I want to believe that what Cannie said about Isabella being sidetracked and being too late to stop the fire to be true. I don't think she has a motive to hurt Max's entire family and make him sad, and Isabella seems to blame Willamina for the fire for some reason. I don't think she'll hurt Willamina if Mint is with her to witness it anyway. Otherwise, we would have gotten a text from Mint telling us Willamina is in trouble. And it would probably piss off Max if Isabella hurt her.
but yeah, we can call Willamina or Mint and let her know the guy's here.


>>997258
>someone got Willamina to safety before he got out

Trey and Gruk got her to safety. Good on them.
Also, Cannie mentioned Max had teleportation, so he could have escaped that way.

overall, lets pretty much respect the man's privacy.
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No. 997268 ID: 49ce3c

Things will go smoothly if we keep things brief and to the point.

Just simply say "Willamina is out delivering mail and will be back at around 4. Im sorry on behalf of Willamina, her phone overheated, so she couldnt answer, but she has a new phone now if you want to text her. You can sit over there while you wait."

Nothing more needs to be said or done.
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No. 997269 ID: 53560f

>>997243
“She’s currently out on deliveries right now but she should be coming back sometime soon, if you wait here a moment I can get my phone from the back and message her that you’re here.”
If he allows us to head into the back of the shop then text mint to slow will down until we size this guy up some more.
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No. 997285 ID: 773d69

Thank goodness our cool stat rose. I do not think he's going to hurt Willamina. Perhaps he genuinely wants to give her the inheritance. I think the worse he'll do is try to not let Willamina have her fortune. (Though I wonder why the spirit with him didn't come in with).

"Oh, my mistake, I thought Willamina said you were coming tuesday or in two days looks like what she meant was today" (we'll say this in case Isabella told him we tried to trick her flame spirit and help us play dumb)

Let him know Willamina will be here shortly in an hour. Her phone's battery burned last night... again, but she got a new phone a few hours ago, so he can call her if he wants. In the meantime, he can take a seat if he wants.

If he asks why your nervous, just say it is usually an honor to have a high rank hero here, and it's exciting.

Don't try to fish for information on the fire from him, dont check his power either. lets act professional. I dont think calling mint to delay Willamina's return may be a good idea, might be best to just let Willamina get here on time without being late so this can go professionally.

Text Willamina the represenative is here and ask if you can be a witness to the contract signing for her inheritence. If he wants to talk to Willamina privately and wont allow it later, willamina could then insist you come with, or we can have roach spy on them.
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No. 997334 ID: b7452d

>>997257
This.

He should know of her phone overheating 5 times this year and animals burning. He seemed confused of willamina having her phone unanswered which means He doesnt know Isabella is doing that and never told her to.

Will said she is someone who backstabs when most convenient to her, shes going against his wishes like how she said shes going against Iraphena's wishes to keep hands off Cat.
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No. 997356 ID: afe7de
File 161916767156.png - (8.63KB , 500x500 , C2_118.png )
997356

> Is that Max?
You only really saw that photo for the briefest of moments, so you don’t have the best of memories, but you could swear his true form reminds you of what Willamina’s older brother looked like. You try to keep your COMPOSURE, to keep your COOL. You don’t fail, but you’re not successful either. At best you’re going to be a bit awkward and nervous throughout this whole exchange. Liminal has been eying you from the moment he entered the building and it’s making you nervous. There’s no way you’re going to be able to confront him about potentially being Max during this exchange unless he brings it up first. Goddess, his disguise looks familiar though, you can’t quite place it. He’s just so IMPOSING, but you get a sense of SAFETY from him, the name’s kind of familliar too... At least you can look at him without him feeling blurry anymore.

You: I Uh, sorry im staring, its just. You look familiar and it’s kind of intimidating seeing an A rank hero in the flesh.

The man sighs and rubs his hand through his hair, placing his badge on the counter. You take that moment to scan the badge and get an interesting result.

Adventurer’s Badge - Tied to the System imprint of a certain individual. When deceased this copy and any duplicates will display as such at the bottom.

Liminal: Yeah, I get that a lot more than you’d expect. When the Grand-daughter to one of the founders of the Heroes League Awakens it’s kind of a big deal. Anything I can do to make you more comfortable so we can chat for a bit, I get my answers, see Willmina and you get me out of your hair?

You: Maybe uh, yeah let’s just have a seat. Want some water, tea maybe? We have a filter thingy back here.

Liminal: Sure, yeah. Tea in whatever you’ve got.
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No. 997357 ID: afe7de
File 161916774148.png - (35.76KB , 500x500 , C2_119.png )
997357

> Text Will/Mint
You head to the back room and pour yourself a cup of water, getting a hot cup and putting a little GREEN tea bag inside of it. You can hear Liminal shuffling over to the table and taking a seat. You take this moment to pull out your COMM and shoot out two brief messages.

To Willamina: HL rep is here. Will keep him at the Office for you. If you’re ok with it can I be a witness to your inheritance signing stuff?
To Mint: Got yer message. Glad you have a Comm. Keep an eye out for Isabella just in case.

You pocket the Comm and bring over your cups to the man, taking a seat yourself. He blows on the cup and takes a drink and sighs.

Liminal: Ahhh, what a nostalgic flavor.

You: I texted Will, she should be here in a little. See her phone battery melted last night and she only just got her new phone, so she probably hasn't had a chance to look at all her messages. Apparently this is a thing that happens monthly to her.
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No. 997358 ID: afe7de
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997358

You notice the man tense up at that and could swear you saw a vein pop up on his forehead, but it vanishes just as quickly as it came. It’s hard to get sensory information of both faces at once but you NOTICE that minor facial change wasn't replicated on the disguised face.

Liminal: I see, that’s a shame. Well, once she gets her inheritance, if this is indeed accurate, we can talk with her about getting a fireproof phone so this kind of thing doesn't happen again. Stupid question, you don’t have to answer or anything, but any other weird fire related things happen around town.

You: Actually, me and Willamina were walking through the park the other day and we found a burned badger. Apparently this happened like once a day since then. Though you should probably talk to LPD for some more information on that.

The man looks at you with a glare. You’re not sure what part of your explanation caused it, but after a few moments he looks backwards, taps three times, rather loudly, on the top of his chair, and looks back at you.

Liminal: Thanks for the tip, if I have some free time I’ll check it out. Probably some irresponsible and irrational arsonist who can’t seem to understand common decency.

Before you can respond you receive a text from Willamina.
From Willamina: Be there in 25, almost done with the Route, sure you can watch. Mint’s headed out to the Paper mill, should be back like 30 min after 4.

You: She says she’ll be here in 25. That's about 3 rounds of dialogue
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No. 997359 ID: afe7de
File 161916784072.png - (7.30KB , 500x500 , C2_121.png )
997359

The man makes a sweeping gesture with his hands before crossing his fingers and lying his elbows on the table. You decide to take this moment to scan his two rings and earring.

Earring of Forgetful Disguise - Provides a disguise to the user’s flesh, changing it’s texture, shape, color, etc. It can even make you look like a new race within reason. It also provides a minor disorienting effect making it easier to forget the individual and harder to recognize them if you aren’t focusing. (DA: You’re immune to this as long as you’re using me!)
Inter-spacial Ring [MK V] - Can store/retrieve objects within it’s 5 cubic meter space.
Ring of Shock - Prevents touch based abilities from being used on the bearer by administering a light shock in retaliation. Can be forced through, but will cause you to suffer significant damage and the target will be aware of your attempt.

He notices you eying his items before coughing.

You: Uh, sorry. I was just wondering which of your artifacts could check for powers or something, since the power on your badge was Bonded Weapon.

Liminal: Well if you stick around you’ll be able to see it in action. It’s just a piece of glass. So what can you tell me about her Awakening?

You: I was with her when she awakened actually, we got excited and headed over to the bar to celebrate and share the good news. Ice powers.

Liminal: Ah, so you’re one of the town’s newcomers I heard about you in our initial inquiry to LPD about the event, just to verify it did happen and who was there, we still need to physically ver. I’ll admit I’m a bit fuzzy with names at times, started with a “C” or was it an “M”?

You: Cat. Cat Alexander.
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No. 997360 ID: afe7de
File 161916789552.png - (8.40KB , 500x500 , C2_122.png )
997360

The man stops sipping his tea and gets wide eyed at you. He then begins to meticulously look over you, eyeing your ring and staring at your head.

Liminal: No shit, I should’ve recognized the ring, you’re Callan’s kid sister, uh, brother now from the looks of it. Fuck I’m so sorry. He was genuinely one of my favorite people, he was my mentor. I saw when… You probably don’t remember, I think you were unconscious.

The man seems to be shedding a tear whilst looking at you reminiscently. You feel emotions beginning to swell too.
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No. 997363 ID: 30b9f6

>Max was Callan's teammate
...whatever demon assigned you your power had a fucking field day, I can tell. Must be laughing their ass off still.

Judging by his reaction to Isabella's shenanigans and this, it seems safe to say that whatever coldness he developed towards Willamina Max has a heart and the situation around him and the Hadlee fire may be even more complicated than we thought. Doesn't mean it's safe to spill the beans to him or anything, though. We should continue to pursue a semi-covert investigation into the matter until such a time our cover is blown or sharing some trust seems the only viable way forward.

>Ring of sparky power touch
Isabella and Nicky have these as well, then. And that means you've inadvertently 'proven' to them you have a touch power - for good and ill. Glad you admitted to it, but went with the misleading option when Iraphena and Isabella confronted you about it.

>Should've recognized the ring
Does this mean the demons' in-universe lore explanation for your recent acquaintances have you inheriting the ring from Callan? Or did Callan have a similar ring? Might want to look into whether the latter was the case.

>Was Callan's teammate
Hm. Dungeon Break was nine years ago. Fire was ten. He couldn't have known Callan that long. Unless he teamed up prior to the Hadlee mansion fire, which he could have, since he Awakened prior to receiving the membership to the Heroes' League.

Guess Callan left an impression on him if he's still feeling it nine years later.

>What now?
Sit down, let the shock wash over you and hopefully trickle out. Tell them you don't really remember them, but you're grateful for their sympathy. Callan was very dear to you too, and you miss him and the rest of your family so much.

You still remember him coming back home to brag about his first foray into the dungeon. Hff... talk about something else, yeah? floor 15, right? Is that far? Is the dungeon really under control these days?
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No. 997364 ID: e51896

remember that his disguise is not showing his tears probably, don't bring up him looking sad. I think Liminal might actually be alright. His anger earlier seems to be probably more towards Isabella. (also, he said he recognized our ring, as in our coiling ring? was this something our brother owned and then somehow ended up in the demon auction??? How the fuck did that end up in there??? In that case, we need to keep that ring as a keepsake! Iraphena cannot have it!)

I think since Cat is a sibling to Callan, Cat can be more trusting between Cat and Callan. We can build that trust more through talking about Callan.

take out your photo and reminisce to build trust with Liminal.

talk about his last moments on how he saved your life instead of his own, how you lost all your family and friends from THE INCIDENT, and fended for yourself for 8 years in the bad part of the city alone. Moving to Lyst was probably the moment you actually felt genuinely happy in a long time and meeting someone like Willamina who went through something similar losing everything has been helping you cope with the trauma.

ask about the missions and dungeons explorations he went on with Callan, a bit about Callan's ring (there are still some mysteries we still don't know about that Liminal can tell us about) but most important: ask about how and when he met your brother.

>>997363
Dungeon break was 8 years ago, I believe. Not nine.
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No. 997372 ID: ce39da

"Wait, you mean you knew my brother?" This is a point of connection that we must seize - a door he's slightly opened up to us that we must jam our foot into.

... Even if he was in some way complicit in the Hadlee estate incident, he's clearly not all bad... Plus, it's clear that he's not fully aware of just how much Isabella has been tormenting his beloved sister.
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No. 997374 ID: c016f5

Actually, does he have any pictures of Callan? You were only left with one.
>>
No. 997381 ID: b1b4f3

Well that's a relief, Max is a good person after all, and apparently knows Isabella's powers. I think we have very solidly turned the tables against her, though it's more like she turned the tables against herself really.
Hmm, I guess this means he has some reason to believe Isabella didn't cause the fire? We must be missing some important information.

>just a piece of glass
SHIT, that thing's gonna be a scanning device. You absolutely cannot be in the same room when he uses it.

>>997357
>Will and Mint split up
Well, considering Max knows Isabella's powers I really doubt there's any chance of her attacking Willamina at this point (since she absolutely cannot get away with it) so it should be fine for her. Maybe dangerous for Mint though...
Well, there is one possible way Willamina could get attacked. Willamina could have hired some goons. Max wouldn't be able to pin an indirect attack on her as easily since Willamina's now a Big Deal and would be on the League's radar.

>he was at the dungeon break
Time for emotional bonding!
Afterwards ask which ring he meant. If he meant the Phoenix Ring, then... your brother's still alive, but a demon. He must've gotten hit by the 30% chance and went into hiding because of course you can't just claim to be the same person after that.
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No. 997403 ID: 6c19fd

>>997381
>If he meant the Phoenix Ring...

I wonder if Cat is still wearing that ring on his toe from before he spoke with Iraphena to hide it. In which case, Liminal is probably referring to the coiling ring since the phoenix ring would be in cat's shoe where Liminal cant see it. (Depends on what Edmango says though, Is Cat wearing the ring of phoenix on his hand, or is it still hidden on his foot? It never said he switched it back on his hand.)

And as far as the scanner goes, we may have to leave depending on how it scans, though... maybe if we form a strong enough trust with him now, especially since he now knows we're Callan's brother, maybe he'll be willing to keep our power a secret from everyone if we told him since he'd probably want to protect us after finding out who we are. That said Let's see how things go as we talk about Callan and our past a bit, and decide whether to tell him the truth of our power and Will's awakening our third round of dialogue, and other things.

Maybe trade comm numbers? Would be nice to have someone who knew our brother to speak to for emotional support, but maybe wait until the third round of dialogue to decide.

For now, yeah, reminisce on your brother, no matter how painful remembering might be.
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No. 997437 ID: afe7de
File 161922242719.png - (8.55KB , 500x500 , C2_123.png )
997437

> Are you still wearing the phoenix ring?
It’s still on your toe, you never had a chance or reason to move it.

> When was the dungeon break
It was 8 years ago, and the Hadlee house fire was 10 years ago.

> Is he actually crying?
He’s crying both in his disguised and undisguised form, it seems to be genuine.

This is too much, you’re doing your best to remain composed but you FAIL And start tearing up. You don’t think he has a reason to lie about having been mentored by your bro. You do remember him working with the Neophytes starting 5 or so years back before the INCIDENT, so it’s possible this happened around then. You’re trying to recall, you actually did have a ring that was a keepsake from Callan, but…

You: It’s not the same ring. This is a new one I got, the one I got from big bro SNIFF some vile people took it. It was like 6 years ago, they left me beaten, battered, with a broken arm, and left for dead. If Shocker hadn’t come around… Never could figure out what the ring did anyway. I just assumed it was a normal ring, but it was the last thing I had left of my family, so it still hurt.

You: Sorry if I dont remember you. I can remember faces and flashes of the day, but his last moments, him saving me instead of himself, just hurts to remember their dead bo-

Liminal: Shh, shh, it’s okay Cat. We don’t have to talk about that day.

You sob and wipe your tears and snot away. But try to put on a brave face. You pull out your family photo.

You: No, it’s fine. We can talk about big bro, I just… I miss him and my family so much. You wouldn’t happen to have any pictures of him would you? I’ve just got this one left, everything else was destroyed, my house was burned down and we were the kinds of idiots that didn’t backup our data back then.

Liminal: Yeah, uh I have one photo, you’ll probably think its weird, but it’s of him and this other Neophyte he was training. Unfortunately he died too and well, we were all kind of close in the program.
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No. 997438 ID: afe7de
File 161922244412.png - (18.67KB , 500x500 , C2_124.png )
997438

He pulls out a photo, it’s of your brother with his hand on top of the head of a young man that looks like a younger version of the true form of the man in front of you. You’re assuming this is Max. You’re kind of hesitant to bring that up.

Liminal: I knew him for like 4 or 5 years, he was a part of the Neophyte initiative to train up 2nd and 3rd generation Awakened. He was smart, like wicked smart, cunning, and almost like a father figure to me. Well, he was a better father figure to me then my dad was. He used his BUBBLE power to help train us all up and protect us in case things got hairy. Like there was this one time, I was just a stupid kid at the time, we were in a dungeon and I was using my Powers but I slipped and fell into a trap. He saved me and managed to pull me up using his bubbles, they were like linkable energy shields. He was so cool too cause he eventually figured out a way to use them as footholds so he could effectively walk on air.

Liminal: It even gave me some hints on how I could use my powers in unique ways.

You: You keep saying Powers, plural, I thought only one was listed on your card?

Liminal: Eh, the one listed there is actually an Innate ability. My real powers are Classified. I can’t really talk about it sorry.

You: That’s fine. Goddess I can still remember when he came back talking about his first dungeon run so excited. Though uh, I never really asked too deeply, is 15 floors a lot? I thought there was like a hundred?
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No. 997440 ID: afe7de
File 161922257591.png - (7.68KB , 500x500 , C2_125.png )
997440

Liminal: Well, speculation states that there used to be 15 floors, but with each passing year the dungeon grew larger and larger. We’re not sure how big it is, but speculate its in the 40/50s from the mana density, it’s like a pocket dimension in there. And that measures how far you can go solo, not as a team. I’ve actually reached floor 29 by myself but I can’t solo the boss on floor 30 without potentially dying. Your brother on the other hand could easily reach floor 35 by his self, but refused to go any deeper because he was very much a pragmatic man, more worried about you and his family and wouldn’t risk going any further. I don’t know if you knew this but he was one of the few S rank heroes we had at the time. Callan was a fucking hero, he was instrumental in the defense of the city before his demise. He was our pride, some even called him the second coming of Marth, It’s a shame how we’ve fallen, the league isn’t what it used to be.

It fills you with pride to know your brother was as stand-up of a person as he talked about.

You: Uh, do you mind if I make a copy of this?

Liminal: Sure, sure! Absolutely, if anyone deserves a copy of their brother’s photo it’s you.

You head to the back room and use the photocopier to make a duplicate of the photo. You also grab some tissues and wipe down your eyes and snot. You’re really glad you weren’t high for this. You’d probably have been hysterical. You can hear some muttering back in the room, it’s kind of hard to make out, but this is what you hear.

Liminal: I wonder if we just tackled the dungeon with everyone back then if the break could have been prevented… And what the fuck … bitch doing? I grow lax … bit and she starts acting up?

You head back and hand him the original photo before seating yourself and setting your copy on the counter.

You: Sorry about that. It’s just. It’s been a hard 8 years.

Liminal: No worries. Hey uh, you don’t have to answer, but have you awakened yet? Callan was convinced that you would one of these days, but he never got lucky enough to find an awakening artifact in a dungeon run to give to you. So uh, maybe I can pay it forward a little bit and help you out, I’ve got like a low rank awakening artifact. He told me you were smart, I also have this book on like really basic Magic Cultivation, it won’t awaken you and it takes a while to learn, but it’s something. Plus it’ll feel like I’m helping out his spirit indirectly, y’know? Maybe give him some peace by knowing you can take care of yourself.

Liminal: And uh, if you promise to keep quiet about today and the inheritance stuff I’d appreciate it, I won’t force you though. I’d just rather not get any extra people involved or reveal any extra details to the public until every thing’s settled.
>>
No. 997443 ID: b1b4f3

>>997440
Tell him you'd feel awkward using one of those books, you want it to happen naturally. Magic Cultivation sounds cool though. (we really need something Cat can use in combat, haha)

Tell him you'll keep it under your hat until it's all public, sure. Uh, and, on that subject... did the Heroes' Association ever find out who caused the fire?
>>
No. 997445 ID: e85a08

Since he's keeping secret from Willamina he probably won't naturally discover your true power. Therefore you can just feed him the half-truth that's already been outed about awakening to a touch based power detector power.
>>
No. 997449 ID: ce39da

"Er, I actually did Awaken - it's pretty lame, though; I touch someone and know whether they have an awakened power. What's this about Magic Cultivation, though?"
>>
No. 997450 ID: 031458

Just kinda let the name drop slip.

Aw geeze Max, why you gotta be so fuckin' cool?
Yeah I've awakened but I'm not exactly useful in a fight. The cultivation book would actually help me out a lot.

Oh, and should I keep quiet about that disguise around Willamina?
>>
No. 997456 ID: b1b4f3

Do not reveal you know he's Max. He will want to find out how you saw through his disguise, which means either revealing your demon eye amulet, which he will want to take from you either for his own use or the Hero Association's use, or making up some bullshit about how your power lets you see the true names of people and you can use it at range. Problem is we haven't used it on him yet, and if he has a perception-based power he would be able to tell if we did or not.
Another alternative explanation is pointing out that he didn't change his hairstyle-- which he just now showed you a photo of-- and his name is an obvious anagram if you're looking for it. He might buy that. Maybe.
>>
No. 997464 ID: 041e1f

>>997438
>Liminal: Yeah, uh I have one photo, you’ll probably think its weird, but it’s of him and this other Neophyte he was training. Unfortunately he died too and well, we were all kind of close in the program.
If Willamina sees this, she'll realize that Max was secretly in the program around the same time she dumped him. You need to consider if she's not ready to hide this.
"This really captures his essence as the cool big brother to all children. Like, he once told me that the reason I was born was because he kept asking mom and dad for a little brother, and eventually they promised they'd do it if he could be a hero. Then one day, he saves an entire bus from a car accident and asks five times harder until they cave in. When I told mom, she claimed that afterwards, Callan caught them building me and said 'I thought you two were at the orphanage, why are you doing that Woohoo thing from The Sams?' and then she laughed so hard.
I think the reason he favored me so much was because I was the only one he could take home with him."

>>997440
Ah, so he's the Machiavellian type; has a deep sense of right and wrong, but solves every social problem with invasive manipulation and cynical scorn.
Be careful, he will plan five steps ahead.
>Have you awakened yet?
"T-that's personal. In fact, please never ask me about my stats in any public - actually, in anyplaceeverohmygoddessshutupbrain."
Immediately and nervously look where you painted Andrea and Gina with your dishonorable discharge. He will suspect, but you have a barrier to prevent extensive discussion.
"But actually, I have some close friends who would love a skill book."
And then store them away and use them on animals in an emergency.

"But seriously, if you really want to do me a favor: when's the next Dungeon Break?
Look, before all this, Callan was pestered by some raving conspiracy theorist claiming the world was going to end in about ten years, that awakened powers come directly from Heaven and Hell, and that we had to start preparing immediately. We all told her off, especially when she came onto me. I mean, the Dungeon Break didn't happen immediately afterwards, like a whole year later, but..."
>>
No. 997482 ID: 53560f

>>997440
Alright mr Hiro. I’m going to be blunt with you, I don’t know why an inheritance agent would need a disguise, why you’d ask me to keep Will’s inheritance on the down low or why you haven’t told Will you’re alive and okay but if I find out you are in town for any reason other than what you’ve told me then you won’t be leaving it Max Hadlee.


The only reason I’m not making any serious demands or just shouting your identity to town are because you knew Callan and I would like to talk more later about that later. For now though, Will should be arriving soon, and I will maintain your lie.
Also I have not awakened and would accept your gifts if you are still offering them after this.
>>
No. 997483 ID: e51896

I know it sounds weird but... I think we should just tell him what our real power is, but ask him to keep it a secret from everyone, for one, just in case he uses that glass to check Willamina's power and it tells him "AWAKENED BY THE GREAT AWAKENER" or something, and also, he will most likely protect us due to us being his mentor's brother. (Though he might figure it out through the glass, he may respect our privacy regardless.)

(If we don't do this, then tell him we are awakened but... you'd rather not discuss it, though you will say part of it has to do with detecting if someone has a power or not)

we can take that Magic Cultivation book though.

Also, ask if he wants, Willamina's friend Gena is planning a party on Monday, and you think it would be a good idea to have a representative from the Heroes' League attend it, we can ask her about it. (Best to ask this in case Isabella tries to ruin the party)

But get his COMM Number.

>Liminal: And uh, if you promise to keep quiet about today and the inheritance stuff I’d appreciate it, I won’t force you though. I’d just rather not get any extra people involved or reveal any extra details to the public until every thing’s settled.

(shoot, we're probably too late about that since we let Isabella know through our notebook. The saving grace we have is that we tricked her into thinking it was Monday or Tuesday, and she probably would have figured out anyway that Willamina got her inheritance through her spying anyway at some point without our notebook. Was probably better to have her think it isn't today. Hopefully things will get settled by Monday. Probably best to insist Liminal comes to the party in this case.)
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No. 997484 ID: e51896

And don't let him know you know he is Max. I still think he is a good person despite his issues.
>>
No. 997486 ID: 894419

>>997440
I am awakened, but my power is pretty minor. I can detect other people's powers basically. I think I'm happy with my quiet life here though, I don't need anything more.

I'd appreciate if you kept my power on the down low as well, I like my privacy.
>>
No. 997492 ID: 894419

Also don't mention we know who he is. For gods sake!
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No. 997498 ID: f8fa51

"I actually did awaken, pretty recently. I'd rather not talk about it though."

If he presses: "It's just not a really cool power, is all. It's not the sort of thing that could make me a hero."

If he still presses, get upset. "I don't want to talk about it, okay?"
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No. 997504 ID: f7ef21

I'm starting to think Max changed identities because he feared Will would be targeted again if he were known to be still alive.
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No. 997505 ID: 9a2966

Don’t reveal you know who he is. Don’t reveal you have a power.

If you -have- to reveal your Awakening, go with the cover story already established; touch-based power detection power - he should already know from Isabella so that is safe - and no you’re not keen on being used to ferret out people who hide their powers for whatever reason. For one - and pragmatically speaking - it could be really dangerous.

Why not trust him? Because there is too much we don’t know and we should ferret out more. Because he did leave Isabella spying on Will. Because he never told Will, and she got to live with the belief he was dead, which is not a cool thing for a brother to do, whatever the reason. AND HE HAD AN ITEM TO AWAKEN HER WITH TO FULFILL THAT STUPID INHERITANCE CLAUSE. Finally, if we’re dating Will and he still has the hits for her, hoo boy... that’s a conflict brewing where we don’t want them knowing everything.

>Minor Awakening item or Magic Cultivation book
Goddess, you couldn’t. Even minor Awakening stuff will go for, like, a million BUCKS, right? Besides, if you had the option of waiting for a better power or seizing a crappy one now your preference would be to wait. Magic Cultivation book sounds cool, though. Is it as expensive? Is he using it himself? No, if so. You’d just feel like you got hopelessly in debt and you don’t want to interrupt the training of an A-rank.

If he really wanted to do you a favor, you’d be incredibly happy to get Callan’s ring back. It’s probably a lost cause, but knowing someone who -could- and -cared- looked into the theft, just made an effort, would salve the loss a bit.

>keep quiet about inheritance
Uh... boat’s probably gone on that one, bud. People around here, friends of Will, know she’s due if she Awakens - sounds like it’s been one of her most cherished dreams for ages. Unless you’re gonna pretend she didn’t receive it for whatever bullshit reason, like her Power’s too weak or something, word will spread - is spreading. And speaking as a bereaved who’s been deprived of the possessions of one’s family it is, frankly, crazy unfair she didn’t receive anything at all to begin with. You have no idea what the Heroes’ League was thinking there. If they were worried she’d spend her family’s fortune unwisely because she was a minor, why not just appoint a guardian or something until she got of age? It’s shooting themselves in the foot - she’s WAY more likely not to give them their dues now.
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No. 997506 ID: c016f5

>>997505
But sure, you can keep quiet about the -process- and all.

Funny thing, though. Back when you were doodling in your notebook about it earlier today it got really hot in here. You could swear your notebook almost caught on fire! You... was honestly a bit freaked out about it, which is why you didn’t say anything initially. In case, y’know... whatever caused that was still around.

So, if they’ve seriously have got worries someone or something finding out about the inheritance, er... should you NOT have done that?
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No. 997526 ID: f25cae

Say you've awakened, you'd like to be private about it for your safety, but tell him parts about what it can do (detect people having a power).

Ask for the magic cultivation and what it is all about.

Dont bring up his identity.
>>
No. 997532 ID: e51896

>>997505
Doesn't seem to be common knowledge that she can get her inheritance back if she proves she is awakened, at least judging from Aeglos not knowing.
>>
No. 997542 ID: 9a2966

>>997532
Huh, yeah, you're right. I must've misremembered something. I guess the only people we definitely know Will's talked to about receiving her inheritance back was Cat and (earlier today) Mint.
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No. 997556 ID: fe186e

>>997440
There's more at play here than we're seeing, keep him at arms length as much as you can.
Its possible he's a decent guy but it sounds like he's on the shadier side of things currently.
>>
No. 997576 ID: 031458

>>997556
Oh he's clearly pumping us for information, but it's likely that he already knows what Isabella and Iraphena told him.
So long as we confirm what he already knows, but don't leak anything extra, I think we're good.
>>
No. 997586 ID: afe7de
File 161929925261.png - (49.14KB , 500x500 , C2_126.png )
997586

You look over the photo again longingly at your brother.

You: This really captures his essence as the cool big brother to all kids. Like, he once told me that the reason I was born was because he kept asking my mom and dad for a little brother, and eventually they promised they’d do it if he could be a hero. Then one day, he saves an entire bus from a car accident and asks like five times harder until they cave in.

You: When I asked mum, she claimed that afterwards, Callan caught them uh, fertilizing the fields and said “I thought you two were at the orphanage, why are you doing that WooHoo thing from The Sams?” Then they laughed just so hard. He really wanted a little sib to spoil and care for.

Liminal: That sounds like him. He was always really good with kids. He always spent the extra time to bring us snacks and give us extra attention.

The briefest of thoughts flit through your mind to confront him but you shake them off, you wouldn’t do anything more than just make an enemy that could easily ruin your life. Another brief thought, one of actually telling the truth surfaces too. You left the big city because you were worried about people like him coming after you and forcing you to work for them if they found out. You don’t want to tempt fate like that, but the man’s natural CHARM is convincing you to say something. You genuinely consider it before deciding to go back to your cover story.

> Give a Half-Truth
You: But anyway, Yeah, I awakened. But like I don’t want to be a metahuman metal detector as a job, so I think its pretty lame. Oh, sorry. I touch someone and know whether they have an awakened power.
>>
No. 997588 ID: afe7de
File 161929931770.png - (10.04KB , 500x500 , C2_127.png )
997588

Liminal looks at you and tilts his head looking kind of confused for a moment. With a flick of his wrist he pulls out a fragment of glass and holds it up to his eye, looking at you. He does a once over on your body, pausing once on your head and once on your hand. You take the moment to scan the glass piece.

Fragment of Detection - This tool can be used to detect artifacts and if an individual has awakened. The result shows up as bright shining lights on the target’s body when viewed through the glass. Can see through certain walls.

Liminal: Huh, it’s weird, normally an Awakened has this kind of bright light near the top of their head. The more powerful their power, the stronger the light. But yours is pretty dim. If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known you had one without spending a while staring.

He doesn't comment on your artifacts strangely enough, but instead hands over the glass piece.

Liminal: Here, try it on me, you’ll see what I mean.
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No. 997589 ID: afe7de
File 161929937109.png - (21.97KB , 500x500 , C2_128.png )
997589

You do so and notice that he’s right. There’s a halo around his head. But you don’t have another frame of reference, so you’re not sure if it’s bright or not. You can also notice that his rings are glowing, there’s something on his neck that’s glowing, but that’s it. You hand the fragment back to him. Interestingly enough you can’t see his true form using the glass and he even is visible as his disguised form. You decide to ask about the extra glowing bits.

You: Woah, that’s kind of cool. But there was other glowing stuff too.

Liminal: Oh, that? Those are my artifacts. And that’s basically how I’m gonna be checking Willamina. Going to double check it’s not an artifact she’s using or that someones lying for her that way.

Liminal: Anywho, that’s kind of a useful power for my line of work, though I can get why you wouldn’t want to relegate yourself to a life of playing bouncer. Maybe if you practice enough with it you’ll be able to get enough Achievement Points to buy a good upgrade. Oh right, here’s some advice, it’s different for everyone. But try using your power in all kinds of situations, you might get an achievement and it’ll open up this page on your status window that lets you buy upgrades.

Liminal: It’s weird and not everyone knows about it, since SOME PEOPLE think that regulating that information is smarter than revealing it to the public. If you can make it to 150 total points at some point, more options open up. Maybe you’ll get something like the ability to see what powers specifically someone has. Or maybe you’d become the most important person on the planet and get the ability to Awaken people. But what are the chances of that right?

Liminal chuckles and you just awkwardly look down and try not to make eye contact so as not to give anything away. Liminal notices your discomfort and stops chuckling, coughs and continues.

Liminal: Sorry, just wanted to give you some hope is all. Lots of people start out with shitty powers that get better as the years go by. Callan’s just started as him being able to make bubbles that floated around uselessly taking up space, and look how far he got. But let it not be said that I’m not a man of my word.
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No. 997590 ID: afe7de
File 161929938244.png - (6.54KB , 500x500 , C2_129.png )
997590

He holds his hand on top of the table and a small book appears. It looks old and well worn and is sky blue in color. He also grabs a nearby scrap of paper and scribbles something down on it.

Liminal: I’m a busy guy, so I might take a week or so to get back to you, so try contacting me on WEDNESDAYS if you need anything, but if you have any questions on how to use that just shoot me a text. I got stuck like halfway through it but I have the fundamentals down and I really don’t have the time to study it anymore, so consider it a really late several birthdays gift. And even though you don’t want to be a human metal detector, you could always give me a ring if you need a job. I’ll keep your power confidential.

You: I uh. Thank you Mr. Hiro.

Liminal: You can call me Lim or Liminal, and no problem! Oh, and let’s see if we can get you some achievement points while you’re here.

He takes off the ring that you recognize as the Ring of shock and he holds out his hand.

Liminal: Here, gimme a scan.
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No. 997591 ID: 031458

Do it.
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No. 997601 ID: 094652

>>997589
"Actually, I did get some achievement points for testing on other townies and animals, and I got some weird results when I scanned Izzy. But my achievement 'max' is definitely below 150, and I'm worried that if I go over it I'll waste achievement points. So do I like, need to do something to bring the maximum up?"
Plant a seed that Isabella isn't exactly normal. Which is technically true. Also scare him with the word 'max' and note his reaction.

>>997590
He's baiting you. I recommend you don't.
"If it's all the same to you, now I really don't want to. I scanned without a care until I found this one dude had a passive counter-power and it gave me nightmares.
Hey, what's that ring for?"

While he's busy explaining and not keeping it on, contact Roach and tell him to read 'Hiro'.
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No. 997604 ID: 9a2966

He's not suspicious of our artifacts because he knows why we have them (Iraphena reported to Isabella reported to Max, probably). He knows we're withholding some things from him, as such. (That or he's actually respecting your privacy.)

>Take my hand.
We basically have no good reason to say no. Especially not if we can 'only' sense whether he's Awakened or not, which is 'duh, of course' levels of obvious given his "official" identity. So we should not act as if we're worried about revealing or detecting his exact powers, since as far as he knows we don't have the capacity to tell what his powers are at all and he's just helping us get there.

One thing you should be careful of is to not look as if you're reading something, just look like you're concentrating.

And yeah, sure, this could be a trap of some sort. Can your demon eye amulet scan his final magical device, the amulet he got around his neck?

>>997600
He is in a disguise he doesn't know we can see through.
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No. 997605 ID: b1b4f3

>>997588
>your arguably broken overpowered meta-power is dim
Strange. Maybe it's because it doesn't give you any power directly and needs to be recharged if you use it at all? It's also possible that since it's... kindof hard to use it creatively, it doesn't have a lot of potential for growth. Like, both of your powers do essentially one thing. Awakening someone is a very yes/no type thing, and it doesn't seem like giving interesting powers counts as creative use.

The only thing we haven't really done with it yet is rapidfire awakening while wearing some form of disguise, to rally an army against an obvious villain. Except, as we've seen, we currently can't grant any particularly strong powers, so if we were in a bad situation where we needed to do something that drastic, it wouldn't help much!
Maybe the detector glass measures short-term strength. Cat's powers are definitely long term ones, they really do suck in the short term.

>>997590
Maybe you should warn him that you have upgraded it already, and can see exactly what powers someone has. People with perception-related powers can tell when you do it, too, so you've learned not to do it recklessly.
>>
No. 997607 ID: 86aaf2

>>997605

Maybe don't give the freaky government agent more information and don't share so much?

Maybe clarify: "You want me to practice and push myself, and specifically try to get more information about your powers, that you said were Classified. What if I have a breakthrough and succeed? Can I at least get in writing that I won't be in trouble if I succeed or something? Will you have to read me in to whatever it is if I do? I'm not keen on taking oaths of service at the drop of a hat."
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No. 997610 ID: e51896

Oh, my bad, just remembered our cover story is that we can detect whether a person is awakened. Not that our power is knowing what a person's power is. Deleted my post.
>>
No. 997612 ID: 894419

Sure, why not.
>>
No. 997626 ID: e51896

Might as well scan him, nothing more needs to be said.
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No. 997663 ID: afe7de
File 161934284023.png - (9.35KB , 500x500 , C2_130.png )
997663

> Demon eye check his necklace
You can’t its under his clothes and no matter how hard you stare through his clothing you can’t see through it. Looks like you need direct line of sight.

> Comment about your achievement “MAX” in an attempt to mess with Liminal.
You’re kind of scared to do it, he’s really charming and kind of intimidating. Plus, as far as you’ve seen the total keeps increasing with each new achievement you unlock.

> Scan him
You reach out and hold Liminal’s hand. At first your power doesent work, but then you get multiple notifications at once.

[System Note: You have used your Power on 15 metahumans you did not own to check for their powers. This shall be referred to as a “Scan” from now on for the purposes of Achievements and upgrades]

Achievement: “Scanned 15 Metahumans” Has been unlocked. +5 Achievement Points.
Achievement: “Unicorn Hunting” Has been unlocked +15 Achievement points.
Achievement: “Duplicate Power detected” Has been unlocked +5 Achievement points.
Achievement point total is now 35/160
Milestone reached, your Achievement Store has been updated.

Unicorn Hunting? What could that even mean?

Level [3] SPIRIT OF JUDGEMENT - upgrade? [8]
Level [5] WARP - upgrade [9]
Level [2] ICE - upgrade [2]
Level [1] PRECOGNITIVE REFLEXES - upgrade [20]

Oh, It means he has 4 powers. And his “Bonded Weapon” isn’t even on the list? Oh wait he said it was an Innate ability. What the fuck. Is Liminal the fucking protagonist? You do your best to not stare and read everything and make a few hand gestures. Huh, and he also has the ICE power. Maybe it runs in the family or something?
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No. 997664 ID: afe7de
File 161934287571.png - (8.61KB , 500x500 , C2_131.png )
997664

Liminal coughs and you let go of his hand.

You: Sorry, uh, I just got 3 achievements from that. I guess they were just like… waiting until something important happened I guess? Thanks.

Liminal: Hey, no problem! Glad my improving luck could rub off on you. People are pretty private about what exactly their achievements are. Some of the names are pretty fucking lame. So you don’t need to share or anything, I’m just glad I could help.

You’re kind of surprised at how nice Liminal is being, sure you have the tie to your bro, but he’s also a heroes league rep. Other than shocker, they’ve all been just really elitist towards you, so it’s kind of a shock. Plus you’re still freaking out because you’re like 80% sure this is just Max in disguise, and none of your theories about the fire line up if he wasn't there or wasn't part of the murder-fest that occurred that night.

You: Yeah, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna like, kind of look through the shop and see if anything new came up. Will should be here in like a minute anyway.

Liminal: Yeah, go ahead Cat.

Liminal adopts a pose sitting at the end of the booth and looking at the front door which opens about 3 seconds later with a familiar chime.
>>
No. 997665 ID: afe7de
File 161934293518.png - (10.78KB , 500x500 , C2_132.png )
997665

Your name is Willamina Hadlee III, and despite having lost your ENTIRE family, getting constantly bullied by a batshit bimbo BITCH growing up, being adopted, and being in constant nerve pain, the one thing you’ve cultivated is your CONFIDENCE. You couldn’t go outside if you didn’t have confidence in your body, which was where it all started. Sure it ebbs and flows, but it was really at its peak at the ROMANCE FESTIVAL last month. You never really tried putting yourself out there like that and were surprised it worked. Then this new guy comes to town and actively shows interest in you even though you’re being pretty rude, cursing at him, giving him an insulting nickname like PRICK. And he even goes on a few dates with you. At this point your CONFIDENCE in yourself has started to peak, but what does that crazy fucker do, he gives you SUPERPOWERS? And CURES your NERVE PAIN? Fuck there’s no way you can’t be happy and CONFIDENT in yourself right now. You make a mental note to fuck his brains out later as a proper thank you. He seems kinda nervous and shy, maybe he’s a virgin? We weren’t that drunk last night, so I doubt it was that. Maybe he’s actually off put by your scars… Pff, AS IF. These scars make me 1000x COOLER than your average human chick. Yeah, he’s probably just intimidated by how damn awesome you are. Gotta be less freaking badass.

Your INTELLIGENCE is OKAY, you did alright in school. You’re pretty damn COOL if you say so yourself. But the nerve pain made it so you were never that SKILLFUL with your hands. The plus side is that nerve pain made your FORTITUDE pretty GREAT. You’re not that POWERFUL, so you can’t actually beat Cannie in most fights, but dammit you’re persistent. If only you were a little FASTER, you could make up for that lack of power. Though, you wonder if you could use your STORM powers to make you move faster, push your fists harder or something. You shake your head and drop off the final package on your route at the ruffled Haunch. Looks like Andrea, Gena, and Nail are inside chatting on a sofa. They’re pretty deep in conversation and you’re in a bit of a rush or you’d talk to them. Oh right, and you’re pretty bad about TEXTING too, but thats mostly cause your comm keeps overheating for some reason, making it unusable for like half the day like every other day once a week every month.

You don’t even use it any differently than normal on those weeks!!! But it’s whatever. Once you get your inheritance you’re going to spoil yourself and get the highest top of the line COMM you can that is guaranteed to never overheat and you’re stupid phone troubles will be over! It’s a little hot today and you’re sweaty, but you couldn’t care less.

Willamina: Done with the ROUTE, learned some new SHIT. The APOCALYPSE is coming. Gonna get my INHERITENCE, all in your average Saturday.

You’re about a 5 minute walk from the Post Office. You whistle a tune and a few people give you some pained expressions, but you couldn’t care less. What do you think about on your way there?
>>
No. 997667 ID: 9a2966

>Headache-granting whistle powers
Oy vey, is that an INNATE SKILL?

>What to think about
Think about your chat with Mint and Roach.

Consider the APOCALYPSE. Can you even believe it? Well... something has gone down the last fifty+ years or so what with the SYSTEM and all. And your family's played its part in it, clearly. Did THEY know? Was that why THE FIRE happened? Was someone or something going around geeking powerful heroes and their supporters? Jeez, heavy thoughts. Well, they missed one Hadlee! And you're about to rise from your heroic slumber!

FUCK, Cat said he could upgrade powers too, didn't he? You might become the most powerful Awakened around, eventually. Or one of 'em. That number's clearly gonna go up 'round these parts. You might have to invest in... training facilities? Tinker gear? Maybe you could pipeline that through Rupert? You've got a lot to consider here in terms of PREPARATIONS FOR THE APOCALYPSE.

Consider your INHERITANCE. Goddess, what do you even have due now again? Money? Artifacts? Property? You kind of wish you could focus on living it large for a while, but... you wonder whether you can bring yourself to leave your POST JOB yet - it's been your lifeline for so long, given you something to do and have confidence in. Gotta at least get in a couple replacements first.

... and then there's the HEROES LEAGUE. Who couldn't figure out what the hell happened to your family, and essentially seized your inheritance. What even was up with that INHERITANCE WILL?
>>
No. 997671 ID: e51896

>It’s a little hot today and you’re sweaty, but you couldn’t care less.

looks like Isabella decided to follow Willamina and not Mint then. Lets be careful what we say out loud or do. Kind of weird that none of Liminal's power listed anything to do with having a spirit like Isabella did

Kind of morally wrong Mint is Cat's slave or something, isn't it? but Mint was very insistent that she needs it to be that way? Eh, whatever. And Demon auctions? Wonder if you'll participate in one of those.

Mint said something about how being an awakened work and stuff earlier? check your status window, check your achievement list, and achievement store

As far as the inheritance goes, consider that it is a good thing the post office serves as a bank too so you can just deposit the money safely seconds after you receive it (as said here https://questden.org/kusaba/questarch/res/986604.html#987643)

Probably don't have to do this since it might be a bit too much, but maybe give Cannie a text to meet you at the post office later!
You really want to talk to her about gaining her muscle protection like you promised Cat you would, especially if you want to go Dungeon Crawling with your new power... hey, maybe convince Cat to awaken Cannie later too as long as she keeps his power a secret... Imagine dungeon crawling with her like you always talked about when you were kids with her. though you won't press Cat too much about it.
having Cannie there might keep Isabella less likely from doing something too... though maybe Liminal's spirit is there to keep Isabella from doing something anyway.

anyway, lets give our storm powers a try to go a little faster, have the wind push against your back to push you forward!
>>
No. 997672 ID: e51896

(Oh yeah, after you use your storm powers to go faster, you're not too used to controlling it and you run into the pole like Cat did. DAMMIT! ah well)
>>
No. 997675 ID: 8483cf

Appreciate just how awesome it is to not be in chronic pain. It's OK to be even happier!
>>
No. 997676 ID: ce39da

Hey, you're basically now one of the few people in town who can definitively "beat the heat" by your own power. Drop that temperature (but don't go too nuts with the effective range - we don't know that everyone would appreciate it).
>>
No. 997678 ID: 031458

Inheritance is nice but Cat can upgrade powers too? Shiiit I can do dungeons!
Maybe start a guild? Would be a good idea, since I could prepare for the... Uh. End.
What am I supposed to do anyway? Hide until the apocalypse is over?
That's lame.
I'd have no problems finding strong members. We could fight...
I... I COULD SAVE THE WORLD!
Fuck it. That's what's happening. I'M DOIN IT.
GO BIG OR GO HOME BITCHES
>>
No. 997679 ID: e7c7d3

>Glad my improving luck could rub off on you.
Did he just scan us back?

Think about a sexy hero costume you could wear
>>
No. 997680 ID: 4560e1

Fantasize how it would be funny if someone as shy as Cat got tempted into getting a bj under the desk from Andrea much like how you let her eat you out under the desk from time to time... she put you to sleep from your last interaction with Andrea yesterday, and Cat was none the wiser, teehee...

Wind power to move faster!
>>
No. 997681 ID: 563489

>>997665
heck, practice some cold and wind power combining to cool yourself down, if it's not too draining

experimenting will be fun tho
>>
No. 997683 ID: 9a2966

>>997679
>improving luck= knowing we can upgrade powers
Think that might be reading too much into it. He could just literally have a thing that improves luck.

Maybe the medallion we didn't get to scan?
>>
No. 997696 ID: b1b4f3

>>997663
>warp
...hmm, was that his first power? It's his highest level one. What if he used that to rescue his entire family except for Willamina, which he couldn't get to because of the firey figure? Then they *all* went into hiding. Heck, maybe the fire was set to fake their own deaths, and Willamina was intended to be the only survivor to try to force an awakening in her? Or was she left out because Max was still upset, was in charge of evacuation, and hesitated just long enough to lose the opportunity? Ah well, we'll probably never know at this point.

>>997665
Experiment with your wind power, see if you can use it to walk/run faster.
>>
No. 997719 ID: eb1fcc

>>997683
no, the italics on it definitely make this a tip-of-the-hand. He knows, and we can only hope that's not going to be bad for us.

He's got secrets and definitely a sordid history, but we don't know enough to know if he's a villain yet. Plus, that judgement thing is setting off "oh shit" flags, Caution going forward warranted.
>>
No. 997722 ID: 9a2966

>>997719
Like the Demonic Spirit of Fire was a demon (/fallen angel?), the Spirit of Judgement might be an angel. And I still don't know if the emphasis was a definite thing. If he knew Cat's power, why focus on improving aspect and not the, y'know, way more significant granting thing?

Hmm... I suppose maybe if he just saw what Cat saw, he'd see the upgrade markers by his own powers. Sneaky. That might explain it, actually, as none of the achievements indicated that Cat's power wasn't truly scan-focused - just the power tags themselves indicating 'upgrade' as a possibility and the system notification mentioning upgrades.

Coupled with Cat not quite managing to laugh off the ridiculousness of Max's suggestion he might eventually awaken the power to grant powers, Max might now be fairly confident Cat's hiding the fact they're capable of upgrading others' powers (and they are - it's just MORE than that).

Perhaps he had an artifact allowing him to see from the perspective of others, or to sneak peek on others' System notifications or something? We never did figure out what the final artifact was. Either way, I don't think it's a good thing they know.

That said, I think Cat could still argue, if confronted, that they either A) can't actually upgrade powers yet, just see what upgrading them would cost in, like, achievement points ("or so I'd imagine") and any actual ability to upgrade still some achievement purchases away or B) got that feature recently, by upgrading your scan power with Achievement points - and it's still fairly weak (i.e. pretend it is weaker than it is).

Either way, if Max truly did catch on, Cat's in somewhat hotter waters in terms of potential "We want to 'acquire' this person" schemes, since he's very much aware powers can grow in strength and an upgrade power is even hotter shit than a detection power.
>>
No. 997723 ID: 031458

>>997719
Bro, he was literally talking about IMPROVING our own abilities through achievement points.
It is also very possible that he is genuinely happy about Willamina's sudden awakening, and he just got to reminisce thoughtfully about an old friend with someone. He's having a good day. The stress put on improving is just a clever way to put it.

More pointedly: In our current state, if he knew of our true powers It would be reckless and irresponsible of him to not attempt to recruit, or take us into custody.
The apocalypse is coming. There's no way he doesn't know that. From his perspective, letting us waste away in a post office when we could be hunting achievements and powering up people to defend kin from the end would be INSANE.
>>
No. 997724 ID: 9a2966

>>997723
Or that.
>>
No. 997732 ID: afe7de
File 161940284697.png - (9.18KB , 500x500 , C2_133.png )
997732

> Think about a sexual fantasy
You think about how funny it would’ve been if someone as shy as Cat got tempted into an under the desk BJ from Andrea or something. Andrea put you to sleep yesterday when she was dodging work after all. She’s got the fucking technique with her tongue and only asks you to have actual sex every once in a while. You think she just likes having a variety of partners, similar to how others would have different meals, gotta respect a girl who knows what she wants like that. You also think she just likes being degraded in semi-public sexual situations A LOT. Kinda like Gena when she gets in the mood, well she more just likes to roleplay. You stop singing and chuckle to yourself. Hah, yeah like that’s gonna happen. If he hasn't caved to Andrea’s advances by now, he’s probably gonna need someone to actually push him into it, or maybe he needs a romantic bond to actually want to fuck another person, romance is weird.

> Cool yourself off
> Try to use your windy thing
You’ve been trying but its FUCKIN hard to control, gonna need Cat to upgrade it. You try again, expending 1 ENERGY, and this time are a little more successful. You’re basically trying to make it so the layer of skin directly under clothes where its the most hot is generating an aura of cold vapor, turning the sweat into cold air. But you’re new at this and it’s dry out so it’s kind of hard to get it to do any more than that. It was easier at the bar cause it gets kind of humid at night, more moisture to work with. You guess you could be dehydrated too, but you left your water bottle to Mint when she said she was thirsty. You instead try to create a cool breeze around you, you expend another 1 ENERGY, which works slightly. You make the wind come from behind you so that you get a minor speed boost, it’s a little fun. Feels like the world’s helping you move along with your day. You keep practicing this while you think about other things on your walk.
>>
No. 997733 ID: afe7de
File 161940286224.png - (11.72KB , 500x500 , C2_134.png )
997733

> Think about your chat with Mint and roach
Thinking of Mint, kind of weird Cat bought a SLAVE. If you’re honest it’s not really a thing you’re comfortable with and you kind of want to gut punch him once. At least Cat tried to break the contract nearly immediately. Mint also doesn't seem to be too worked up about it, Cat’s not forcing her to do anything and we’re all working towards the same goal of not dying from the APOCALYPSE, plus he Awakened her and now she can do more tinker things then she could before. She mentioned being kind of sad when Cat didn’t try to ASSAULT her in her cat form last night when she mentioned it felt good.

You were kind of confused and explained your worlds stance on slavery, namely that it’s not allowed, but the domestication of non sapient creatures is fair game. She looked confused and stated that that made no sense, your owners were supposed to DOMINATE and RAVISH you like you’re some wild animal, she then asked what she was supposed to do, just go into the forest and fuck random wildlife. You stared at her in confusion and she just replied. “No seriously, I’ve done it before, it’s a great experience, well if you can turn into a beast shape anyway. Plus I can only get pregnant in my humanoid form and have stretchy genitals.” You’re starting to think she’s just a pervert, but doubt that Cat’s ever going to find out with his temperament, might be a good idea to talk with him about how to deal with that. The conversation topic then switched to sex and your escapades for a bit.

Then the two of you were interrupted by a TELEPATHIC roach named Roach. When you asked him why his name was Roach he replied that that was the name Cat gave him. So you gave him a better name, Rex the Roach! He was actually pretty excited and made a lot of weird noises which you assume meant he was happy. Anyway, He then helped fill in some gaps you had. Chief of which was that there’s an APOCALYPSE coming. You already expected something like this if you’re being honest. With what happened in West Fluxtopa fresh on everyone’s minds, it was only a matter of time before metahumanity as a collective just killed itself. Hey at least it won’t be death by self destruction and there’s an actual goal to aim for.

> Was your family connected
You think about it and the answer is probably yes. You were told that you were supposed to learn some pretty heavy stuff at age 18, or if you Awakened, whichever came first, but everyone died before then, so you’ll never really know if that was the info. Or maybe it’ll be a part of the inheritance.

You also learned that there’s such a thing as angels, demons, even spirits that exist. You already knew about demons, but not the rest. Apparently there’s demon held auctions and that’s where she came from. You wonder if you’ll be selected to enter one of those. Other then that your talk with Mint and Roach was basically a meet and greet, you got to know a little bit more about them, they got to know a bit more about you. You learned a bit about how powers worked, learned that you probably can’t learn magic. You tried listening in on Rupert and Mint’s tinker talk, but it got really animated and you couldn't understand any of the jargon. She seemed satisfied and some progress was made on a device, but your mind was elsewhere.
>>
No. 997734 ID: afe7de
File 161940288248.png - (34.38KB , 500x500 , C2_135.png )
997734

> What’s the deal with your inheritance?
You wish you knew. They paid for your medical bills but fucking Saba decided that only surviving Awakened members of the family would get their inheritance in the case of an accident that killed off his family. And apparently it all went to the Heroes guild with only a small portion of it being kept in case she ever Awakened. FUCKING BULLSHIT should be illegal, but he owned the house, all the money, and anything of value. Saba Hadlee, you co-founded the fucking Heroes League and you couldn’t even be magnanimous to your granddaughter. What a CUNT. You read through the paperwork and the weird thing is that there was a clause specifically stating that if Max was the surviving heir that he would get NONE of the inheritance until he was 30. And he LOVED MAX, not like it mattered anyway. They’re all still dead.

> What you want to do.
Well first things first, you’re gonna get the inheritance. You’re gonna grill the Auditor and ask why the Heroes League didn’t give you any financial support at all since you were the granddaughter of the founder. You’re going to give them a big fuck you when alls said and done because you should have gotten all of this before anyway. Then you’re going to wait for Mint to find a dungeon and go dungeoncrawling. You’re not fucking hiding, you’re not doing nothing. You’re not going to have problems finding strong people to work with you. You… you could save the world. Fuck it! The heroes league is stupid and isnt useful, you’re going to figure out something with Cat’s upgrades, Cannie’s muscle, Gena’s craftskinship, get her to make you an awesome sexy hero outfit like she’s always wanted to, Gruk’s healing, Andrea’s uh, unlimited vigor? She’s always wanted some kind of goal right, Mint’s tinker skills and Rex’s uhhh… Spying? And uhhh, fuck it let’s find that forest girl who keeps stealing from the Lyst-Y-Mart. You’re going to save the world! Or you’ll settle for at least saving Midland. Someone’ll come to the rescue on the other Continents right?

It was in that moment that you noticed Isabella running out of the Post Office, crying. You feel no sympathy for that two faced bitch and honestly hope she dies in a fire somewhere. And you’d never wish someone to die in a fire, that shit fucking hurts, you’d know. If Cat’s responsible for that you’re going to give him a god damned bonus just for making your day that much better. But you were so focused on Isabella that you crash into the pole just outside the Post office, and since you were going a little faster then normal you trip and fall. But you’re so COOL that you turn it into a cartwheel and get back up, doesn’t look like anyone noticed.

> Check your status window and Achievements
Unfortunately you’ve yet to unlock any achievements so that window isn’t available. You tried the moment Mint brought it up. And as for your status window:

Name: Willamina Hadlee III
Age: 24
Energy: 7/10 (1 energy is recharged every 5 minutes)
Powers:
ICE (1) - Upgrade? [2]
The user has some resistance towards the cold.
The user can freeze liquids including ambient moisture in the air and manipulate it to a minor extent.

STORM (2)- Upgrade? [2]
The user has some resistance to wind.
The user can generate winds of varying intensities and shapes from their body

You’ve been messing around with your power a little bit and can generate effects based off of the amount of energy you expend. It’s easier to do windy things because your STORM power is a little stronger, but it’s harder to do ICE things because it’s weaker.

Willamina can spend energy up to the total level of a skill to create effects using the skills. She can spend points on things like the RANGE it can travel, the SIZE of the projectile created, the NUMBER of projectiles, if it’s a MIST, if it’s at all CONTROLLABLE, etc. She can spend points past the level limit to create stronger effects but loses control of the ability after it is cast, fore example she could expend 2 energy on making a sharp projectile of Ice, hardening it, and 1 energy on STORM to launch the projectile, but it would be unstable and could dissipate at any moment after it was created because she spent too much energy, it could even explode and backfire, dealing damage to Willamina, so be careful!
>>
No. 997735 ID: afe7de
File 161940289851.png - (14.16KB , 500x500 , C2_136.png )
997735

You walk into the Post Office and see Cat sitting at the booth, reading over a book intently, but it looks like he’s been crying. And to his side is, ugh what a shitty haircut. Max used to have that same haircut and it was gawdess awful. You already don’t like this guy. But best not jump to conclusions. But since you’re in a great mood, you’re not going to pull any punches with this guy either. The man turns towards you and is about to speak when you cut him off.

You: Hey, Cat, Is this the Heroes League CHUCKLEFUCK I was waiting for?

Liminal maintains a straight face throughout this event. You hate guys like this, who don’t even have a facial response to being disrespected. You’re glad they sent you a pushover, maybe you can get some extra shit out of this deal after all. Cat pulls the book he was holding down under the table, there’s some papers and photographs on it but you don’t pay any attention to them, instead directing your gaze towards Cat. He turns to look at you.

Cat: Hmm, yeah. This is Liminal, apparently the whole ordeal isn’t going to be too wild.

You: GOOD. I want to deal with this and have you out of my BURNED, SCARRED SKIN as fast as possible, just as I assume you do too from how you’ve TREATED me in the past.

Liminal looks a bit taken a back and looks down slightly.

Liminal: I-I. Yes. Um. My sincerest apologies, I was not responsible for that decision and fought tooth and nail for you to get better treatment.

You: Tooth and nail huh? Let me see your Badge.
>>
No. 997736 ID: afe7de
File 161940291337.png - (11.25KB , 500x500 , C2_137.png )
997736

He pulls it out and Willamina gives it a once over. She slides it back to him and slams her palm into the table, causing Cat to jump but Liminal to remain unphased. That’s strike one.

You: BULL. SHIT. You were only 16 when it happened, you would have barely been old enough to be in the HEROES LEAGUE, let alone hold any position of authority in the matter even if you were in the NEOPHYTES. DONT. FUCKING. LIE. TO. ME.

Liminal: I was hoping this would go better… Well, believe it or not I was the one who made sure they paid your medical bills but I don’t expect you to believe me without evidence.

He pulls out a piece of funny colored glass and gestures you to the side. You stay put.

Liminal: *AHEM* I uh, need you to give me a demonstration of your powers. This device will tell me if you’re awakened.

Out of the corner of your eye you notice Cat raise an eyebrow at that, but he doesn't say anything.

What do you do? And what else do you say to this guy, Liminal Hiro? A rank Hero? You’re going to be better than this guy one day, mark your words. The idea of using your power, but aiming it as a projectile at him comes to mind, but even though you’re pissed he lied to you, you’re still in a good mood regardless. Maybe you should tone it down? Or maybe you shouldn’t...

Cat will occasionally chime in on the conversation depending on how things go, but you cannot control him for this segment.
>>
No. 997738 ID: e51896

Look at the pictures on the table, ask him why Cat was crying? He didn't make your valued employee upset, did he?!
>>
No. 997739 ID: b1b4f3

>>997734
>Max won't get anything until he's 30
Probably so that he'd stay humble. A true hero must understand the plight of the common man, or something like that.

>>997736
Eh, calm down a little, if only to lull him into a false sense of security. Hit him with a snowball, or something harmless like that. Also tell him to get a new haircut, that one went out of style 10 years ago.
Did you see his full name? Seems fake, right? His last name is "hero"!

Take a look at the stuff on the table. Is that a fucking photo of Max?
>>
No. 997748 ID: 8483cf

Did he park nearby? I think it's time for a demonstration of how big we can make our hailstones.

Make it lumpy.
>>
No. 997751 ID: 094652

>Max won't get anything until he's 30
Saba may have intentionally starved Max of his inheritance until after the apocalypse.

>Isabella
She cries cute for a psycho.

>Show powers
Cat is trying to tell you something. Make Mid-Ritual Disorientation here wait ambiguously. Heh. What a stupid name. Wonder what anagrams it could form as you stare at Cat's silly charades.
>>
No. 997754 ID: f8fa51

He's obviously lying, and doubling down on that lie too, though you're not sure why. Give him what-for verbally, but definitely don't assault him. Chill the air around him as a demonstration.
>>
No. 997758 ID: 9a2966

Eh, ease up for now. Maybe he’s the one who made Isabella cry, after all. Probably told her the odds of her Awakening or something and she’s all bitter and sad you got it and not her.

Get him (and yourself) a glass of water and chill them. Never let it be said you’re not a gracious host.

Glance at the pictures as you drink and then spray your contents all over his face (or to the side if your COOL holds) when you see one of them include Max of FUCKING all people.

Was this guy Neophyte alongside Max? That... might explain things a little. Though you seriously doubt he had any sway at all at the time so he’s still gotta be bullshitting some.
>>
No. 997760 ID: b1b4f3

Oh, you should ask what happened with Isabella. I'm sure you'd form a favorable opinion of whoever was responsible for that.
>>
No. 997774 ID: 563489

>>997736
might as well go for it, make it so there's no doubt.

perhaps a mini snow flurry, like your reveal at the bar but moreso.
>>
No. 997784 ID: 4560e1

Calm down, but dont do as he says yet (if anyone is going to reveal his true identify, it's Will)

Check the photos. (If they have a picture of Max or anyone that looks like they're from Cat's family pic from yesterday, you'll have questions!)
>>
No. 997793 ID: ce39da

Localized temperature-dropping [AURA]. A [GENTLE] gust to the face. These playful gestures should suffice.

"Oh, by the way, who made Isabella cry?" Promise to buy that one a drink tonight.
>>
No. 997803 ID: 309237

Give him a cold shoulder.
>>
No. 997837 ID: 031458

I GOT IT

Use wind to create a tiny, turbulent, vortex in the palm of your hand. Concentrate on forming ice there as well.

The wind will constantly ablate the small amount of ice you are able to make and focus it in the center of the vortex, until you form a SNOWBALL.

Then PEG HIM IN THE FACE WITH IT.

Demonstrates your power, lets you get out the aggression, perfectly harmless.
The perfect solution.
>>
No. 997858 ID: 9f8373

I mean, when are you going to get a chance again? Don't feel a huge need to back down, just don't go full shooting the messenger. Though the outright lying is definitely not cool. Some random stranger handled your medical bills? Your too COOL for that BS to fly.

For showing off? Maybe a localized, 2-4 point wind vortex? Nothing harmful, but maybe a wedgie sort of thing.
>>
No. 997914 ID: afe7de
File 161950275758.png - (8.90KB , 500x500 , C2_138.png )
997914

> Waste his time.
You’ve dealt with his type before. Wants to get you to do minor shit that inconveniences you like getting up to do something that can be shown sitting down, just so he can have emotional high ground and you’re more likely to respond positively because you see him in a position of authority. At least that’s how you think it was when you read about the subject.

> Check on Cat.
You look at cat and the tears have dried but you can see the residual redness and his occasional sniffles that very much indicate a recent really emotional response. You turn to Cat and in the corner of your eye you swear you see Liminal grimace slightly at being ignored. Good.

You: You OKAY Cat? You look like you were crying, pretty HARD too.

Cat: *SNIFF* Yeah, sorry. He just uh, to make a long story short he knew my big bro and had a photo and it got kind of emotional. I took a copy of it cause I dont really have anything other than this one family photo.

> Look at the photo of Max and Callan
You look over the photos on the table, you recognize Cat’s family photo and see the man you assume to be his brother. Then you look at the photocopied photo and kind of stare at it for a moment. You pick it up and hold it up next to Liminal and compare the two.

You: That HAIRCUT went out of style 10 years ago. You should really change it, it’s DISRESPECTFUL. Also, how did you get this photo. I didn’t realize when Cat showed me this the other night, but I’m 85% CONFIDENT that Max showed me this photo in his wallet before he passed.

Liminal’s expression doesn't change, but you keep up your unblinking stare. Maybe you shouldn’t go too easy on him, even if he had an old photo for Cat, something’s fishy.

Liminal: That’s because I took that photo. Then gave a copy to Maxamillian, may his spirit rest peacefully.

You wonder if he’s deceiving you… After a moment to consider this, you come to the conclusion that Liminal ISN’T LYING about taking the photo. You notice that Cat has two cups of water next to him. You grab the full one and bring it towards you, taking a sip.

You: Fine, I’ll BUY that. But what about Isabella just now? Why’d she run out CRYING?
>>
No. 997915 ID: afe7de
File 161950277413.png - (11.09KB , 500x500 , C2_139a.png )
997915

Cat: I didn’t realize she ran out crying. Liminal asked me to grab an extra cup of water and by the time I got back she was walking out.

Liminal: That girl? She mistook me for someone else. Said my hairstyle looked familiar from outside the office. Then she looked like she was in shocked and left.

You have an exasperated expression on your face. Mistook you for someone else? That’s a load of bull. Though you guess if she came in thinking it was Max or something and realized it wasn't she’d feel pretty broken up about it. You saw the haircut and immediately recognized the similarities, and as much as you hate to admit it she is a bit smarter than you, there’s no way she’d have made that kinda accident. You feel like this is the second time this man has lied to you tonight. You’re feeling uncomfortable, like this man is hiding something else, but you can’t place your finger on it. You’ll have to talk to Cat when all’s said and done. Shit. If Roach was here you could’ve done some dumb telepathic bullshit. You’re still CONFIDENT that things’ll go your way, but now you’re more alert.

> Name Anagrams
A really fucking stupid idea comes to your mind, it’s to check his name for an anagram. Gena talked about these the other day and about how Wanomay has dumb tropes like naming their characters an anagram of their real name and then some alteration of the word hero. His last name follows that trend, but you get nothing with his first name, not much you can do with the letters in LIMINAL. You think you saw a middle name on his ID, but can’t be bothered to remember since this is really just a distraction and you delaying to add tension to the dialogue.

You: RIIIIGHT. Suuure. I thought heroes were all about truth and JUSTICE. Feels like you’re not really showing much SINCERITY here.

Liminal: I’m more of the kind of hero that thinks they have a good sense of judgement.

All of a sudden Cat subtly grabs your thigh. Not in a sexual way, but definitely in a get-your-attention kind of way. You really need some sort of communication device or code or hand signal bullshit cause you’re 90% sure that he doesn't want Liminal to know something. Let’s just make this quick and be done with this unclefucker.
>>
No. 997916 ID: afe7de
File 161950285270.png - (24.34KB , 500x500 , C2_140.png )
997916

> Hailstone his car
You didn’t see a car outside. Speaking of which, where did he park, you wouldn’t expect an A rank hero to walk or ride a bus here.

> Give him the cold shoulder, or make a gentle cold breeze
Nah, that’s too tame. You want to throw something at this asshole.

> Make a snowball?
That could work. But is there even enough moisture for you to? Oh, right, the water cup.

You: Fine. Here’s your goddess DAMNED demonstration.

Liminal raises the glass to his eye again and you grab the cup of water near you, expending [2 ENERGY] to create a small vortex in your hand and to start sucking up water droplets from the cup into your hand. You then Expend [1 ENERGY] to start turning the water droplets into ice particles. It takes around 30 seconds, but you now have a small fist sized snowball in your hand. You don’t really aim and quickly chuck the snowball at Liminal’s head as a gesture of annoyance. Liminal doesent move his head, but moves his hand and the glass out of the way, letting the snowball hit his face. He then moves the glass back to his eye and stares at you through it. You give a light chuckle and look to Cat for affirmation that what you did was at least funny. You notice Cat does have a smirk on his face, but he’s sweating and is doing his best to make eye contact with literally anything in the room other than Liminal. You take the W and look back at him expectantly.

Liminal: Alright, looks like that was in fact an Awakened power and not some kind of magic or artifact. Was that Ice and Wind powers?

You: Yeah.

Liminal holds his hand out on top of the table a bit causing a ring to appear along with two sheets of paper, and a book. You notice Cat calms down a bit and starts looking over the ring and paper.

Liminal: Here’s the paperwork indicating that you’ve recieved your inheritance. Just need you to sign here on both documents, one is yours to keep.
>>
No. 997917 ID: afe7de
File 161950291443.png - (12.33KB , 500x500 , C2_141.png )
997917

You: You’re telling me. That my inheritance. IS. A. SHITTY. RING. And a JOURNAL?!?!?!?

Liminal: Well actually if you just-

You: This is all an elaborate JOKE. There never was an INHERITANCE. You’re all just SHITTY CON MEN. Cat, can you FUCKING believe these people they-

Cat: Uh, It’s not an ordinary ring or book Will, and it’s not all. Read the paper.

You groan and do as Cat says. You’d have continued yelling at the man for a solid 10 minutes if Cat wasn’t here. He’s really trying your patience and good mood. You read over the paperwork. It’s a delivery of goods certificate saying that upon receipt and signing the following items will become the property of one Willamina Hadlee III.

1 Inter-spatial ring - It’s contents could not be verified as they have been locked using some supernatural means. Apparently it’s open-able only by Willamina Hadlee III.
1 Worn Journal - This is an artifact that was seen in Saba’s possession frequently. It’s contents are blank and no amount of investigation has revealed its contents.
Hadlee Estate and it’s surrounding land - You are now the owner of the remains of your former home to do with whatever you wish, be it selling, demolition, and reconstruction, or anything else.
A one-time stipend of 1 MILLION BUX - This will be wired directly to your bank account upon signing the document as an apology for the delay.

You calm down a little bit, alright, there’s probably something good in the ring, or maybe its fucking garbage. And ONLY a MILLION BUX? Are they fucking kidding you. You know FOR A FACT that Saba’s net worth was over 5 Billion EASY. He invented fucking MANA BATTERIES for demon’s sake. And great, The Hadlee Estate at least the land’s worth a few Million BUX. You could just sell that if you were in real need of the BUX.

You: Seriously, not even stocks in his MANA BATTERY production company? Are you. Is this.

You’re starting to get really pissed but cat puts a hand on your arm and rubs it gently. You remember that you’re in a public place, with your coworker, talking to the man who is going to give you your inheritance and preform your breathing exercises. This IS one of the times you’re right to be angry, right to be upset, but it will be a cold calculated anger, not a passionate, incoherent one. Liminal’s not saying anything, he’s just staring at you. It’s that same look Max used to give you when he wanted something but didn’t want to tell you what it was. Goddess you fucking hated that shit.

What do you demand? And how do you kick him out when you’re done?
>>
No. 997922 ID: 094652

>>997917
At this point, you're less angry about not being a multibillionaire and more angry about how thoroughly petty and borderline-monstrous your only remaining biological relative is, when he would rather waste millions in PR to make your life harder than just pay you a fairly decent sum for your loyalty. You wonder how many others he treats like trash and if his greed has been surpassed by a hatred of the poor and needy. Or maybe he's worth even more than 5 billion BUX and wants your inheritance to be a drop so tax services don't realize how much practically-dirty money he really has. Wink wink.
Of course, now the power requirement makes sense - awakening manually would cost a skill book. This covers the cost of a skill book, or less. What a dick.

>What do
Calm the @#$% down. You are now a multimillionaire, and it's all thanks to Cat the Great Awakener. You have a giant estate and enough money to begin a small business, with a secret Power Recruiter who can help you build a giant bomb shelter to weather the apocalypse. Screw Saba, he may have cheated you out of respect but at least he accidentally gave you exactly what you need to outlive him.

>How to kick Liminal out
"I'm so HOT and angry, I need to cool off right NOW."
Flash him, and spew ice out of your nipples while he stares.
>>
No. 997925 ID: e51896

This guy is keeping secrets from you... AGAIN!:

>>997733
>You were told that you were supposed to learn some pretty heavy stuff at age 18, or if you Awakened, whichever came first, but everyone died before then, so you’ll never really know if that was the info. Or maybe it’ll be a part of the inheritance.

>if you Awakened
>Or maybe it’ll be a part of the inheritance.

What you got isn't ALL of your inheritance (maybe). you were also supposed to learn some kinds of secrets upon awakening (perhaps), and he isn't telling you jack!

Demand that he spill the beans as to what that secret is! You don't care how heavy it'll be, you've overcame so much shit in your life that a secret you were supposed to learn upon awakening won't bring you down. Claim that it was part of your inheritance (even though it probably isn't true)

Afterwards, as far as kicking him out goes, use the rest of your energy to use your wind power to push him out of the post office as soon as he stands up for a handshake. Aim for his tie first. That way, if the artifact is under his tie, Cat can perhaps scan that last artifact he has hidden behind that tie before he is pushed outta here with your wind
>>
No. 997926 ID: b1b4f3

>>997917
Think about it for a minute. That ring was obviously left to you for a reason, it must have some good fucking shit in it. The journal is a mystery they are counting on you unlocking. Cat said it's not an ordinary book, and he knew that without Liminal saying what it was. That means he knows it's an artifact. These are things you are basically destined to have. The 1 million is... enough, for now. It's possible the contents of the ring are worth far more than that. What would you even do if you had more?
Also yes maybe your anger is justified, but does that give you the right to treat him badly? He's just a messenger, in the end. Try to calm down. Maybe you can ask Cat what he thinks of Liminal.

Also jeez, did you even like your brother? Did you reject him for more than the incest taboo? Or are you focusing on his bad qualities because it hurts to remember how much you loved him?
What was Max's power, anyway?

>same haircut as Max
>took Max's photo
>fought for your medical bills
>same "stare" as Max
MY GOD. Could it be... he was a Hadlee fanboy?
>demands
First, demand to know what kind of connection he has to you and Max.
Secondly, demand to know if they found out who killed your family.

If he says you have to sign the paper before he can answer your questions, do it. If Cat has to go into another room first, do it.

How do you kick him out? Well that depends on who he really is, doesn't it? If this is actually a close friend of your brother as well as Cat's brother, then maybe you have to look at what he said in a more favorable light, and consider that he might have known about Isabella's bullying and gave her a piece of his mind. In that case maybe you shouldn't. Maybe he's doing everything he can to help you.

Maybe you should take another look at his ID before he leaves. If his name really is an anagram, what would it spell?
>>
No. 997935 ID: 30b9f6

Look, it's pretty obvious the Heroes' league is screwing with you still, though they've AT LEAST given you scraps and whatever secrets they couldn't unlock themselves... really not a mood-improving thought. Breathe. And boy howdy, you WONDER what THAT JOURNAL is gonna be about? The impending APOCALYPSE maybe??? Even THAT is coming A BIT TOO LATE as far as revelations go. BREATHE.

... bah, there's really only one thing to ask for.

>What do you demand?
AN APOLOGY!

A public apology, front page news, 'HL done goof'd, soz' edition, with all that follows. Not from some one of their public relation rubes either, but from the heads themselves to the LAST OF THE HADLEES.

For leaving you in the lurch when your family died and robbing you of any chance of understanding what the hell your family all died for. For seizing your heritage and wealth with not even a show of remorse at Saba's behest. Because they wouldn't ever even have given you this if you hadn't Awakened, would they? It had to take the equivalent of a MIRACLE for ANYBODY to show up with ANYTHING after TEN - TEN! - years.

Now, you'll consider their FUCKING DISGRACE of an OFFER - he better believe you'll read through this carefully before signing anything - but as far as you're concerned this is not over until you have the right people offering some GODDESS-DAMNED CONTRITION for what they put your through, whatever their justifications.

And he can tell them that. You hope he had a nice visit to Lyst, because unless there's anything else, his time here is OVER.

>How do you boot 'em
Slowly, gently, and with a cold, clammy and scarred hand at the back of their neck, as you lead-push him out.
>>
No. 997936 ID: 611778

You are owed more. You DESERVE more. However, a million bux and a few million more in assets is... enough. Yesterday you were trapped in two cages: A shattered, pained body, and a 9-5 just to get by.
Today you are FREE.
FREE from the chains of your past.
FREE from the shackles of common society.
FREE to carve your own destiny.

If Cat is willing, and you are both very diligent... You could start running dungeons as early as next week. Money would be no object from then on.

... Who's going to run the post office?
Life just got a whole lot busier.
>>
No. 997938 ID: d19c93

>>997917
This isn't over, not by a long shot, it'd be improper not to kick up a fuss over this but it seems the ring and the book are assets of unknown worth to anyone but you.
Anything could be in that ring, anything could be on that journal (they specifically call it an artifact)

Which would be useful if, say, Sada was for some reason suspicious of the Hero's League and wanted to get stuff they wouldn't approve of you having to you in a fairly innocuous manner.

(That they snapped up the rest of the inheritence without question or looking back and, assuming Liminal here is telling the truth, needed to be pushed and fought with to cover your treatment, is kinda indicative they might have shady shit going on we don't even know about)
>>
No. 997966 ID: b1b4f3

Oh and don't forget to read the paper completely before you sign it. Should be legit, but unread fine print is always dangerous.
>>
No. 997983 ID: aacf55

Yes, read the fine print... or have Cat read it for you.

Demands: you want compensation for how the herores league treated you, so an artifact would be nice,

And a HEAT RESISTANT COMM we almost forgot about that.
>>
No. 997997 ID: eb1fcc

>>997917
read the fine print, make sure there's no "and the signatory agrees they are forfiet any claim to such and so" shit in there. If you find ANYTHING of that sort, we call in a contract lawyer right here and now.
>>
No. 998017 ID: afe7de
File 161957156617.png - (10.15KB , 500x500 , C2_142.png )
998017

> Only remaining Biological relative
Gramps, you mean Saba Hadlee died in the fire 10 years ago. He’s not around anymore.

> Heat resistant COMM
You can just take a trip to the city later and get one, it’s not like he has one on his person. They cost like 10K BUX because they’re supposed to handle all sorts of situations and are advertised to adventurers, they have batteries that last like up to 2 years without needing a charge.

> Feelings on max
You loved Max like a brother, and sure you even smooched and did… STUFF… growing up, the four of you all did. It’s a small town after all with not much to do. But just because you love someone doesn't mean you can’t think their hair is stupid or their attitude is shitty. It’s probably a combination of a lot of small things that made you NOT want a relationship with him, just familial love. And yeah, maybe you’re focusing more on the bad qualities because it hurts to remember him, but coming from this fucker it feels like a mockery of something that should just STAY a memory.

> Max’s Power
Max could WARP things. But you weren’t perceptive enough back then to understand how it worked. He used it to play pranks at times by moving stuff around and hiding things, or making a door look like it was two feet to the left causing you to bump into the door frame.

> Calm down
You’re just agitating yourself with all this thinking. You’re a very COOL lady, you don’t want to calm down right now but maybe it’d be for the best. Shooting the messenger doesn't solve any problems, but it does make you feel better. You’re SUCCESSFUL in calming down, but you feel unease creeping up on you. You grab one of the papers and hand it to Cat. You know he’s smarter than you.

You: Hey Cat, give this a READ over, check for any BS we need to be aware of, I’m BAD at going over contracts.

Cat: Sure. Gimme a bit.

You give Cat a friendly squeeze on the shoulder. This seems to upset Liminal for some reason, but you don’t really think too hard about it. You’re free from Pain, the shackle of common society, you’re soon to be free of your past, and can carve your own future. This at least bolsters your confidence and allows you to start listing out your demands.
>>
No. 998018 ID: afe7de
File 161957161949.png - (9.57KB , 500x500 , C2_143.png )
998018

You: While he CHECKS that I have some… questions. First off. Apparently my family members were supposed to learn something when they AWAKENED or turned 18. Know anything about THAT?

Liminal: Sorry, I don’t have that info for you.

You: Doubted you would. What about about who killed my family HUH? Any info on that. Any CLUES? I’ve not heard a PEEP about the investigation for YEARS.

Liminal: The investigation into that has been closed. The only thing we were able to find out was that someone or something in the house caused the death of your family members.

You: I’m trying REALLY hard to not sock you in the face right now. You’re being EXTREMELY unhelpful, you know that. FINE. What about a goddess damned APOLOGY Huh?

Liminal: On behalf of the League I can-

You: No. Not from you. I want a PUBLIC apology, on the fucking news, from whoever the head of the LEAGUE is, whatever Walpole is still in charge, for this delay, for this bullshit, for SEIZING my heritage and wealth and not even a fucking “that sucks I’m sorry” from ANYONE or at Gramps behest. Because none of this would have even happened if I didn’t literally win the superpower LOTTERY. It took a MIRACLE for someone to show up with ANYTHING after TEN, count it, TEN FUCKING YEARS.

It looks like you’re wearing down on Liminal, like he’s not used to this kind of pressure from someone. Or maybe he feels guilty, or maybe he’s just sweating from how unbearably hot it’s getting. It’s fucking MAY, fuck if you care though, at least you’re getting somewhere.

Liminal: Unfortunately that’s impossible. This situation was orchestrated by Gra- er- Saba Hadlee. It was all in his Will. They won’t apologize for something that isn’t their fault.

You: Not even some fucking RENUMERATION for 10 years of nerve pain that could have been EASILY solved had they paid for better fucking doctors or just ONE DAY of an awakened with a fucking healing power just STOPPING BY? Like I’ll take a fucking artifact or some extra DAMNED BUX? Don’t you have any sense of DECENCY in you.
>>
No. 998019 ID: afe7de
File 161957163588.png - (14.57KB , 500x500 , C2_144.png )
998019

Liminal: I uh didn’t know, they didn’t give me uh. Shit uh what do I. Maybe that?

Liminal holds out his hand and a small, rusted dagger plops onto the table. It’s absolutely filthy, coated not only in rust but dried blood and dirt. The handle looks clean enough to pick up.

Liminal: This is all I have right now, sorry. It’s probably useless to you but it’s an artifact that grants the user an ability that has to do with daggers before disintegrating. It can’t be used by anyone that’s awakened though.

You: WHATEVER, at least it’s SOMETHING. Cat, you finished reading it yet?

Cat: Yeah, there’s stuff I didn’t know about in here. It’s a magically binding contract which is probably how they’re going to know to wire the money, something about not being liable or responsible for what you do after you accept the contract. That if you wanted a job working at the Heroes League they’d offer you one at a fair pay rate (that isn’t listed) or permission to go dungeon diving in Donjon’s Dungeon that you and your party of up to 6 individuals would have free access to it for 1 month, but have to then pay a reduced annual 1,000,000 BUX fee to get a delving license, or join the League and be subject to their mandated tax and donation rates but continue to have free access. I didn’t realize you had to be a Hero or pay to go in.

You: Wow. So Generous. Be a corporate SLAVE and give up my hard earned winnings in the DUNGEON, or pay exorbitant fees, that just so happen to be the amount they’re GIVING me, just to go in. You know, it’s shit like this that PROBABLY caused the dungeon break I bet. SHIT like this is how the world is going to END I swear to Goddess.

Cat looks distressed at that train of thought, like he hadn’t thought about it before.

Cat: You mean it’s likely Callan got an item that could have awakened me sooner? And I could have done something to stop- but he had to get rid of- maybe my whole family could’ve-

Cat’s looking queasy, disgusted and is nervously looking around the room in a panic. You grab a hold of his hand in an attempt to calm him. It works a little as his breathing steadies. You take the contracts and sign both of them. Within 20 seconds you hear a notification from your phone, looks like the money was deposited to your bank account. You now have 1,005,042.69 BUX in your bank account.
>>
No. 998020 ID: afe7de
File 161957167438.png - (50.42KB , 500x500 , C2_145.png )
998020

You: I hope you had a nice visit to Lyst, BECAUSE unless there’s anything else, your time here is OVER.

You get up and point to the door, which causes Liminal to take the signed papers and start walking out. You think you hear him mumble something, but can’t make it out clearly.

Liminal: Good to s- … -in too.

You’ve had it up to your scarred breasts with this guy. You spend your remaining [4 ENERGY] on an uncontrollable wind blast in an attempt to knock him off his feet and out your Post Office.

You: And what kind of SHITTY beast-kin DOESENT have a TAIL huh?!?!?

It does knock him off his feet and send him through the door, but he drops something. It’s a rectangular brick of some kind. You bend over and pick it up. It looks like an old fashioned tape recorder. Was he… Recording this conversation? Cat walks up to you confusedly and is staring directly at the open door. You toss the device on the ground with as much force as you can muster, but it vanishes before it can hit the ground as Liminal dashes into the room, grabbing it.

Liminal: It’s rude to try to break other people’s personal property you know.

Cat: It’s Illegal to record someone without their con-con-c-c-c-sent.

Cat just starts stuttering and looking at the space right between him and Liminal. It’s like he’s looking at something there. Cat flinches and covers his head with a light yelp, falling over. Liminal gets up and dusts off his suit. Looking past you and directly at Cat.

Liminal: Ah, so you CAN see him after all. I was wondering about that. No artifacts on you, so it must be an Innate ability or extension of your own. Interesting. I can sense I’m not welcome here. I’ll keep my promise about your power being confidential, for now.

You: Don’t you FUCKING threaten my frie-

But with a wave of his hand he vanished. Cat gets up and looks around in a panic but after a few moments he calms down and takes a deep breath.

Cat: Man he was so nice before you showed up, like why did he have to become so… smarmy…
>>
No. 998021 ID: afe7de
File 161957170499.png - (11.75KB , 500x500 , C2_146.png )
998021

You spit on the floor in disgust as you head back into the post office, flipping the sign to closed and locking it.

You: Cat, grab the stuff with your ring, let’s head back to my place and talk. I don’t think either of us is in the mood to finish out the work-day.

Cat: You can say that about 8 more times yeah. Should I clean up some of-

You: Leave it. It’s just some cups anyway. And they wont be coming to pick up any outgoing mail until tomorrow morning and they’ve got the key for that.

Cat tosses his vest and hat on the counter, grabbing the things on the table, including the cups half filled with water, and follows you through the back door to your place. You pass by the laundry room and open another door that leads into the main room of your humble abode. It’s hot so you strip to just your PANTIES and SPORTS BRA, turn on the AC. You head back to the kitchen and get some glasses and a bottle of your weaker wine and take a seat on the dining room table with a groan. Cat strips off his sweater and pants, tossing them on the couch and you notice his tattoos and scars for the first time. The scars aren’t as cool as yours, but they tell a story all the same.

You pour yourself a glass and gesture if Cat would like some, he nods and you pour him a glass too. You both take a moment to just process what happened, you got your inheritance but it certainly wasn’t as great an experience as you were expecting. That fucking HL rep didn't help the matter. You feel a large chip in your CONFIDENCE From all of that, it was a bit STRAINING. You down your glass of Wine but don’t pour yourself another just yet. Cat does the same after seeing you do it.

You: Hey cat, did I go TOO FAR with that guy? Get a bit too aggressive?

Cat: Umm. I don’t know if I would have had the confidence to tear into that guy like you did. You kind of uh, shot the messenger so to speak, even if he was shady as all heaven. And uh that one comment about his tail was kind of racist lots of beast kin don’t actually have tails or it could have been cut off in an accident…

You: Eh, I’ll admit I was reaching. I just WANTED to insult him one more time.

It’s 4:15PM, you wanted to see about asking Cat if he was interested in going to the FILM CLUB tonight at 8PM, but you’re not really feeling it anymore. Plus this might just turn into a big planning session and all about who to awaken, what these items really do, who to trust, going to the Hadlee estate to cry and/or piss on Gramp’s grave, blah, blah, heat resistant comm, blah, blah. Ugh and you had some texts to look at too bluuuuuughhhhhhhhh. What do you do now?
>>
No. 998024 ID: 094652

It's your property now.
Dig up your family's graves.
Most of them are just charred skeletons and ashes anyway.
>>
No. 998025 ID: 0fae41

Make fun plans. Think back to whichever hero gramps hated the most and park a big fucking statue of them on his plot. Maybe as part of a 'founders' memorial' so it's just subtle enough.
>>
No. 998026 ID: 031458

>Plus this might just turn into a big planning session

Oh it definitely will. There's just too much to do and talk about.

But you know what?
You just got off work.
A ton just happened.
It's hot in here.
There's a hot guy in front of you that you cooked dinner for last night.
Have him make some lunch/afternoon snack for YOU, and then both of yall take off the rest of those cloths.

Get some GOOD TIMES in before dealin' with this shit after.
>>
No. 998027 ID: b1b4f3

>>998018
>Gra-
He almost called Saba Gramps.
And he just warped away.

Maybe it's time for you to realize who that really was, have a minor breakdown from the shock, and ask Cat if he knew too.
>>
No. 998047 ID: 1caf2b

You know what? We should really wait to do this planning until Mint gets back at 4:30... it's 4:15 right now sooo...

Fuck it, lets fuck Cat. Goddess knows he deserves it.

Check your texts real quick, then Ask Cat if he wants to continue where we last left off before we went to the bar to show off the ice powers yesterday, while giving him a bit of a strip tease
>>
No. 998050 ID: f8fa51

I mean sure, relieving some stress right now seems like a good idea if Cat's up for it.
>>
No. 998056 ID: e51896

first, check texts

Plan of action:

-The rusted dagger, and Cat's shitty multitool should be given to Mint to tinker with to make them better when she gets the time.

- Ask Cat what he saw, and how he saw what he saw. You didn't see anything.

- after Cat finishes visiting us with planning, Cat should get the incubator for the lucky egg, succulent and jerky for Rex, and a white slushee (to raise his cool when he goes to Iraphena so his emotions will stay relatively fine against her emotion detection) at the mart. give him some extra cash to make sure he has enough

- Cat should check the artifacts at Iraphena's place. As for getting a favor from her, not yet. (we could get some money from Andrea for the paper mill to build a Tinker workshop instead of wasting a favor on Iraphena)

-Discuss using some of your inheritance to get Cat a place at the apartments. You're sick of hearing people calling him poor.

- Check the contents of the inheritance.

- Cat should awaken Cannie tonight after he goes on one of Cannie's late night jobs, with the skill book. Afterwards he can ask her about dungeon exploring with us.

...

But really, all of this should be discussed when Mint gets here in 15 mins. For now, we need to relieve our stress so we can be clear headed for planning with Mint.

So... lets get some action with Cat. Make it obvious to him this time that you're ready for some fuck to relieve stress.

(If he talks about his high mod, eh, whatever, it should be fine, it'll only last for like and hour, we can do planning after the high wears off. Mint will understand.)
>>
No. 998057 ID: e51896

>>998056
Oh yeah, and probably get some magic training with Mint before he visits Cannie for one of her jobs.
>>
No. 998061 ID: 2e177b

I hadn't noticed before, but since it was just spelled out, it seems the Demon Eye Amulet evades Liminal's magic detector glass. I wonder what else does.

Also on the pic: Doesn't Cat keep the amulet around one of his arms? I doubt he'd take it off now that he knows of an invisible foe...
>>
No. 998062 ID: e51896

>>998061
The amulet is on his ankle. Liminal probably didn't see the amulet and phoenix ring because he only saw Cat's upper body when sitting behind the table.
>>
No. 998064 ID: 30b9f6

>>998062
There is another item Liminal/Max definitely should have seen though - the storage ring! But he still suggested he didn't see that either, even if he SAW it (possibly he presumed it was a fake reproduction of Callan's ring). He still should've KNOWN about it though... IF Miss Iraphena shared that information with Isabella - who would've shared that information with Max for sure.

... so Miss Iraphena kept quiet about it.

Maybe she's a two-timing double/triple/quintuple agent? Would be easy for someone with her power to play all sides.

Furthermore, Cat must either have an Innate Skill that obscures their true power, their actions and any Artifacts they own from supernatural surveillance, or the Arcane Catalyst power does this naturally... or someone or something else is shielding him in this manner.
>>
No. 998065 ID: e51896

might also have to do with why Iraphena can't seem to predict us either and always seem surprised by our appearance when we run into her.
>>
No. 998075 ID: 30b9f6

Let's not go TOO FAR on any planning - make some easy, achievable steps for now. Sip some wine, calm down and get dangerous(ly organized).

>What was that about 'seeing' someone?
Ask Cat - what did he see that Liminal was talking about?

>Who to Awaken?
Sounds like he's got something he wants to give Cannie. You approve. Cannie's good kin, surprisingly level-headed despite being a musclebrain and has been talking about wanting lightning powers. Do so ASAP.

This knife that can give someone knife-wielding powers? Could be useful if you intend to go on a dungeon run. Does Cat have any suggestions for who to give it to? You're half tempted to offer it to Gena - she's a natural backstabber - uh, by which you mean she can be unassuming. Pretends to be real shy - isn't, hoo boy, isn't - and can be damned precise with a pair of scissors. You can imagine her doing well with something wickedly sharp. Even if it turns out to be a crappy power, there's the opportunity to boost it. You'd like to ask her if she'd want some other power first, though - or even if she's up for whatever world-saving shenanigans you'll get up to.

And yeah, initially you can present awakening opportunities as something afforded to you by your inheritance - you buying shit 'n such. That should give Cat some cover until you're ready to reveal.

>Who to recruit?
You should probably bring in more people so Cat has someone to work on. Consider who that should be.

Cannie and Gena, obviously, since you already suggested those.

Andrea's cool, but her powers aren't necessarily combat-focused (Cat can pipe up about offering to lending her the magic-learning book he got from Liminal - she should have time enough to read it and practice on the side, thanks to her Powers), but she IS an experienced cop and her out-of-town triplet is apparently some kind of combat badass so maybe it runs in the family.

You'd like to bring in Gruk. The guy's all talent and heart and you can imagine he'd do great things if empowered further. Would be a good healer in a dungeon party as well. Might want to live a quiet life, though. You'd have to persuade him. But... all heart. He'd be persuadable, especially considering what's at stake.

Anyone else that come across as reliable and trustworthy? As is, you do have a team of seven: Cat, Mint, Cannie, Gena, Andrea, Gruk and you, which is one more than the six allowed by Donjon's Dungeon. Speaking of which.

>Donjon's Dungeon
So, was the offer of a HL "job" that you'd need to apply for it NOW? If not, you can leave it be and pin your hopes on Mint's detector for the time being, while keeping it in your pocket. If it DID start ticking, you'll need to start prepping for applying for said job and for trips over there so you can maximize your gains while you can, before QUITTING once you've done so. You're not paying those assholes 1 MILLION BUCKS for the privilege of being their workhorse - at least not until you have a team that can FUCKING WRECK their damn 'exclusive' TO SHIT AND BACK.

And, sorry to say it Cat, but while the early levels could be fine to bring them along with, later ones might not be so great for someone without combat powers. You'll definitely bring 'em if they want - hell, do everything in your power to make it work out - but practically speaking, it's a risk on their end and they are... important. Well, a risk on everyone's end, really, but at least people with combat-aspected powers have a better shot at survival.

At any rate, if with the Double-Dee you need to: APPLY FOR THE HL JOB - CREATE A PARTY - DO RESEARCH ON THE DUNGEON - and maybe RECRUIT A VETERAN AWAKENED FROM THE BIG CITY to run you through the early parts efficiently. It'd be a bonus if they're already a Hero or paying member so you don't have to pay for them entering as part of your 6-person party.

>Post office replacement(s)
You need to secure replacement workers for the post office, dammit. If Cat wants to keep their cover, you can have them stay in the role for now, but you'll talk to Nicky about getting him some help while you're taking a sabbatical to deal with inheritance stuff - hell, you could fund some of that yourself now? If they want to be released to focus on their own thing, you'll pay for a second replacement as well.

>New Base
You've got two options for a base camp and place to fund stuff as you see it. The ABANDONED PAPER MILL and THE HADLEE ESTATE. The latter has the benefit of already being owned by you and the con of being A COMPLETE RUIN and the former has the benefit of being CHEAP AS FUCK and NOT A COMPLETE RUIN, but the disadvantage of being FUCKING HAUNTED and, more importantly, further from town - which might be an advantage, but it does mean it could FUCKING BURN DOWN before anyone noticed. Which would suck.

So. REBUILD HADLEE HOUSE or MAKE DO WITH THE MILL? What does Cat think? Heck, you might be able to dig some stuff out from under the ruins, so there's a possibility there as well. If you're not planning to make use of it, though, you're considering selling the ESTATE.

(Cat should - a little red-facedly - pipe up about Andrea maybe being able to fund stuff, too, if she's brought on board / bribed with sex.)

>Mail order a proper COMM
Just do it now.
>>
No. 998077 ID: 10ea40

>>998075
>Team of seven
Oop, you mean eight. Forgot about Rex.
>>
No. 998092 ID: 47034a

Im tempted to turn the estate into a rival organization to the heroes league and ironically call it the Villains Alliance, just to stick it to the Heroes League (though your group isnt evil, just more considerate to dungeon explorers who want to be selfish and dont wanna share their wealth to the alliance)

Or maybe call it the vigilante alliance.
>>
No. 998202 ID: afe7de
File 161965882073.png - (14.98KB , 500x500 , C2_147b.png )
998202

> Wait for Mint.
She should be getting here in like 15 minutes. You’ll shoot her a text and let her know to come to your house.

Willamina: Come to my place, it’s around the other side of the Post office. Just give a knock and Ill let you in.

> Magic training with Mint
She mentioned something about that, but after asking you a few questions and trying to get you to do a few things she realized your aptitude was worse than ABYSMAL and that it’d be nearly impossible for you to learn magic unless you were SMARTER, something about forming ideas in your mind and performing what amounted to detailed math equations at the same time. Damn your stupid stupid brain, it went over your head. At least you have Ice and Wind powers.

> Check your Texts.
You pull out your COMM, your wallpaper’s from this con where you met someone cosplaying as the protagonist of this Wanomay you like, Reincarnated as a Maid-Sempai, it’s about this girl who gets reincarnated in a world as a guy that gets assigned the MAID class, so everyone makes fun of him until he flirts his way into becoming the Queen’s maid and concubine. It’s cliched as fuck but it has some really funny moments. The COMM it’s been cooled off since you got that notification from your bank earlier and notice you have just a lot of messages.

But first you check your email, yup a notification about the bank transfer and, oh hey they paid the taxes on it so you don’t have to deal with that at the end of the year. Small miracles. And… there’s the deed to the Hadlee Estate and surrounding land. It’s written out in your name and if you want the original copy you can have them send it to you, it’s being kept in a bank in Donjon until you need it. There’s also an email about the dungeon license voucher, it’s redeemable any time within the next year. Kinda fucking rushing int don’t you think HL? Cat takes out his Comm and decides to go through it too. You decide to take your time to go through your messages and some of the ones before it, just to jog your memory, it’s been a bit of a wild day and your mind’s a little hazy.

Willamina: I was told to text this number if I awakened. Happened like an hour ago.
Willamina: This is Willamina Hadlee III
Willamina: Is this the right Number?
Heroes League Assigned Rep: This is Representative 069, sorry for the wait. Do you still work at the post office in Lyst?
Willamina: Yep.
Heroes League Assigned Rep: A representative will be at your place of work at around 3PM, the process should be quick. Congratulations on your Awakening. Please Confirm.
Heroes League Assigned Rep: Have you received our previous message? Our rep will be there shortly but we’ve gotten no confirmation, please respond.
Heroes League Assigned Rep: Our rep has confirmed that the inheritance has been delivered and paperwork signed. This number will be deactivated now, have a nice day.

Har-de-ha-ha. And they just throw you away after delivering the inheritance. Fuckin whatever. Not like you gave a monkey’s ass about them. What else is there? Looks like some spam advert.

SPAM: We have new [M-Phones MK19] in stock made specifically for dungeon delving. Records your position and generates a map at realtime as you travel. Built in extra strength flashlight for the darkest of caverns. Measures the Mana density in the air giving you an approximation of how large the floor you’re on actually is! Heat and Cold resistant, tested by being dropped in lava and liquid ice, still functional up to 5 meters below in extreme conditions and up to 1000 meters below sea level in normal conditions! We’ve even installed a brand new feature,a (.1)x(.1) meter square interdimensional space accessable by APP, keep your precious potion or wallet or keys inside! Also includes a recharging mana battery that only runs out of power after continuous use for at least one year, and will be back to full with a day of inactivity! All for the low low price of 11,099 BUX! Next day delivery available now.

This is an extremely targeted ad, you sometimes wonder if your COMMS are listening in on your conversations. Though this one’s probably more related to your Internet search history. You’ve been eyeing something like this for a while. You wonder how they managed to get a pocket space into something so low cost though. You open up the page and order it. It’ll be delivered to the Lyst-Y-Mart tomorrow at 8AM. Here’s something from an unknown number.

???: Don’t trust the Heroes League. -N

Yeah, already on that. Looks like you can’t reply to the message. Whatever. You block the number and continue on, next is a message from Cannie.

Cannie: Cat’s actually kinda strong. He beat me in a scrap, could you believe it? Did some fucking kung fu shit with his mana pistol. But I was tired, and just fought like two other dudes so he won’t get me next time!!!

What, even you couldn’t beat Cannie when she’s exhausted. She’d just whittle you down while your soft, ineffective punches did nothing. Your evaluation of Cat has just improved slightly, though who uses a pistol in a fistfight, someone who wants to win you guess... You give a single reply.

Willamina: Lemme watch next time!!!!

Oh, it’s a message from mom, you kind of ignored it for a few days, might as well read it now.

Nicky: Heya sweetie. How’ve you been. You’ve got a lot of vacation time saved up. You can always take a break from work for a little while.
Nicky: Especially since you’ve got that new employee, Cat.
Nickh: I’ll just have Fivin or one of the other City Hall employees fill in there while you’re out, I know yer a bit stubborn about work, but it’s been like 2 years since your last break.
Nicky: Maybe take another trip to Wano with Gena? Those always put you in a good mood, I can buy you a plane ticket if you need the BUX.
Nicky: Oh, and about Cat, he’s keeping it secret but he has some kind of touch based power, so be careful! It seemed harmless, but I don’t want you getting mind controlled and abducted or anything. Let me know if he does anything fishy and we can arrest him, y’know, put the scare of the law into him. Okay hun? Love ya lots, Mom.
Nicky: P.S. Come visit City Hall more! I miss you! It doesn't have to be now, maybe when Isabella leaves so you’re more comfortable. Kisses!
Nicky: CONGRATS HONEY! Oh my gawdess. Now you HAVE to take some time off right? Maybe visit dear old mum in the next building over? Come tonight? I’ll make sure Isabella’s out of the house if you want. Please? I won’t force you or anything. I’ve got a fresh batch of Jerky with your name on it~

What a sweetheart. You have been neglecting her a bit, mostly cause you didn’t wanna hear her nagging you to take a break from work. You guess Cat’s been going around testing people for powers. You’d probably do the same in his position, this is a small town after all. Who’d have thought that a few residents would have those shock artifact things. From what you remember, Isabella, Mom, and Aeglos were the only ones that had them. Isabella got them from her job in the City as a gift to them. No idea why she’d give one to Aeglos though. You notice you have some messages from a blocked number, oh it’s just Isabella. You take a quick peek at the latest message, this should be good.

Isabella: Why’d it have to be you and not me.
Isabella: ITS NOT FAIR.
Isabella: I want Max back.
Isabella: ITS NOT FAIR.

Yeah, back to spam and blocked with you. You just think this is her way of venting and dealing. She took Max’s death worse than anyone. She usually sends these whenever she’s in town, you never respond though, not like there’s a point to it. She’s just batshit psycho. How she can hold a job in the big city as a Data Analyst or whatever is beyond you. Next is a message from Andrea.

FRIDAY 1:00PM
Andrea: Can I stop by for a SNACK?
Will: Ye.
Andrea: Tongue emoji, sweat emoji

SATURDAY 3:00PM
Andrea: A Cat is fine too.
>>
No. 998203 ID: afe7de
File 161965883586.png - (15.23KB , 500x500 , C2_148.png )
998203

You don’t get what that means. Guess she’s saying she still wants to bang Cat. That’s not up to you though. Maybe you could put in a good word about her to him, since he seems a little dense in the area. You’re feeling bored so you scroll through your chatlog with Gena to yesterday afternoon. Maybe you’ll watch that video she sent last night and see if you’re in the mood.

FRIDAY 12:00PM
Gena: Finally finished editing this goddess damned video. I bought these like Anal beads but they’re the size of Billards. Lmk what you think.
> Video Link
Willamina: Yooo, this is pretty fuckin hot. I didn’t know your ass muscles were even strong enough to pop those out yourself.
Gena: (ノ≧ڡ≦) Teehee~! Thank!
Willamina: That Last bead was like so huge though, how’d you even get it in there?!!??
Gena: A~N~A~L M~A~G~I~C
Willamina: Thought it over, invited him to Dinner anyway.
Gena: New harem member, new harem member!!!! (๑✧∀✧๑)
Willamina: When did I get a harem…
Gena: Well theres me and Cannie right? And I guess Andrea is like a satellite member? And now Cat!
Willamina: I never thought about how it all surrounded me tho. But I could get used to being the Alpha, heheheh.
Willamina: YES I WILL HAVE MY BOUNCY HOUSE WITH YOU ALL DRESSED AS MY SLUTTY MAIDS! HEHEHEH.
Gena: Someone’s been watching too much Reincarnated as a Maid-Sempai.
Willamina: It’s good tho. In the so dumb it’s funny kind of way. I’ve only jerked off to the protag like a few times.
Gena: There’s not even good Doujins about it!!! Have some standards!!!
Gena: So you gonna take him to the Bone Zone?
Willamina: I want to! Tho I’m worried he’s shit in bed, intellectual types like him can sometimes be ehhhhh. But he puts up with my shit and seems interested, sooooo.
Gena: Maybe he just likes mean grills? ←~( o `▽´ )oΨ
Willamina: Dunno, I’ll tease him and make him flustered and see if he gets the hint.
Gena: Take a pic of his dick for me!!! I bet Cannie 5 BUX he’s got a mega mondo dong, she bet it was teeny tiny.
Willamina: I’ll bet it’s just like slightly above average, maybe mods? He’s broke though so probably not.
Gena: What if that’s why he’s broke!?!?!? (・ω・)و ̑̑༉ ⑩
Willamina: Oh, he’s here. Will give ya the juicy goss when it’s done.

SATURDAY 12:03 AM
Willamina: So like, remember how I said I thought I’d never ACTUALLY awaken?!?!?
Willamina: I GOT ICE POWERS BITCHES!!!
Gena: Willy! Willy! Congrats!!!! OOHOOOHHH Wheee, YESSSS. You did it!!! ノ´ヮ´)ノ*:・゚✧
Gena: Yer the first of us 3 to Awaken that’s neato! Don’t forget us when yer big and famous!
Gena: See, fucking that boi was a great idea!!! You got powers out of it! _( ┐「ε: )_❤
Willamina: Well… Actually… YEAH, that’s a good way of looking at it. Well we didn’t actually fuck, more like I humped him and we made out until I came. I was so excited about awakening I didn’t actually think to have full on sex. Whoops.
Gena: Awakening is literally the perfect excuse to have sex. I would have had sex with you. I can come over right now and do it, I can’t get you preggo!
Willamina: I think I kinda need a little bit to myself actually. This is kind of emotionally overwhelming. And I’m on the pill anyway, so it’s not cause of that!
Willamina: I’ve got some news about my inheritance but I won’t know about it until tomorrow morning probably…
Gena: I hope you get something! You deserve it for surviving so long on basically nothing. ((´д`))
Gena: OOOH, I’ll get ya a present for your Awakening, maybe a subdermal mod so you can fuck without worrying about getting pregnant? Or have periods anymore?
Gena: Wanna have a little party on MONDAY NIGHT? ♪o<( ´∀`)っ┌iii┐
Gena: Hewwo?
Gena: Oh, you probably fell asleep, have a good night (✿◡‿◡ฺ)zzz
Gena: Good morning!! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
Gena: You OK?
Gena: You said you’d find out some news or something?
Gena: Don’t tell me your battery burst again!?!?! (◕︿◕✿)
Gena: I’ll stop by the Post Office in a few to check on ya.
Gena: Heard what happened from Cat, that sux. Hope ur new phone lasts longer. (◞д◟)
Gena: In a completely unrelated note you totally won the bet on Cat’s dick size. Remind me to give you a fiver next time I see ya.
Gena: And in another completely unrelated note I’ve got new material for an OnlyFaunus video that you might be interested in…
Gena: Ψ(☆w☆)Ψ
Gena: > Picture of her with Cat’s dick in her mouth and Andrea on the side
>>
No. 998204 ID: afe7de
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998204

> Have a quickie with Cat
Your COMPETITIVE SPIRIT has been lit up. So that’s what Andrea was referring to. Goddess dammit, you wanted to fuck him first. It’s just a BJ, it’s fine, you can still claim the first lay on him. Just gotta set the mood and ambiance or some shit. You can imagine the scenario now, Andrea walking in with a super slutty outfit, completely entrancing Cat, giving him an under the desk blowjob. You reach under your panties unconsciously and start gently rubbing your clitoris. Cat’s just grabbing her ears and completely skullfucking her, calling her random words because he can’t actually say anything degrading to save his life. Then Gena walks in and smells his musk, pouncing on him over the desk, revealing Andrea blowing him, so she sits on his face and starts blowing him too, but one of her cocks pops out and slithers down Cat’s throat, eventually Cat weakly pushes her off and sits back down as Gena’s juicy cum dribbles down his mouth, he wipes it off and sits up right when a new customer comes in, that customer doesn't notice a thing as cat stutters and handles their mail. The Floor’s a mess with Gena and Andrea’s juices and it’s in that moment that Gena takes this photo.

You moan a little bit and Cat looks over in your direction, confused. You pull your slightly damp hand up and wave, he smiles and waves back. Dammit he’s dim. You vow that before the night is over you WILL bed Cat, consensually, goddess dammit. Can’t do it now, spent too long on your texts and Mint’s almost here, and Cat seems a little distressed still. The doorbell rings at that moment and you get up, letting Mint in. She looks surprised that you’re in your underwear but then shrugs and walks in.

You: Want some WINE Mint?

Mint: Is that some kind of alcohol? Or a Juice? I’ll pass on the Alcohol for now, it’s a little early, but I’ll have some juice.

You shrug and go back to the kitchen, getting her some ORANGE juice. She accepts that and has a drink. She sets down the backpack on a chair at the end of the table and a little roach pops out. You wave at him and he wiggles an antenna at you. You gather everyone at the table and they take their seats. Roach gets up on a little coaster in the middle of the table, close enough to all of you.
>>
No. 998205 ID: afe7de
File 161965888430.png - (9.33KB , 500x500 , C2_150.png )
998205

> Big ol Planning session
You: Alright the first meeting of the Villain’s Alliance is assembled!

Cat: Goddess, I thought that “The Great Awakener” was a bad enough title. Really Will?

Rex: ISNT A VILLAIN A BAD THING?

You: We’re breaking the norm, going against the traditional “Heroes” of the heroes league that gramps founded, It’s fitting, no?

The room is silent for a moment, no one objects, but no one assents to your claim that this should be your group’s name.

Mint: Soooo. What’s first. Also, why are you both naked? Were you just having hot passionate animalistic sex that would make me jealous?

Cat took that moment to have another sip of his wine and he sputters it out of his mouth right onto Rex, an apology later and wiping and the conversation continues.

You: Believe me, I was considering it. I’m still a little horny, but there’s some more important things we have to cover first. Right Cat?

Cat: Uh. Yeah. Did I suddenly get like 100x more attractive or something to everyone? Maybe uh tonight we can do something? I just. When I cum it gets me and the other person high, so-

You: Mint, Rex, you both as my witness have just heard Cat agreeing to bone me tonight. You better hold him accountable!

Mint: Can I have seconds? It’s either that or I go into the forest and fuck random wildlife.

You’re both bewildered at Mint’s response and explain how to use a brothel, which ends in you giving Cat’s pay and some extra cash, around 50 BUX to Mint so she can go there if she’s really that pent up. She whines about Cat’s musk and wanting to fuck him, but Cat’s hesitant because she’s a slave and doesen’t want to r*pe her or order her. You table the discussion for a later time.

Cat doesn't want to bed Mint right now, but If it’s unanimously suggested in the future Cat can be convinced to have sex with her.

Cat: Actual first order of business. We need a base of operations. Me and Mint are basically homeless and are living out of the Haunch. A place to work out of and live would be ideal, or we could keep working at the Post Office, maybe see if they can hire her too so we have enough to afford an apartment.
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No. 998206 ID: afe7de
File 161965890115.png - (16.47KB , 500x500 , C2_151.png )
998206

You: Pff, don’t worry about money Cat. I’ve got you both covered. I just got a Million BUX after all. I was thinking we could rebuild the Hadlee Estate or something. Might take a few weeks to a month, but you could live out of my house for a while, or we could get you an apartment.

You: And as for work, I could talk to Mom later today and see about getting us some replacements, I’m kind of surprised you just decided to go and work at a post office when you know the Apocalypse is coming. Plus I’ve been avoiding her and she wants to see me.

Cat: Oh wow, uh, thanks Willamina. Uh, I only really found out about that after I started working for a bit. I was tempted to take up Andrea’s offer for BUX for sex too.

You: Not until I fuck you first. After, sure, might be good to have extra money, or talk with her about plans.

Mint: If I may. The Paper Mill is a relatively cheap piece of real estate, it has pipes and wiring that is mostly functional. I looked up the listing online. There are some old worker homes there, a part of the property, they’re pretty bare bones but were designed with modularity in mind so it’s easy to expand or combine them. Given about a week of work I could fix all the damaged parts and install a shower/kitchen area and we could live out of there. It’s a 5 minute walk from the Hadlee Estate and I looked up the zoning laws, the land is directly connected to the Hadlee Estate itself So if you bought that land, you’d essentially be getting a contiguous extension to the Estate. But uh, you’d have to own the Estate for that to matter.

You: I actually now own the rights to it. The land’s kind of big, like 100 acres, like it includes a dense forest, used to get lost in it as a kid. Uhh the only problem is it’s on marshland, so building on it is pretty difficult and would require draining the swamp. We have the technology to do it now, but that alone would cost 100,000 BUX just to clear the flooding. They’d also have to clear parts of the forest, but we’d keep the lumber.

Cat: I feel like we don’t need to clear the swamp. It’s not like we’re going to be building a full on town or anything. Plus, given the coming apocalypse I’d rather build down if possible, maybe if we fuck up so badly there’s no coming back we can make an underground city miles below? Would that work against the Demons or Angels Mint?

Mint: It’s possible Master. The Angels only worried about the surface. We had the last surface settlement and a large energy shield. It was what let us last so long. So I’ll say YES, with the caveat that you’ll probably want to make it kind of deep in case a demon and adventurer decide to detonate some hyper dense mana bomb right above your home. The chances of that are so slim, but not impossible. The demons had a meeting at the capitol of our world and the humans developed a device that took out two of the DEMON COUNTS, maiming the other, and leaving the last one perfectly fine. So as long as we aren’t the epicenter we’ll be fine.

Cat: Well apparently my power is a blind spot for now, so hopefully I wont be painting us as a big target.
>>
No. 998207 ID: afe7de
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998207

Mint: And speaking of underground. I was surveying the environment. There’s something in the shipping/recieving room of the mill. Like underground. I was able to detect a metal structure about a mile or two underground. But it’s too deep for me to do anything about it. I also looked around and couldn’t find anything on the surface. Didn’t have a chance to get any deeper into it before I had to come back.

Cat: How’d you do that? Did you buy a device or something for that?

Mint: Borrowed from Rupert actually, he called it a Ground Penetrating Radar. Finally found someone with brains in this town. Oh, no offense Master and Mistress. Especially not you Mistress since you can’t do magic.

You eyeroll as she continues.

Mint: I just had to make some plans for the Mana detector and he got all excited and was willing to lend me this device. Should take about a week to get the pair done if he works on it solo, if I help it should take 3 days. He’s covering the costs because it’s a relatively cheap build, uses stuff he already had laying around. He was just excited to have a new project to work on, said he was at a deadlock and hadn’t come up with any new designs lately. That one didn’t even take my new tinker powers, Its basic tech where I’m from.

Cat: Yeah, yeah, you’re very smart Mint, thank you.

She coos happily at the praise.

You: Right before I forget, what was it that you saw when we were with Limousine? Laminate? Whatever, earlier?

Cat: Oh right, so keep this quiet but I have an artifact that lets me identify what other artifacts do. That paper was kind of off with what the items you were given do. Oh, and it lets me see spirits, which are a thing, and there was one there, it feigned attacking me and scared me. Uh, I also have a Literal fucking crazy discovery related to Liminal that I’m hesitant to share because it will be shocking, confusing, and probably derail everything we’re doing right now. And I have an insane crackpot theory about the fire among other things that both involve spirits. I don’t want to talk about them right this second, but will do it whenever you’re ready. Just uh, be prepared to get extremely fucking angry probably if you hear either of the pieces of info. And uh we might have to restrain you until you calm down to make sure you don’t do something you regret when you find out about it.

You think for a moment, you did sometimes here Max talking to himself back then, but it would always stop when you got close to him maybe he had a spirit too and that’s how Max and Liminal bonded? You shake off this errant thought and continue.

You: Oh come on, I’m pretty COOL after all, it can’t be that bad.

Cat: It’s bad.

You: Fine, I’ll trust your judgment. Well, let’s check out the goodies!
>>
No. 998208 ID: afe7de
File 161965893164.png - (6.56KB , 500x500 , C2_153.png )
998208

Cat displays the items on the table, including the book given to him by Liminal and gives his description of their abilities:

Sealed Inter-spatial Ring - This ring is sealed and can only be opened by the blood of it’s designated system target Willamina Hadlee III.
Sealed Journal - This journal is sealed and it’s contents can only be revealed by dripping the blood of it’s designated system target Willamina Hadlee III on it.
Normal Dagger of Awakening - It’s name is misleading, intended to distract appraisers of a low to moderate level. It’s true name is [The Rogue’s inner monologue] This artifact can awaken a target, gifting them complete mastery of short bladed weapons, blending with shadows, detection both natural and mystical, lockpicking, and other general skills needed by a master rogue. The target’s SKL and SPD will be boosted appropriately to match their mastery. (DA: I’m a high quality Item, screw those chump low tier items)
Magic Dart Body Cultivation Manual - This manual can at the first stage train you in manipulating mana to create minor spell like effects, it’s second stage teaches you how to cast the most generic spell in the multiverse, Magic Dart. Following stages show you related spells. As you progress through the stages you can eventually turn your limbs or even your body into a magic dart, reducing the energy cost to fire this specific spell and cast hundreds, nigh, thousands of magic darts given the requisite energy pool. The final stage makes your body a conduit for the spell Magic Dart, increasing it’s efficacy tenfold, but making you unable to cast any spell other than Magic Dart. Each stage also lightly increases your body’s fortitude so that you can handle the spells you are slinging.

Mint stares at the Magic Dart book. And stutters before speaking.

Mint: Unholy Shit. There was a wizard on my world, one of the strongest there ever was, it was said she turned herself into a magic dart and slaughtered entire fields of monsters. That she could go toe to toe with the weakest demon count without breaking a sweat. She must’ve written this before she died in the final battle. Or maybe this was how she learned it. Ironically her name was Dart.

You: So they just like take artifacts from worlds they’ve conquered and what, randomly drop them in dungeons?

Mint: Something like that… I’m going to read through this while we talk.

Mint grabs the book and starts leafing through it.
>>
No. 998209 ID: afe7de
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998209

Cat: I guess it’s a good thing you got Liminal to drop this dagger. Holy shit.

You: Kinda want to give it to Gena, she’s a natural backstabber - Not like Isabella, more like uhh, Pretends to be shy, really isnt, is pretty precise with scissors. I can imagine she’d do well with something sharp.

Cat: It’s yours, so you should do with it what you want. Though you should probably ask if she wants to awaken to whatever power she was supposed to have instead using my power. It probably won’t be as good as this one though. But uh, please make sure you can trust her before taking that leap. The more people we let in on this, the easier secrets can get out.

You: Yeah, Yeah. We can trust her. I’ve known her since she came to Lyst. Hard working, unassuming, closet pervert.

Cat: Yup. Definitely that last one.

You imagine Gena in a sexy Rogue or assassin’s outfit. She could pull it off. And it’d be hot too.

You: I’d also like to Awaken Cannie at some point, she’s always wanted lightning powers, so we can awaken her and hope for something like that.

Mint: Isn’t she related to Isabella? Like the Isabella we need to be worried about?

You: I don’t like Isabella the most out of everyone at this table I think, but Cannie we can trust. Uh, making sure she doesent run back to Nunitus immediately will be a problem though, so uh, maybe we slowly get her interest and find a way to have her stay on board.

Rex: DOES SAYING “THE APOCALYPSE IS COMING, WE’RE MAKING A PLAN, PLEASE HELP” NOT USUALLY WORK FOR THESE SITUATIONS?

Cat: WOAH, uh, hey there Roach, forgot about you. But uh, we could try that, yeah.

Rex: MY NAME IS REX NOW.

Cat: Uh, Rex, sorry.
>>
No. 998210 ID: afe7de
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998210

You: Last I guess is unsealing these items, I assume my blood will work.

Willamina gets up and grabs a knife from her drawer, poking her finger causing crimson blood to leak from it. She lets a few drops fall into the book and the ring, there’s a flash and the blood is gone. While you’re wiping your finger Cat looks over the items and reads the updated information.

Willamina’s Inter-Spatial Ring - This artifact is BOUND to Willamina Hadlee III. It can store/retrieve objects when unsealed within it’s 15 cubic meter space.
Saba’s Journal - This artifact is BOUND to Willamina Hadlee III and can only be read and written on by her and those she gives explicit system permission to. Contains the notes of her Grandfather Saba Hadlee.

You put on the ring and aren’t really sure what to do next.

Willamina: So how do you use one of these things?

Cat: You kind of think about the ring and then you’ll like implicitly know what the contents are and can drag things out by thinking about it. It’s a little difficult at first so I’d suggest practicing later so you can quickly draw stuff out. That reminds me, gonna have to stop by Iraphena’s place and see what items she has for sale.

Willamina: There’s quite a few things in here. There’s a metal box of some kind, a piece of paper, 3 artifacts, and something kind of big that I can’t quite wrap my hand around.

What’s in Willamina’s ring? You get to decide the artifacts that Saba Hadlee has left for his granddaughter! Each of your entries will be added to a wheel and the final items will be randomly selected. You’re deciding what the 3 artifacts and the big thing is. Feel free to suggest more than one item.

And What’s in Saba’s journal? Pick 2

A. Saba’s Power Research Notes
B. Saba’s Innate Skill Research Notes
C. Saba’s Spirit Research Notes
D. Saba’s General Research Notes
E. Saba’s Dungeon Research Notes
F. Saba’s System Research Notes
G. Saba’s Tinker Research Notes
H. Saba’s Family Research Notes
I. Saba’s Diary
>>
No. 998216 ID: f8fa51

One of the artefacts is a ring of fire resistance capable of protecting the wearer and, to a lesser degree, anyone they are in direct contact with. Ironically, no-one was wearing it at the time of the fire because it was in the inter-spacial ring.

The contents of the journal are Saba's Diary and Dungeon Research Notes.
>>
No. 998219 ID: 031458

E
F

PORTABLE HUT: A a small primitive looking grass Shack affixed to a keychain.
Creates a safe, breathable, extra dimensional space large enough for 4 people to sleep in comfortably. There is enough food and water for 4 people to comfortably survive one day here. The shack can last for up to 24 hours at a time. There is no entrance or exit, the only way to leave is to deactivate it or wait for it to expire. It takes 16 hours to recharge after use. The actual shack experienced is different each time. Item's cannot be left behind.

HYPER-STABLE CRYSTAL TIME MAGNET
A fairly large metallic crystal that constantly and seemingly impossibly changes shape. It is cold to the touch and has a tendency to shock those who touch it. Is somehow totally mundane.
If made to do work, it will perform as such by drawing in heat from it's surroundings with perfect efficiency.
(Ex: If it placed in wire, it would generate electricity until it reaches absolute zero)
Little more than a novelty on it's own, a clever tinker or engineer could potentially make fantastic and devastating use of it.

IMP RING: Summons 4 imps indefinitely so long as the ring is worn. Any imp slain will be resummoned within 3 minutes. The imps understand commands and follow orders, but are rambunctious. They will act to their own chaotic will if not carefully directed.
>>
No. 998225 ID: b1b4f3

Hmm, could that "don't trust the hero association" message have come from Nicky? Not a good idea to block the number, regardless.

>>998210
>ring artifacts and big thing
Artifact: Mostly-Endless Goblet of Water-- a goblet that's always full of water. Has an internal capacity of 500 gallons, and can empty as fast as it can be pulled out. The internal tank fills at a rate of 1 gallon per minute. Water created this way fades from existence after 30 minutes unless ingested or put in a sealed container. Sealed water will fade if the container is left open for more than 24 hours, and will fade at a rate of 1 gallon per minute. Ingested water never fades, even after it is expelled from the body.
(the goblet is designed to allow Will better access to her ice power, though she might want some kind of gadget built around it to prevent it from spilling all over the place during a fight and allow her to wear it on a belt or something)

Artifact: Cloak of Elements-- a cloak that can be set to align itself to a specific elemental affinity such as heat, cold, water, air, earth, acid, alkaline, electricity, light, dark, etc etc. The wearer is protected from that element. Heat and cold are obvious. Water protection gives immunity to drowning, being wet from external water, and water pressure effects including rapid currents. Air protection prevents being blown around by wind or other harmful effects of air pressure. Earth protection nullifies impacts from anything that can be considered "earth" or "rock" but not purified minerals such as iron or steel. Light protection would include radiation and being blinded from bright light, dark protection is just the ability to see in the dark.

Artifact: Comforting Blanket-- a blanket that makes you very comfortable, no matter what state your body is in. All aches and pains melt away, and the blanket ensures a good night's rest if slept in, leaving you refreshed after you wake. Guaranteed. (This means if you can fall asleep while wearing the blanket, you are protected from death until the next sunrise, and the blanket cannot be removed during that time. Upon waking, you experience a period of rapid healing as your body is refreshed.)

Big Thing: Robot Butler.

>journal
E, I.
>>
No. 998237 ID: afa6f6

>>998210
Artifacts-
[Macintosh's Tome of The Universal Language]: A wizard's tome that explains the proper usage and effects of Gravity magic, starting from simple weight alteration, to fixed gravity fields and levitation, to crushing gravity wells and orbits and ending on black holes.

[Spirit Contract]: An enchanted scroll that allows a user to summon a random spirit of appropriate temperament, and allows negotiation for service. If negotiation fails, the spirit is dismissed, and a new spirit can be contacted after 24 hours. If negotiation is successful, both the user and the spirit sign the contract, and the scroll is permanently consumed.

[Phoenix Pinion]:A red and gold pin with a feather design. While worn on a person's clothing, grants the person and their clothing immunity to fire and heat, and grants a significant healing over time effect.

F. Saba’s System Research Notes
I. Saba’s Diary
>>
No. 998239 ID: 8483cf

E
H

First: tell Mint to go fuck herself. Give her some of Cat's underwear, that'll help. Or not.

Second: Some artifacts!

Soulmate: This locket allows you to share a piece of your soul. To anyone but the intended recipient, the locket is powerless and inert. The intended recipient may communicate with you at any distance, share any knowledge you wish, and know your emotional state at any time. If you die, you may choose to transfer your whole soul into the locket, whereafter you may either share bodies with the intended recipient, communicate through the locket, or pass on at will.

Dearest Diary: Opening this Diary and focusing on a specific person will cause it to write the subject's current hopes, dreams and fears. The diary does not distinguish which is which.
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No. 998243 ID: e85a08

C/D

Artifact

Recrobatic Anklets: allows wearer to jump in midair or otherwise lightly resist gravity for a short period of time.

Big Thing

The Unbonded Greatsword Chillborne, full of tempting angsty power.
>>
No. 998246 ID: e51896

Journal: H, I

Big thing: A flying car! Now we can go to the big city, or any other place easily... like another dungeon!!! might need a license first...

Artifacts:

Radar necklace: when worn, you can see where someone or something, or someplace is located at. Just think of the person, place, or thing you want to find, and a tether of light connecting you and what you are looking for will appear that only you can see. Closing your eyes can also give you a map of the area you are in and shows dots of the people around you like a radar so that you know who is near you to avoid potential ambushes. (Saba used this to find you whenever you got lost in the woods)

No-clipping sight sunglasses: glasses but with a grey tint to the shades, gives the wearer the ability to see through any obstructions they want like walls or chests. Can even see far distances like binoculars. Side effect; can also see through clothes.

We'll prioritize on having sex with Willamina over seeing Cannie for her job tonight, unless we can see her after we're done with Willamina. Otherwise, we'll see cannie tomorrow after poker.
>>
No. 998247 ID: 2870a3

Artifact: a hideous and brightly colored foot stool that transports you forward in time 1 second for every 1 second you sit on it without aging you. over rules other time based effects on you
it requires direct skin contact to work, and the stool must stay stationary to work. effect stops when you stand up.
>>
No. 998248 ID: 094652

E, H

Artifacts:
Portable Mine Launcher
This wrist-mounted magic-based launcher projects clones of the disc equipped in its ammunition port, using magical energy it siphons from the user. Casting a power or magic on the disc causes it to memorize the power or spell and eject it when enemies come into range. The disc may be modified by a tinkerer to launch various types of gadgets or traps instead.

Fursuit Of Doom
A fuzzy pajama suit and some masks. Wearing this suit and the corresponding mask for prolonged periods will temporarily alter the genetic structure of the user. Effect wears off over time depending on time used. Warning: Biological changes may result in fatal allergies or toxic reactions to food and environment. Has indirectly claimed the lives of eleven people.

Brain-enhancing parasite
This parasite, when consumed, permanently increases the intelligence of the user. Further parasites may be harvested from fecal matter. Unfortunately, side effects include memory loss, dementia, megalomania, incontinence, [This section is damaged] strangely enough, killing the parasite and consuming its remains results in a temporary boost in intelligence with almost no permanent side-effects. Implications unpleasant.

Big Thing:
Chaos Djinn Hookah
This literal genie in a bottle can grant supernatural requests proportional to the 'chaos' you offer. Due to her status as a metahuman, she is not classified as an artifact.
Small levels of chaos will cause gaslighting - the car keys you left on the table will go missing, the stats on your last invoice, your breast size will increase half a cup, etc.
Mid levels of Chaos risk permanently changing your body, your mind, and even your backstory, against your consent. Your perception of consent may also change.
High Levels are expected to kill the user, or retcon them as completely different people. Thankfully, the djinn has confirmed that her position in relative space-time may only be altered by the actions of a user, and is obligated to alter the world around her for easier access in the event of lethal reality collapse.
Requests may be automated for periodic use (such as a request that toasted yogurt appear on the dining table every morning, even if no interaction with the djinn was initiated for long periods of time) but will incur an active curse of chaos in magnitude to the request.
Discovery: The djinn's previous vessel was a crystal brandy jar, found clutched in the charred hand of a metahuman on [REDACTED] floor of the [REDACTED] dungeon. Upon interaction, the djinn immediately requested a new vessel for a new host, with haste. [This section is damaged] Haydee full ownership of the hookah and the djinn. [This section is damaged] claiming "never again".
Djinn claims they absorb energy by causing chaos. Djinn has limited shapeshifting abilities dependent on energy pools of all parties.
Personal Note: The djinn's last alias was Lacelie the Torrent of Taint. She is a clinical nymphomaniac looking for new sexual fetishes to explore and discover, which archaeological research confirms is consistent in her long-lived personality. She is fully willing to offer 'chaos discounts' on sexual exploration as long as it involves her or teaches her new sexual exploits.
[Note from Lacelie]: Please stop @#$%ing wishing for things that are done with no magic or sex whatsoever, it's a waste of my time and your brain.
>>
No. 998261 ID: 9a2966

>>998210
C and H

Other suggestions later.
>>
No. 998266 ID: eb1fcc

>>998210
The ring artefact has a detailed log of the names and powers of everyone who was involved in the hero's guild from the founding until his death. Information is power, and organization of that power will be key to the coming apocalypse.
>>
No. 998271 ID: 546810

Big Thing: 30mm Magicannon
This is a huge 7 barrel rotary cannon normally found mounted on planes and vehicles. A genuine military grade anti-tank weapon from an earlier era. It has been modified to fire magic bolts, but can also infuse mundane ammo with magic, should you get your hands on any.
Is fitted with a large, janky, and frankly scary looking Mana battery. Your can faintly hear screams when you get close enough to it.

It is far too heavy for a normal human to carry.
>>
No. 998275 ID: 30b9f6

Got very little time today, so just gonna crib a few of my old suggestions from the QuestDis thread.

Ancient Stake
Target stabbed with Stake becomes instantly paralyzed. Stab leaves no wound and ignores skin-tight physical defenses (like a bodysuit, barkskin or stoneskin), but not actual armor. Target gradually recovers from paralysis over the next minute, but will be sluggish for as long as the Stake remains stuck in their body.

Armlet revelation: Being stabbed through the heart (or equivalent) puts the target in indefinite stasis.

Token of Redemption
Can be expended to undo any one Power-based magical binding or contract. The user must have a physical connection to someone or something tied to the agreement being redeemed. Whatever was annulled no-one will be able to argue it wasn't fairly and rightly done.

Armlet revelation: This can be used to remove Powers. Due to the nature of the System and the Token of Redemption, the subject with the removed power will have all their invested points refunded and may reallocate them into alternative Powers if they have - or receive - any.

Mirror of Reflection
Reflects the effects of Powers when part of that Power hits the mirror - punches rebound, fireballs bounce back, lightning bolts are returned to sender. Mirror is round and a bit smaller than the average person's head (and has a handle, so can be wielded sort of like a tennis racket).

Stores 4 charges, restores 1 charge per day. If the last charge is spent the mirror will dramatically and obviously crack - signaling it has lost its use for now. The crack will auto-magically repair itself over the course of a day.

Armlet revelation: Even mind-influencing effects can be turned back on their user as long as the influencer in question can see or sense the mirror.

>Big item
Filing Cabinet of Perfect Processing
Any bureaucratic form or file put into this filing cabinet will go through the process of approval in a minute flat. If the form contains errors it will be spat out again. Does not guarantee the actual approval of the form or file, but cuts through all red tape.

The filing cabinet can only be used once per day.

Armlet revelation: It can process angelic or demonic forms as well as mortal ones. Lucky! Those normally take any number of mortal years to properly process.
>>
No. 998277 ID: 933c00

>>998210
F,H

Artifact: Brass Knuckles of the Exorcist
Exactly what it sounds like. The effect only works if you're wearing both of them at once. I leave it to the author to decide what exactly happens when a spirit/demon/angel is exorcised, since we don't really know how they work yet.

Artifact: Magic Switch
A little metal box with a switch on one side. When set to "OFF", it shuts down all things supernatural within a roughly 50 yard radius. This also means that any powers originating from outside the "normality bubble" will fizzle out as they enter it.

Big item: Good Boy
A big, fluffy dog. Favorite activities include belly rubs, playing fetch, and barking at Mint. Close analysis reveals that he's actually a very sophisticated magitech construct. Really hates Isabella and Max.
>>
No. 998290 ID: afa6f6

>>998237
>>998210
WHoops, forgot to suggest a Big Item

Eleysian Camper: A huge, tough, and rugged looking black All-terrain RV. Almost looks military. The outer shell of the RV is unnaturally sturdy, and would take a catastrophic amount of force to successfully damage or move, as well as being incredibly mystically resistant, down to the glass and tires. The inside is spacious and fully kitted out, climate controlled, with a queen sized bed as well as two twin sized bunk beds, a half kitchen with stocked fridge and sink, bathroom with standing shower, an entertainment center, and a large floor locker for storage, And is watertight so can probably house upwards of 6 people snugly for up to a week. The camper provides electricity and running water, probably magic based, as the vehicle does not run on standard fuel.
The Camper comes with keys in the ignition and an electonic lock button that can be used to summon the vehicle to wherever the user is from wherever it has been parked by clicking it.
>>
No. 998294 ID: dfbac0

Artifact 1: Handcuffs of Silence
Whoever wears these handcuffs are unable to use any innate abilities or awakened powers, and have a generally subdued strength, a very useful item for subduing a powerful foe.
Artifact 2: Atomic Goggles
A pair of goggles that fully let you understand the inner molecular workings of any object, and how to properly use it. While you might not be able to make anything magical, you could easily make bombs out of ordinary household items and make amazing things from simple materials due to a unique understanding of everything's molecular structure and how to use it.
Artifact 3: Gravity Boots
A pair of boots that have several gravity altering options, which include Gravity Enhancing; Allows the boots to hold on to a surface extremely well and stay put in no gravity situations, Directional Gravity; Causes the boots to view gravity as going in one direction rather than another, allowing people trained in it's use to climb up walls as well as a more advanced version that changes the gravity to wherever the boots are facing for a quick change of gravity, Gravity Removal; Allows the user to act as if in lower gravity and jump high and have better air time, also useful when subjected to high amounts of gravity.
Big Item: >>998290
Gotta agree on this account. A camper would be great.
>>
No. 998296 ID: 06cd95

Im changing my flying car idea to the camper as >>998290 and >>998290 suggested. We need a mode of transportation for dungeon adventures.

Though can it fit in the ring? Maybe the camper can change size for this occasion.

Cat can drive it, he was once a taxi driver
>>
No. 998297 ID: b1b4f3

What if... FLYING Camper?
>>
No. 998298 ID: ecb3d0

B, E
This post made with little idea what this quest is
Florescent Rainbow Fursuit: while worn provides the ability to teleport to an object within a mile that is approximately 100 nano-meters wavelength offset from a held object's primary color. Held object does not travel with you.

The Complete Research Compendium: Contains every research note ever made and ever to be made, incredibly dense. Notes ordered by some obtuse hash of the writers name at time of death, secondarily by time created. Has a bookmark in the middle of Saba's entries. Changes weight to be just liftable by whoever is attempting to lift it. (weighs a little less than whatever is on the other side of a scale) Flipping only one page at a time is an art.

The Quick Fix: Upon orgasm while using this dildo it takes you back to when you started using this dildo as an aid to reaching that orgasm. (Assuming one started with the Quick Fix, to outside observers it looks like you just orgasm the moment you insert it) Takes three times the usage duration to recharge. (also technically creates a new timeline and and renders the former current timeline dildoless, same as the dildo of time)

I spent way too long on this one
Dildo of Time: A rigid blood red dildo with a resting length of 4 inches and a diameter of 1.5 inches with a pair of 1 inch balls as a base. (a roughly average size dildo by my research) The dildo has limited mind reading powers used to determine: A. Should it activate, B. Should it extend(or girthen), C. Who all should also receive the effect on activation. These powers are also used to communicate basic usage instructions to a person holding the dildo and deliver clarifications to the holder as needed.
The effect is determined by how deep the dildo is when activated. All target's minds are transplanted into their bodies from 1 minute ago per inch of insertion (really a new timeline is created where the minds go and the displaced past minds go to the former current timeline that now also has no time dildo, avoiding paradoxes is 'fun') In the case of multiple time travel methods, the method of tracing where the mind ends up is based on the experience of the meat container or should that not be possible, (due to atomic reconstructive teleportation for instance) as the consciousness experienced it.
Its powers are limited per person per hole. When inserted and activated at a given depth that length is used up for that hole on that person, so only the amount deeper than that shall count for further activations (example: you activate it two inches into your ass and go back 2 minutes, if you were to then activate it 3 inches into your ass you would only go back 1 minute, but if you activate it while it is 3 inches into your mouth or someone else's ass you would get the full 3 minutes)
The average human female has three viable holes, mouth, anus, vagina with additional holes being viable depending on stretchiness and creative license e.g. ears, nostrils, nipples, urethra. Wounds present a special case and represent one hole regardless of location and number.
The dildo can lengthen (and girthen if desired) at a rate of one inch per second to accommodate arbitrary depth insertion. It returns to resting size over the course of a second after use.
If through extension the dildo exits the body, as understood by the user, (if the user genuinely believes the whole world is 'inside' them this has no meaningful effect. Whether extending the dildo into a bag of holding in one's ass is valid depends on if the user feels that extra-dimensional space is inside them because the bag is or if inside the bag is outside them) the current current length is used up for that person and that entry hole with no effect and the reverts to resting size.
The length will also be used up with no effect if the dildo can not successfully manifest at the destination time at or between activation depth and resting size. (attempts to be as close to activation depth, and girth if applicable, as possible) A hole not existing is an automatic failure. (be it because a stab wound hadn't happened yet, a recent gender bend, or whatever)
The dildo can displace the user's body and objects to make way for its manifestation but can only exert up to the force used in the activating insertion or just shy of causing damage to past you's body, whichever is greater. (This means close fitting metal armor may prevent manifestation but stretcher or weaker clothing may have enough give to permit manifestation, though the clothing may attempt to shove the dildo deeper to return to it's original shape or if weak enough just rip, and if the dildo was jammed though a cervix during activation it can likely jam itself through past you's cervix as well.)
>>
No. 998305 ID: 864e49

>>998210
F or H
>>
No. 998307 ID: 6c227a

>>998297
You mean like.. some sort of Winnebago with wings?
>>
No. 998338 ID: d05360

H I

Transformation mask: can transform into any animal you want, though you cannot transform into a beastkin. kind of like Mint except you cant talk, and clothes dont carry over, and it's multiple animals

Blank Demon Contract: can use to make a deal with a certain demon lawyer to help you woth anything you desire. Saba was really good friends with this guy, he's pretty chill. Can only be used once, though you can ask for another if the demon likes you. Can also be used to just hang out with him, and not sign a contract.
>>
No. 998345 ID: a52b96

PokeBall Stasis Sphere:
Imprisons and preserves perfectly one living thing or person, along with all their worn and carried belongings. Time does not pass for those imprisoned.

Does not specify the nature or condition of what is contained, displaying only whether or not it is occupied.

There is something -or someone- in it!
>>
No. 998385 ID: 5b7e10

A,D

Artifacts

Joystick of Control - Comes with a small antenna. Slap it on an unconscious creature to take control of them using this device. The target will obey non complex commands from the owner of said device, when the device is used, they can display as combat prowess depending on their SKILL. But be careful, if the controlled creature is KO'd through combat, the antenna is destroyed and the controller is knocked unconscious. A new antenna is only produced when the original creature wakes from their unconscious state.

Sword of Foot Fetishism - your feet are now more dexterous allowing you to perform amazing feats with them both in and out of combat. The downside is that you've now been cursed with a fetish for feet and paws.

Toad Statue - This artifact can be used to find lost objects that you own, by asking it questions you'll get the information you're after about the object, but it will usually be in riddle form. Please note that this does not work on stolen objects unless they are bound to you.

Big Object

Interdimensional Smooching Booth - Can hold up to 2 individuals. Those that enter the kissing booth and press the button underneath the counter are whisked away with the booth to an interdimensional bazaar where they will stay for 12 hours. They must operate the booth for 8 hours (breaks permitted), where they will offer their smooching services. Clients will pay based off of the smooch they recieve, wetter, sloppier smooches result in better payment. You can chose to offer other services as well while in the booth, with different payments resulting from them, but each client must recieve at least one smooch. At the end of the 12 hour period, both of the individuals, the booth itself, and it's contents will be teleported back to it's original location. The individuals do not need to be in the booth to be teleported back. Unfortunately you cannot bring back anyone with you unless they are stored in an artifact or are otherwise subdued.
>>
No. 998386 ID: 5b7e10

>>998385
Oh and for the smooching booth, when you get teleported back, any weird diseases you got get healed. just so you don't bring back some interdimensional disease that destroys your planet!
>>
No. 998392 ID: 5b7e10

Another item idea:

Cataclysmic Combiner - Pick two items or artifacts, they combine! It breaks after one use. Maybe it makes the new artifact a watered down version of the originals, but in one, OR it makes it into a brand new thing based off of the original items.
>>
No. 998432 ID: eb1fcc

Stealing a concept from Disco Elysium, I suggest the volumetric shit-compressor. Manifests your inner turmoil as a physical substance and slurps it right out of you to let you keep a clear head. A device that really helps you keep your shit together, so to speak.

Useful for leaders in stressful situations, but overuse can be intoxicating. And the runoff can be pretty caustic.
>>
No. 998457 ID: afe7de

No update today! Have to work early tomorrow, sorry!
>>
No. 998459 ID: 031458

>>998457
Okay! We love you!
Deadline on artifact suggestions is when!?!
>>
No. 998479 ID: afe7de

>>998459
Feel free to continue suggesting probably tonight
>>
No. 998492 ID: eaa5e7

Guide of the Immortal Sage:
An undying banzai tree planted in an unremarkable clay pot. It has a jade Yin and Yang pendant permanently embedded within the base of it's trunk.

So long as tree is properly kept, any who touch it can commune with the Immortal God level cultivator it acts as a sensory organ for.

Communing will always reveal the optimal next step in that person's own personal journey in cultivation.
Questions can also be asked, but anything unrelated to ones own cultivation will be responded to with cryptic bullshit.

The tree will also occasionally bear strange fruit which when eaten, will aid in one's cultivation, but the effect often is a curse or double edged sword of a boon that challenges the cultivator in a unique way.
>>
No. 998501 ID: 5403e5

>>998492
This what the emperor of the Wano kingdom used to cultivate. It was this or become a super sentai dude.
>>
No. 998505 ID: 0d245d

Shamelessly stolen from an older quest:
Artifact:Shrunken head of lie detection
Screeches obscenities at anyone in earshot who lies.
Does not exclude the wielder/carrier of the head from this detection.

Former property of the Loa. Though it's unlikely they'll come to claim it, stranger things have certainly happened lately.
>>
No. 998514 ID: 290710

Demon ear amulet: can hear things that people normally cannot hear (like spirits, or maybe... us suggestors???) Pairs well with the demon eye amulet
>>
No. 998523 ID: 031458

Black Chalice of the Twilight's Huntsman

An ancient chalice made from forged Corinthian Bronze, it bares engravings of centaur bowmen and wolves hunting one another.

It fills itself daily with a black ichor. When drank, it grants the imbiber the ability to alter their body, the extend of which is dependent upon how much was consumed.

After 24 hours, if more ichor is not consumed than the changes begin to slowly decay, weakening and reverting partially back to a more natural state. The final form often ends up being a twisted and withered form of what was originally transformed into. This effect does not take into account ones original form, using it to change back will cause that form to wither as well.

To make a change permanent without withering, a form must be chosen, and then reinforced by consuming a similar amount of ichor every day for at least a week, without making additional changes.

Do not use during a full moon.
>>
No. 998563 ID: 094652

Oh we can suggest more? Okay...
Elven Fluid-Bowstring Spin-Funnel
This strange magical funnel converts fluids poured into its filter into a solidified piano wire. While the string is physically incapable of dealing direct damage to cellular life of any kind, the composition of the fluid and the stats of the origin of the fluid will determine its effects on non-living objects. For instance, a heat-based power user who distributed their bodily fluids made solidified plasma string that enchanted any arrow with an internal charge of the Flare spell. Impurities decrease the entwining of the string. String created by this artifact uses mana to sustain itself, and if left unused appears to be capable of existing on a steady supply of mana indefinitely. The strange orb-shape of the funnel is noted.

I-Cream Machine
This strange, Ice-Cream Vending shaped machine is capable of creating miniature clones using a trace of the user. Users will develop a temporary psychic bond with the clone, allowing them to crowdsource a portion of their conscious mind into the full piloting of their clone. The clone is noted to have a higher metabolism and rate of perception (everything else appears to be slower to the clone) than the original, proportional to the relative sizes of both entities. Clone autopsy has shown that the clones are inaccurate, held together with magitek to account for all biological incongruities with their miniscule size and lack of detail in cloned micro organs, and will expire within an average of 48 hours. Deaths of clones do not appear to have additional side effects other than the usual near-death simulation and shock from multiple organ failure.

Dancy Pants
Whoever wears this pair of centaur-designed pants develops an urge to perform mammal-themed mating dances, regardless of knowledge. Any user who performs this dance for eight hours will transform into a centauroid based on the type of dance and its associated mating animal. Note that forcefully shifting the dance by using mind control has successfully altered the type of centauroid species transformation. Certain species exhibit traits of abnormal non-binary sexual characteristics regardless of the actual species' sex orientations.
>>
No. 998581 ID: afe7de
File 161984950902.png - (13.73KB , 500x500 , C2_156.png )
998581

You head over to the more open space of your room and hold out your hand, trying to get the big thing out, after a few failed attempts you shake your head and head back to the table. Mint looks at you confused and comments:

Mint: Willamina, what were you doing?

You: Ummmmmm...

Mint: You weren't trying to unload the giant item... in your home, were you?

You: uhhhhhh....... noooooooo....?

Mint: ....

You: SHUT UP! As your mistress, I DEMAND you stop asking about this and FORGET this ever happened or face the CONSEQUENCES

You at first thought you saw Mint tremble in fear at first, but then you notice she's... smiling as she trembled? Next you pull out the piece of paper, maybe there’s some info on what you’ve got inside. It’s a note from Gramps in some very neat handwriting. You read it aloud to the group.
>>
No. 998583 ID: afe7de
File 161984952877.png - (208.09KB , 500x500 , C2_157.png )
998583

Dearest Willamina,

If you are reading this then that means I’ve kicked the bucket. Can’t say I didn’t see this coming, I tried hiding away for years, but I guess I’ve been killed. It’s okay, don’t feel bad, well you probably care the least about my death, but there were circumstances surrounding that and I won’t ask for forgiveness. Suffice it to say if you’re getting this then that means you’re the last remaining heir to the Hadlee family.

You’re probably also wondering what the deal with holding your inheritance until you’ve Awakened is about. It’s complicated, and what’s in the Power Lock box will explain in more detail then I’m comfortable explaining in this note. Had to have one last layer of security for this, only your living genetic material, using an awakened ability can open it, so if you’re someone reading this after you stole Willamina’s blood or killed her, yer shit out of luck fucker. Oh, and trying to break in or phase through it or WARP the contents out will cause it to destroy the contents and also detonate the immediate 10 meters surrounding it. I had this shit locked down with a system and genetic lock.

Well I would say that, but I included some stuff in the ring that you now have access too. I’m going to continue under the assumption you’re not some convoluted looter. Here’s what you’ve been given:

[Phoenix Pinion] - This is a red and gold pin with a feather design. You can wear it on your clothing or in your hair to be granted immunity to fire and heat up to a certain degree. Lasers for example will still deal damage, but it’ll be reduced. You can safely walk in Lava and Magma, but you’ll need to have some way of removing the rock that hardens on your body. There’s honestly a lot of applications to this thing. It’s secondary ability is that it grants a healing over time effect, lose a limb, bam! It’s back in half an hour, fully functioning in under two. You’ll be needing this, so I’d suggest putting it on and keeping it on at all times.

[Stasis Sphere] - This artifact is incredibly useful, it can imprison and preserve perfectly one living thing or person, along with all their worn and carried belongings. Time doesn’t pass for the imprisoned. I’ve kept a certain mischievous fairy inside of this for reasons you’ll find in the lock box. It’s up to you if you let him out or not, he’s not technically bound to a dungeon anymore, so he’s out a power source and is effectively harmless. He’ll probably try to run away, so I suggest opening the lock box before freeing him.

[Hyper-Stable Crystal] - This object has been the bane of my existence for a little while, less because I have no idea what to do with it and more because there’s SO MUCH I could do with it. It’s true form is that of a large crystal, but it changes into impossible shapes when stationary and not held. It converts surrounding heat and heat pumped into it into electricity, cooling itself in the process. I had two of these I used to make a device with in the past but couldn’t bring myself to use this one. If you’re in need of an ally or a tinker, use this to buy their loyalty. Or you could easily sell this for 3-8 Million BUX, I don’t know what your situation is.

The last Item’s a special device I personally made for myself, Marth, and our crew. We needed a way to safely traverse dungeons and rest. So we took an old RV and kitted it out.

[Elysian Winnebago] - This vehicle is the product of my hard work. It’s a huge, tough black All-Terrain RV. It’s outer shell is tough and can withstand force from pretty much any monster you can find in a low to moderate level dungeon, and even that would only be enough to damage and or move it slightly. It’s glass and tires are also mystically resistant. The inside is bigger due to spatial compression magic, but not by much cause that tech is still pretty difficult to use. It’s fully kitted out, climate controlled, queen sized bed with two twin sized bunks. A half kitchen with a fridge (it’s empty, didn’t want food to spoil), bathroom with standing shower and bidet, a dining and planning area with white-boards and tables, some foot lockers for storage, and a couch. You could probably fit a TV or some Computers in there, but I only brought the necessities.

It’s water tight, but that doesn't mean you should purposefully submerge it in water!!! It’s got one of my biggest mana batteries powering it, so it can run for a while. If it ever runs out of charge, just leave it out for a week and it’ll fully recharge. It has enough power to go for about a week at 100km/hr on the highway without stops. It’ll also produce pretty much however much water you need without needing to be refilled by converting mana into water through this neat Mana circuit I made. The keys are in the Electronic Lock Box, so if you can’t get in it, you’ll have to find some other way to drive it, you can still get in and admire everything though, the doors unlocked. Heheheh. It used to be able to teleport to the location you pointed at with the keys, but I removed that module after Marth died to use elsewhere, goddess rest his sweet, sweet soul.

Oh, one last thing, It’s probably in your best interest to open the lockbox while you’re in the Winnebago, Spirits can’t see or get in the Winnebago, and, not sure if you knew this, but Max had one and would use it to spy all the time. I had to make a device just to prevent his snooping, though they’re stupid difficult to make and hard to move. It only fit on the damn thing because I built it over the battery and throughout the floor. Sorry I didn’t include a way to see or hear spirits in your little care package, it’s surprisingly hard to pick up audio/visual from spirits and be able to understand it without an ability or magic, blocking them is significantly easier.

The rest of the instructions are in the Box, get that open when you want to know more. Life’s going to get harder for you I’m afraid, and it not just because you’ve awakened. If you get a chance when all is said and done, go say hi to Sabarth Walpole, he was my fourth child, and tell him I’m sorry for breaking down when Mina and Marth died, they were the loves of my life and I couldn’t handle it, I was in a bad place for years, he’s your uncle and should probably be the only person in the heroes guild that’s still reasonable.

And if I died doing really fucked up shit, sorry about that. I’m probably losing my mind with old age and think everything I do is the right thing. Which it totally is, not dissing myself or anything. Just, I UNDERSTAND that to outside observers it doesn't look like the optimal decision, but trust me it totally was and I regret nothing!

-Saba Hadlee

>>
No. 998584 ID: afe7de
File 161984955209.png - (8.47KB , 500x500 , C2_158.png )
998584

That’s gramps, never the humble fuck. At least he actually gave you some useful shit.

Cat: Well that solves the housing situation actually. We can just live in the Winnebago. It’s a good thing I got a drivers ID.

You: I never learned to drive so that works, I’ll just give you the keys when we pop it open.

Mint: Can I see the Crystal?

You take out the pin and pin it to your hair, it feels kind of weird having it there, but you’re sure it’ll blend in after a while. You can feel the heat in the room dissipating around you and you no longer feel hot. That’s quite a relief. You still stay in your undies though. You take out the Hyper-Stable crystal and put it in front of mint. It’s surprisingly heavy and big, about bowling ball sized.

Mint stares at it and starts pulling out some small instruments, testing and investigating the device.

Mint: It might take me a while but I’m sure I can figure out something we could do with this, at the very least we can shave off about 30% of it and still get around 3/4 of it’s total value if we want to sell it.

At any time in the future, you are free to suggest a device that Mint could create using the crystal or parts of it, after a certain amount of time has passed or enough suggestions, she’ll have a eureka moment and will let you know her idea.
>>
No. 998585 ID: afe7de
File 161984956754.png - (8.48KB , 500x500 , C2_159.png )
998585

You: Kinda fucked that he’d keep a fairy in a ball-thing. Shouldn’t we let him out?

Cat: I’m all for Emancipation, hell knows I’ve tried for mint, but uh, maybe we decide what to do with the lock box first? At the very least, more information couldn’t hurt, and it’s not like they’re suffering in there, time’s just stopped.

Mint: I agree with Master. Plus fairies can be some of the most cruel kinds of creatures second only to angels, they’re the ones who run dungeons and corner and murder adventurers to turn into fuel to create more monsters and enhance the dungeon. Though some might say it’s just their way of life and life cycle, I’ve never heard of fairies outside of dungeons.

Cat: Actually, some scientists theorized that fairies were the first race subjugated by the demons, so that they could make dungeons in the first place. But there’s no evidence to support that and it’s just a common trope in fiction really.

Rex: LETS NOT LET A POTENTIAL MONSTER THAT COULD DESTROY WILLAMINA’S HOME, NO MATTER HOW HARMLESS IT MIGHT BE, OUT IN THIS SPACE, I’M FOR WAITING. THOUGH, HAVE YOU CONSIDERED DESTROYING THE BOX? YES WE LOSE THE ABILITY TO PILOT TO THE WINNEBAGO, BUT PERHAPS WE WILL ONLY BE BURDENED BY WHAT WE FIND?

Mint: I’ll do as Master and Mistress desire.

Cat: Can I get permission to read that Journal, I’m kinda curious.

You: sure, let’s get inside the thing, chill for a few minutes, then reconvene.
>>
No. 998586 ID: afe7de
File 161984957904.png - (20.07KB , 500x500 , C2_160.png )
998586

You focus on the journal and a prompt appears asking who you want to give permissions to. You assign just Cat for now and hand the book over to him. He starts leafing through it. You gather up your things in the ring, including both yours and cat’s clothes, leaving Cat with his book and Saba’s Journal and Mint with the Crystal and lead the group outside. Heheheh, he’ll have to ask you for your clothes back at some point and that’ll give you the perfect opportunity to tease him. You pop the Winnebago down in your empty parking space. It’s a rather large vehicle, sitting at 2 Meters wide, 6 meters long, and 3 meters tall. You open the door and everyone shuffles inside.

The inside is spacious just like the note said. It’s a rather large rectangular room that bulges in the middle, it feels like it’s a bit bigger than your living room. You see the kitchen and right next to it is the planning area with it’s table, seats, white-board and markers. You close the door behind you after getting a thumbs up from Cat, locking it, and are seated. There are 7 chairs surrounding the table, they look surprisingly comfortable, and if you had to figure, you could probably fit around 3 more before it got too cramped. Cat takes a seat on the sofa to the right. Continuing to leaf through the book while Rex finds a little banzai tree sitting on a lit cubby hole to relax on, it looks like he’s sunbathing and it’s kind of cute. Mint takes a seat at a table near the planning area, looks like a small workbench. You’ve got to be honest, this place has a “mobile command center” vibe to it that’s pretty damn cool, so you’re really not interested in destroying the keys to this thing in the lock box.

You’ve got a few minutes while everyone does their own thing, what do you do in the meantime?

A. Talk to Cat. (about what?)
B. Talk to Roach. (about what?)
C. Talk to Mint. (about what?)
D. Head out and visit your Mom.
E. Explore the Winnebago for secrets.
F. Invite someone to the Winnebago (who?)
G. Open the box in private.
H. Other.
>>
No. 998588 ID: b1b4f3

>>998584
>crystal
Well depending on the efficiency of the conversion that's either going to be easy to make a perpetual energy machine out of by shoving some of the electricity into a heater next to it, or simply a very easy way to bring things down to absolute zero. The latter might be the best option actually... Materials tend to act really weird at absolute zero, superconductors are pretty easy to get at temperatures that low for instance.
It could also just be used as a stupidly good heatsink. Maybe slap it on a really high power laser rifle? Or if we ever get our hands on some artifact that does something cool but has the drawback of generating a lot of heat, we can combine the two. Like maybe a personal forcefield that turns kinetic/electromagnetic/thermal energy from incoming attacks into waste heat?
Lastly, it's obviously a very easy way of making an anti-flamethrower. Basically an oversized supersoaker with cold-resistant parts that you'd use to spray liquid nitrogen on foes. Or some other cryogenic fluid. It *really* has to be cold-resistant though. It'll frost over fast if not insulated properly.

>>998586
G.
>>
No. 998589 ID: f8fa51

I'd normally say G. That note has primed you to expect something pretty world-shattering in that box, and without knowing what's in it you can't know if you can trust the rest of these people with it (which essentially amounts to just trusting Cat). But since you let Cat read the journal without even thinking about reading it yourself first, I'm going to guess you actually trust Cat pretty well. In that case, it might be good to have some backup in case there's more than you expect in the box.

So D. It's high time you stopped ignoring your mum.

With extra suggestion: You never take off that phoenix pinion. Ever.
>>
No. 998600 ID: e51896

H: get Cat to drive over that stupid pole in front of your post office, it has been the bane of everyone's existence

I'd rather not open it privately, lets wait until Cat and Mint is done with doing their thing until we open it together, that way we'll have their moral support.

F. Lets text Gena over here to tell her stuff about potentially going dungeon exploring, making us all cool supervillain costumes (paperdoll template for suggestors to draw a costume perhaps?)
When she gets here, we can ask her about awakening her with the dagger artifact... or use Cat's power.

...

Maybe better text Cannie and tell her Isabella is crying or something so she can calm the situation?... not that you care about Isabella, but Cannie loves isabella as her sister, so maybe let her know?

Afterwards also text Cannie and ask when her next job is tomorrow or tonight. Depending on what time, maybe Cat can visit her for the job late tonight or tomorrow between his date with andre at noon, and your poker night with cat. That way we can have him talk her into joining us... and give her the book to awaken her.

(Note to self: Cat needs to pick up his stuff from the hapless stone at some point)
>>
No. 998603 ID: 9a2966

Okay that was... better than expected. With the dollop of Dammit Grandpa that you expected. He was Marth's Tinker or equivalent, wasn't he?

Also, being the ones that provided it the Heroes League are GUARANTEED to have read this will, so... whether you can actually trust your - gasp - UNCLE???, Sabarth Walpole, is an open question. Also hello potential reason why you didn't inherit everything - it could've gone to Saba's illegitimate (?) child!

Though, hell, nothing says they didn't alter the original text of the will in some way.

>Marth & Mina used this vehicle
The real Heroes lived here! You gotta E-xplore the Winnebago, of course! If it was just left mostly as-is, who knows what trinkets could be left in a nook here or there, evidence of past lives and legends?
>>
No. 998606 ID: eb1fcc

>>998586
Damn, perhaps safe to assume he knew about the demon invasion if he's willing to give himself carte blanche for moral boundary-breaking like that.

I'd say take Cat along to open this sucker up, yeah there's an obvious joke to be made about curiosity and its murderous tendencies but Cat's the whole reason we've even gotten here.

Probably wise to keep him in the loop.
>>
No. 998622 ID: e51896

Potential ideas for that crystal, I listed from my most favorite to least favorite

use parts of the crystal with Cat's shitty multitool and upgrade it into a electronic futuristic multitool with even more tools. It can have things like high tech lockpicks, laser knife, scissors, pliers, electric drill, electric hammer, wrench, flashlight and laserpointer, etc.

a new teleportation device on the camper keys so we can teleport the camper to us like Grandpa did

A small gps radar to track where someone, something, or somewhere is.

a security robot to kick intruders out of the winnebago/willamina's house/papermill/underground lair we're building under the old hadlee estate.
>>
No. 998623 ID: 031458

Who the puts a Banzai in a kubbie? How long has it been in there? Get that thing some sun. And maybe some water?

Then go open that lockbox.
>>
No. 998625 ID: d48428

G. Cat is reading the journal, Mint is inspecting the crystal, we need to not show we're lazy in comparison and investigate as well with whats in the lockbox. Probably best to get that looked at as soon as possible. Be ready for a bombshell of information to hit you by taking a deep breath. Let them know youre checking the contents out. No need to be private about it, we all trust each other here

But yeah, if the tree was able to survive for this long, i guess that means items get preserved in a ring. Ask Rex if he wants to keep the tree for his little terrarium, it's not a succulent like he wanted, but maybe it works just as well?
>>
No. 998630 ID: b1b4f3

>>998603
The Hero's Association couldn't have read that note, it was in the ring which they couldn't open. Saba wrote a legal will separately from the personal note to Will, in which he apparently explained nothing.
>>
No. 998633 ID: 5987e7

>>998630
Yus, I got it confused with the papers she signed and which Liminal left with. My derp.
>>
No. 998645 ID: afa6f6

>>998586
E. Explore the Winnebago for secrets.
More goodies!
>>998622
>>a security robot to kick intruders out of the winnebago/willamina's house/papermill/underground lair we're building under the old hadlee estate.
Yes, my heart screams to use the crystal for the heart of a super robot. It'd also be the perfect thing to test Cat's ability to give powers to non-living things on. We can always blame it on using an artifact on to make it if it works.
>>
No. 998648 ID: 58b05e

One more crystal idea i cant believe i didnt consider: upgrade Cat's mana pistol with it! Make it stronger, recharge faster, hold more bullets, cause more damage with a larger blast, now has an option for either lethal or non-lethal, etc. Cat will need to upgrade it since he has no powers that attack. This will tie with my first choice, the multi tool upgrade.
>>
No. 998660 ID: 031458

Clever subdividing of the HYPER STABLE CRYSTAL could Insulate the special crystals used in pulse lasers.

Said pulse lasers could then be stacked (With more crystal heatsinkage) and activated in series to create a continuous laser so powerful it causes anything it hits to VAPORIZE and EXPLODE, even mirrors wouldn't be safe.

It would also blind people several miles away.

This would also ionize the air in the path of the laser, creating a stream of plasma in it's wake.

This plasma would be conductive, thus allowing the MASSIVE AMOUNT of waste electricity to be dumped onto the target.

The use of such of a weapon would be a LEGITIMATE WARCRIME, but there is no kill, like overkill.

Alternatively, a similar effect could be achieved if the HSC itself could somehow be used as laser media, but I find that unlikely.
>>
No. 998710 ID: afe7de
File 161993591063.png - (40.23KB , 500x500 , C2_161.png )
998710

> How much do you trust Cat?
Right now, a whole fucking lot. He cured your immense nerve pain that has been plaguing you for years, gave you a superpower which is how you were able to get this inheritance in the first place, plus he didn’t ask for anything and even offered to just let things go back to how they were. Cat does have some things he hasn’t told you, but he seems to be willing to share the information with you, but knows it will upset you, this doesn't bother you that much, everyone has something to hide, and if they didn’t it’d be fucking weird.

> Gramps was a tinker?
From what I was told, Gramps never awakened. He was a scientist and teacher when the first Awakenings happened. He was also crazy smart and could implicitly understand the inner-workings of most devices. You think he worked with Tinkers, you had an uncle named Shank who was a Tinker, but it always seemed like Shank was learning from Gramps instead of the other way around. Still, he was smart enough to make Mana batteries and this monstrosity, so he must be keeping something secret.

> Offer Rex the Bansai tree.
You walk over to the little cubby hole, there’s a little sun lamp at the top of it shining down on the tree, it looks like it’s on a timer so it only gets as much light as it needs. There’s even a little sprinkler system that mists water into it. You also find a little pocket that when you pop open has some plant grooming instruments.

You: Hey Rex, do you WANT this in your terrarium?

Rex: CAN’T I JUST HAVE THIS LITTLE CUBBY AS MY HOME INSTEAD, MAYBE GET MINT OR CAT OR SOMETHING TO MAKE A GLASS ENCLOSURE WITH A SMALL DOOR SO I CAN LEAVE BUT MY BROOD CAN’T ESCAPE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE?

You: That’s not a bad IDEA. You can rest in here while we’re out doing STUFF, even watch over the Winnebago and no one would be the wiser. Sure, I’ll let MINT know.

You find a little notepad and pen laying around and jot down a note to ask Mint or Cat to install a window for Rex there. There’s just dozens of these things around the place, so you doubt you’ll need to get extra if you want something for jotting down short notes.

You pass by Cat and Roach and look to your right, it’s a separate area that when you look inside has the bathroom and shower. There’s even a full body mirror inside and a few cabinets. Passing by mint you give her the note you just made and ask her to either have herself or Cat work on that whenever there’s a free moment and it’s convenient, y’know, for Rex’s sake. She nods, shoves it in a pocket and keeps fiddling with the Crystal. You hear her mumble something about teleporters, tools, lasers, and forcefields before turning your attention away. You look to the right of the door in the back and notice a seating area with a footlocker and a few tall weapon racks/lockers. You ignore it before heading into the back room.

You: I’m gonna check out this BACK room.
>>
No. 998712 ID: afe7de
File 161993593439.png - (18.69KB , 500x500 , C2_162.png )
998712

No one responds as you head inside and close the folding door behind you. One thing you notice is that it’s actually soundproofed in here, as you can’t hear mint’s mumbling and tinkering with the Crystal. You quickly observe the room and find the Queen sized bed, next to it is enough space for two more beds, they probably fold out or something, it could probably make some kind of MEGA BED. There’s also a small corner table and chair built into the wall. You stop looking around and take a seat there.

> Open the box in private
Not that you don’t trust Cat or Mint, but something in the deep recesses of your mind tells you it might be a better idea to open this in private. You can always let them know what you found out later. You hold your hand out and the Lockbox pops out on the table. It’s about the size of the cash drawer you have in the post office. There’s a little camera on top of it and a gridded pad next to it. Other than that there are no visible seams on the box. You tap the screen and to your surprise a holographic projection of the late Saba Hadlee’s torso and head appears.

Hologram: Please place your genetic material on the touch-pad and channel your Awakened ability. You have [3] attempts remaining before this device will self destruct.

Your finger has a freshly formed scab on it from where you poked it earlier for the rings, so you flick that off and squeeze a little blood out, placing your hand on it and channel a bit of ICE into the device, expending [1 ENERGY].

Hologram: Processing. Processing. Processing. Genetic material matches one Willamina Hadlee III’s material on file by 96.456%, accounting for calculation error… Processing… Awakened Ability detected. ICE ability detected, Genetic match changing to 100%. Identity Confirmed. Thank you Willamina Hadlee III. Playing prerecorded message.
>>
No. 998713 ID: afe7de
File 161993596627.png - (14.54KB , 500x500 , C2_163a.png )
998713

The hologram changes showing Saba sitting in his study, you remember that room, you were never allowed in it, but snuck in with Max a few times and found it to be incredibly boring and filled with lots of paperwork you didn’t get. The man begins speaking.

Saba: Alright. Time for the last one. If you’re seeing this now, it means that not only are you the last surviving member of the Hadlees specifically, but that you’ve awakened as well. To that I respond with the following:

Saba: How in the fuck were you the survivor when nearly every other family member was Awakened. How did that brat MAXIMILLIAN not survive with you? Probably sacrificed himself to save you or some shit. That boy’s love for you was beyond normal. Sorry, just had to vent my frustration because if you really are the last one, things are about to get really rough for you since you rejected our martial training a while back, preferring to scrap with that beast-kin girl ineffectually and enjoy being a kid. *Sigh*

Saba: Anyway. Here’s what you’ve gotta know. The world’s ending sometime between 2030 and 2040, no idea when you’re getting this but I hope you’ve got at least a year’s worth of time. And how is it ending you might be asking? Well, if you ask any awakened, especially one that went to an Auction, they’ll tell you it’s because of the Demons. Ask any inter dimensional slave, demons. Here’s the problem with that train of thought. The demons aren’t actually the problem. They’re here to build up their forces in dungeons, and then to fight eachother. There’s going to be collateral, but literally every seer, psychic, future vision user, precog, you name it answers the same when you ask them this simple question. “How much of humanity is going to be destroyed by the Demons in the upcoming war?” The answer is… 30%. This is of course including dungeon delvers and casualties from the over-world conflict, including dungeon breaks. Now, 30% is a lot, but not end of the world a lot, we’ve had pandemics that have taken out 10-15% of the world’s population in our history and metahumanity can bounce back. Then you think to ask another question. “By the year 2040 what percentage of humanity will remain on Faunus compared to today.” 8%.

Saba: Doesn’t make any sense right? I’ve asked tons of questions, done tons of research, talked to extra dimensional beings and creatures from planets that survived other demon wars. So I’ve got a lot of info, and I’m going to lay some of it on you, but first, some important information, two things that only Marth and I knew about, and one thing that only my brilliant son Shank and I knew about.

Saba: One, I’m not a Tinker, as much as my inventions might have you believe, instead I awakened to an [INNATE SKILL] called [UNDERSTANDING] when I was 28, just a few years after the Awakening phenomena began. What [UNDERSTANDING] lets me do is look at an object or thing and understand it’s inner workings. For example, I could look at a monster’s core and understand that it was a potent source of mana, and so with my background in science and engineering I went on to invent mana batteries in an attempt to better the world. Unfortunately though, I could [UNDERSTAND] things, but I wasn’t that charismatic, that was Marth And Willamina’s territory.
>>
No. 998714 ID: afe7de
File 161993597637.png - (9.62KB , 500x500 , C2_164.png )
998714

Saba: Second, we met someone. This woman was enchanting, powerful, and smart. She claimed to be a dungeon delving Awakened like us, we met in a dungeon. But I IMMEDIATELY knew she wasn’t, she was the demon running Donjon’s dungeon. Her name is Set. The strange thing is she structured her dungeon in an insane way that no other demons did, the first 3 floors are hellish, but then after that the difficulty starts only gradually increasing, and there’s rest stops and it’s just weird, it’s like it was made to train Awakened, almost like a COMM game or something. I didn’t get it so I impulsively asked her opinion on it and she responded that she didn’t want us all to die out.

Saba: That’s the two things only Marth and I knew about.

Saba: So now we personally know the demon running Donjon’s dungeon, and she, we don’t know, out of guilt or something, just spills the beans about so much shit and the problem was that EVERYTHING she said added up and made sense. I spent the later years of my life researching to confirm the information, so I know it’s at least 90% true. The demons are going to leave after the war. The 72 main dungeons across the planet, they’re all going to merge into one big one at the location of the Winning demon’s dungeon. The problem is with what comes during the fight and after. The Angels. First, they’re light aligned beings, which should mean they’re on the side of compassion right? Not the case, they’re on the side of PURITY and CLEANSING. And they will first hunt down the demons, if they see an awakened, even if they’re helping fight a demon or a demon lord, they won’t do anything at first. Once their task is complete though, unless given a new one by their superior they will systematically eliminate any awakened and metahumans associating with them.

Saba: They’re like trying to lull you into a false sense of security. The only ones you can trust are ones bound as spirits, and even then, they’re probably trying to drive their hosts crazy. Not all spirits are angels, I’m 95% sure Maxamillian’s wasn't, but I never got the right artifacts to be able to investigate it fully. So that accounts for the next 40% of humanity that gets destroyed. The only good news is that all the angels get summoned at once and there have been records of fully wiping them out and no reinforcements coming. So at this point you’re probably wondering, where do the last 22% vanish then? They become slaves, usually Fallen Angels, different from regular angels mind you, these can be reasoned with, come to the planet and claim them, fixing bits of the planet in the process, but they only take around 1%. Then the reclaimers, or so Set called them, come. They’re there to eliminate any native species and colonize the planet. So you know how in history the northwestern corner of Midland was inhabited by a native population and how the majority of them were decimated in our very stupid claim to the continent. It’s basically like that. They take care of the rest and leave some around like they see us as wildlife, some let us integrate into the new societies, but with those numbers I’m seeing it as not being likely.
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No. 998715 ID: afe7de
File 161993599449.png - (42.03KB , 500x500 , C2_165.png )
998715

Saba: I’ll get back to the last secret in a bit, sorry this is all a bit long but it’s important stuff. Anyway, we work together with Set and found the Heroes League, start getting actual trained Awakened individuals, send them out across the continent, have a foundation, you know, good shit in around 5 years. It’s good while we’re in charge, but Set’s really hands off, she only cares that we can defend ourselves enough, not how every-thing’s being run, and she gets more and more hands off as time goes on. So it’s basically me and Marth and we conquer one of the 72 dungeons, it’s a big fucking deal, but we don’t tell anyone that it was us. We get a dungeon core and fairy, but have no idea what to do with it so we store them in some artifacts we found. Eventually we can’t get in contact with Set anymore, the Heroes league starts getting worse and worse, something’s wrong and we can’t tell.

Saba: Well, eventually we’re betrayed by our dungeon-mates. Marth and Willamina are killed and I eliminate every one of the other party members. And what was the reason? They wanted our built up wealth, and they were being led by someone in some organization somewhere. They’ve infultrated the Heroes League, they’ve replaced the non Awakened Walpoles that moved to help us with Angel doubles that now had powers, and they’ve gotten rid all our hard work, poured down the fucking drain. So I leave Donjon and head home. Eventually Set finds me and explains that Angels have arrived at our planet early and are making moves different then they have ever done before but I don’t care anymore. My loves are dead, my daughter is going to have a kid at 15 or 16 to an idiot boy that now I’m going to have to be around to help take care of. It’s a fucking mess. I don’t leave the house anymore, Shank comes to live with me while my other three kids are off doing fuck knows what. I lost custody of Sabarth. I do all in my power to just protect the ones I have left, all with the knowledge that the world is ending soon.

Saba: Oh, quick side note. If you HAD gone to see Sabarth without opening this, you’d probably have died. He’s compromised by the Angels and threatened to kill me a few times because he blamed me for the death of one of his fathers and mother. If I ever left Lyst he’d hunt me down and kill me, and he’s strong enough to do it, we saw to it. And by compromised by the angels, I mean he’s wearing angel gear, is in deep with the same guild Nunitus that was responsible for their deaths, it doesn't really matter, he’s been brainwashed, just another to pile on the list of enemies really.
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No. 998716 ID: afe7de
File 161993600530.png - (73.97KB , 500x500 , C2_166.png )
998716

Saba: Now, for the most important chunk of information. I actually Awakened after Marth’s death. My power was called [CATACLYSMIC CONVERGENCE] and I could merge the souls of other beings into a target. They like pop out of the bodies of the creature and look like these big floating eyes, really weird. After study and practice I found some drawbacks, namely that until recently it would put the receiver into a terrible mental state or potentially drive them insane, and if this happened they could turn into a Monster. I took the dungeon core and fairy from before and made an underground complex using it.

Saba: A few miles below the estate is now a pretty big and expansive lab and tram system. And below that is a dungeon of my own design, well technically it’s all a part of the dungeon, but I’d only count the lower floors. It’s made to be explored by a party of 4-8 individuals and should take a while to actually complete. If everyone’s fresh, which is how I’d recommend going about it. It’ll probably take a month to clear. Maybe longer. I’d recommend taking a break after every floor using the built in teleporters, they only work in the dungeon. The things to keep a lookout for are traps, monsters, merchant machines, etc. I was bored, me and Shank got kind of invested in it. I used the dungeon’s monster creation ability and the souls of assasins to make special boss and mini-boss monsters we didn’t have an active supply of adventurers to siphon mana from so they and all my saved up monster cores had to suffice. We also funneled most of our artifacts into the dungeon, but as a result it can generate random loot, that should serve as capital for you whenever you leave the dungeon. It’s my hope you get something good or awaken your Innate Ability while you’re there.

Saba: You can access my lab by heading to my office with the included special COMM, it’ll show you how to get in. Given the unlikely chance that the estate has been razed to the ground, you can head to the service entrance. I made it in the old paper mill’s shipping and recieving area. It’s where I had deliveries dropped off in the dead of night for the lab’s construction materials. Hopefully the land hasn’t skyrocketed in value but you should probably buy it so no one goes on the land.

Saba: There are some surprises in the prep room before the dungeon, I made it like one of those COMM games I got kinda sucked into when me and Marth were chilling. But let me be clear, YOU CAN STILL DIE. Don’t treat this like a game. And even when all is said and done, you’ll only be ON PAR with the others. At most I expect you and the party that you come out of there with to be A to S ranked. Strong enough to attempt to conquer other dungeons, not strong enough to defeat demons on your own, and definitely not strong enough to take on armies of Angels, but strong enough to take on single ones. It’s my hope that you get strong enough to defend yourselves against the Assasins that might be harassing you. Uhhh let me think.
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No. 998717 ID: afe7de
File 161993601425.png - (6.98KB , 500x500 , C2_167.png )
998717

A voice off screen mumbles something else.

Saba: Oh right, so you’ll find three things inside this container. The first is a special Comm, it’s got a custom OS on it and will let you use the teleporters and control things on the lab floor. There’s also some blueprints on there for some things that might come in handy, you probably wont be able to understand them, but have one of the printers in the lab print out the blueprints and it should make a Tinker’s life easier.

Saba: The second thing is a small device I made for your grandma, she had Ice powers, and I’m hoping those got passed along to you too. If they did, this’ll help. It’s a small artifact that goes on your wrist. It fires out a jet of water that, with enough practice, you could freeze midair in the form of an ice spear. It uses the mana in the air and has a few different modes. You can use the special Comm to tweak how it releases water. You’ll need to manually refill it every now and again though, it’s basically got a special made inter-spatial ring that only holds water. Still it holds like 5000 Liters of water, so it might take a while to run out.

Saba: Lastly and most importantly is my most prized possession. I couldn’t use it and Shank didn’t want to, rather he encouraged we give it to the heir on my deathbed. It’s called a [TOKEN OF SECOND AWAKENING]. It looks like a gold coin with a flame on it, but if you activate it using the system it will allow you to awaken a second time. No idea if it will let you awaken naturally again, or what. But you’ll be able to use a second awakening artifact to get a new Power. I’d suggest waiting until you get something really good to use it though. This is probably the most valuable thing I own, so consider it my apology for all the shit I’ve put you through and for our family dieing. I hope you keep this a secret because people might definitely kill you over it.
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No. 998718 ID: afe7de
File 161993602278.png - (96.43KB , 500x500 , C2_168.png )
998718

Saba: Oh right, and about the fairy… He’s not linked to the dungeon anymore, there are safeguards in place and he’s pretty easy to kill if it comes down to it. But if you’re weak, try to form a contract with him. You might get something good out of it. And if he pisses you off or tries anything funny you can always use the command word [RETURN] while holding the sphere to send the last captured creature within range back inside. It’s a waste of the sphere if I’m being honest, but hey it’s your problem now!

Saba: And if all else fails and you can’t beat the dungeon… well… I’m sorry. This is the best I could do. I was planning on forcefully awakening you at 16, but since you refused training and exercise so often, I changed it to 18. I also planned on training Maxamillian hardcore at 16, but he was just so enamored with the Heroes league no matter what I said or showed him, he was always a dreamer, saying he wanted to fix it from the inside, I swear there reached a point where he both idolized me and ignored every word that came out of my mouth, but I guess that didn’t end up happening, huh. This was convoluted in an attempt to prevent the guild from ruining your life, who knows maybe they already ruined it and converted you too.

Saba: I had an agreement with Sabarth in our last communication that if I were to die to at least deliver the book, ring, and the estate to you. I doubt he’ll give you anything else. He hated my guts but didn’t have anything against you. Just be careful to not display your rapid growth publicly and be wary for anyone following you. Oh right, and since I never explained what a growth was to you. You’re basically going to go into a fever for a little while depending on how powerful it is. But when the fever is over you’ll have a qualitative increase in your stats and sometimes even gain a new ability or insight you didn’t have before. Though a post-growth is kind of like being high or drunk and you’ll act kind of stupid. Hopefully you can get one or two of these in the dungeon to put you on level playing fields with everyone else.

Saba: Alright, I’ve said my piece. The box will vaporize and you’ll be left with the special COMM, the token, and your grandma’s artifact. It was a lot, so if you want to re-play this message, now’s going to be your only chance.

How do you react and what do you do?
>>
No. 998719 ID: 3ed3c3

It's sounding like the plan here amounts to "get as strong as possible and hope not to die when everything goes to shit."
Is that about right?
>>
No. 998723 ID: e51896

After hearing the message, you think about his power... CATACLYSMIC CONVERGENCE

You consider how the beings souls gets released as big floating eyes and into a target, and you start to have terrible flashbacks about how you saw eyes, and a a figure wreathed in flame before going unconscious on the day of the estate fire.

You wonder if your grandfather was the figure wreathed in flames, and if he was using his powers to put souls combined into one target... maybe into a person? (maybe the souls of Willamina's dead family members?)

You start to freak out from remembering that day! And before you realize it, you've been screaming loud enough for Cat and Mint to hear! (or at least they would hear you if the room wasn't sound proof.)

maybe we should consider also that maybe the souls got combined into Isabella, and that is why she is in a psychotic mental state.
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No. 998724 ID: b1b4f3

>>998718
OH SHIT hit replay immediately and get everyone in to hear this since it doesn't have anything personal in it and they should definitely hear it. Not like you're gonna be able to memorize it after hearing it once so uh, better make sure other, smarter people can absorb the info.

>Max wants to fix the Hero Association
Well that's gonna be difficult since he's already in bed with Nunitus who is responsible for corrupting it. Possibly unknowingly, since Isabella tries to keep her association with Nunitus secret. Or is Isabella a double agent too?! That'd be fuuuuucked. Kindof makes sense in a way though... Wait, did Gramps basically just tell you your parents were corrupt? Did Isabella badmouth them for a *good* reason!?
I wish we had a way of confirming their motives. Maybe if we Upgrade Rex enough he'll be able to work as a lie detector?
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No. 998726 ID: 6c227a

What you are going to do is hit the repeat button and get those other nerds to hear this too.
>>
No. 998728 ID: 5987e7

>souls look like eyes
Oof. Dammit Grandpa. Was it another assassination attempt? And WHO got converged on and DIDN’T turn into a Monster with however many of your family’s and assassin’s souls? You really need to speak with Gruk and Trey again about what the hell they SAW that day.

Maybe even.... Isabella. Because sweet goddess, if she saw any of that, your gramps doing the crazy Cataclysmic thing on everyone and everything, but sparing YOU? Yeah, that’d... explain a lot of her grudge. Possibly. (I know Max is alive. - Will doesn’t yet. He’s probably not a clone since Cat scanned ‘em successfully, and given how he was acting... but he might be in trouble or being slowly brainwashed.)

>how do you react
It would have been worse if Cat, Mint and Rex hadn’t laid it all on you already sorta. You’re a little overwhelmed still, but you already did most of your crying for your lost family. You... don’t see anything here that you’d really want to keep from them. Plus, as your Gramps kindly explained, you might die. You want more than one head sitting on this.

Call everyone over and play it again. Get their input.

Cat gets the Second Awakening token, no question about it. Guy NEEDs a secondary power so he doesn’t just DIE or something when the Angels and the HL come for you all (and it sounds like they WILL once they realize you’re doing the growth spurt thing). You already have two so it’s wasted on you, anyway.

Also add one little addition to your to-do list:

"Save/Talk To Set?"

Because if that demon wanted to do good, but had their intentions corrupted by the angels arriving and subverting their super-training Dungeon into a corrupt money grinding empire it’s pretty clear they’re either in trouble or seething mad right now.

Goddess... now Donjon’s Dungeon Break is also a thing to question. Who really allowed it to happen and why? A lot of the HL old guard died in that, didn’t they? Was it an angel ploy to rid the world of Awakened, or Set trying to get rid of Angel puppets?

Your new plan: train up a group of friends, 8 total, counting you, using the Hadlee Dungeon. Use Cat’s power to boost you even more during it all. Go to Donjon’s Dungeon and attempt to finish it in one delve??? See if you can get Set to appear??? Kick some HL/Angel ass, if need be. Possibly smack some sense into your uncle.
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No. 998733 ID: 094652

>They’re like trying to lull you into a false sense of security. The only ones you can trust are ones bound as spirits, and even then, they’re probably trying to drive their hosts crazy.
Ask Cat if the big secret is that Isabella is pure evil because a non-fallen angel intentionally molded her that way.
You're not going to murder your step-sister. No, you're going to murder her 'guardian' angel right in front of her smug, cheerful face.

>Token of Second Awakening
Give it to Cat. Well, after he levels up a few times more, then see if he can get an even better meta-power.

>Chock full of text
You know what? Leave the box until you find a secure way to record the message. You could get past a bunch of voice-activated commands with the right speech emulation software.

>What do
Christen the RV the traditional way: with a threeway!
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No. 998736 ID: 864e49

Replay message for everyone/try record it.
Give coin to Cat, awaken: power to remove powers.
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No. 998742 ID: 031458

Hey Assholes! C'mere n listen to this!

The Second awakening thing is precious. It's a bit early to use it though, let's give everyone a chance to master their current powers first.
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No. 998745 ID: ef829b

We probably could have not done this privately and had Mint and Cat listen, but whatever. Well, time to trade information. Cat probably finished reading through that journal while you were listening to gramps, and Mint probably thought of a few inventions

Tell Cat what you learned, get journal information from Cat, see if Mint has some invention ideas, and get the camper keys, token, water device, and COMM from the lockbox.

Afterwards, i think we're ready to hear what Cat has to say that may piss you off.
>>
No. 998752 ID: 9a2966

Thinking about it, there are reasons why you might not want to include Rex and Mint.

Mint is a demonic slave. There might be mechanisms here that forces her to, well, pass on knowledge to her masters, even unwillingly or unknowingly.

Rex used to be part of this Overmind's surveillance efforts (and Cat got a BIG clue earlier by listening into a conversation between Cannie and Isabella that Nunitus was run by the 'Over'-something). It could be that whoevery they are could subvert him or observe through him, despite him having been freed of their immediate influence.

Or we could trust 'em both, fuck it, keeping secrets from absolutely everyone is dumb and stupid, especially the people you'll be working the closest with.

(Although if you drag Cat in here alone, you could use, well, fucking it - or rather him - as the excuse.)
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No. 998755 ID: 6c227a

>>998736
I am not sure recording the message is a wise idea, if it was under this much security in the first place. Multifactor biometric authentication and a self destruct mechanism does not scream "save this on your phone for later."

>>998752
If mind reading is in play there might be some argument for keeping the list of people who have seen this small, but on the other hand, this was too much to handle or process alone. Gotta trust somebody, and if the people in the camper right now are compromised, you're already fucked.
>>
No. 998756 ID: 8483cf

>And by compromised by the angels... it doesn't really matter, he’s been brainwashed, just another to pile on the list of enemies really.

I'm going to take this with a grain of salt. Keep in mind Saba's admitted to having a bias towards thinking he's always right. Obviously keep your guard up, but be ready for this to be more complicated than it seems.

I recommend practicing first with the new comm and learning what buttons do what, and how to recharge it. Second, get that ice artifact up and running.

Third, don't use the SECOND AWAKENING yet. It's your ultimate trump card, and no matter how much info someone on the other side has about you right now, this is an instant reset button that lets you turn the tables on ANYONE.

Also FAIRY FAIRY FAIRY SAY HELLO TO THE FAIRY

Don't let him get away!
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No. 998758 ID: b46ebf

>>998755
Agreed, lets not record it.

I dont think we need to play it again either, we can just tell Cat and Mint what we found out.
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No. 998759 ID: f8fa51

Definitely replay it for them. It's okay to admit that Mint and event Cat are probably smarter than you in some ways, and they might catch something you missed. One problem with simply relaying the information is you won't remember it exactly and they might find something important that you overlooked.
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No. 998767 ID: 77a8ed

yeah, absolutely replay it for cat and mint
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No. 998775 ID: afe7de
File 162002852695.png - (121.13KB , 500x500 , C2_169.png )
998775

> Flashback
You think back to that moment you saw, the creaked open door, the orbs with eyes on them, a lot of them were looking at you. Then you saw it, someone on fire, the corpses of your family, a fireball, then an explosion, knocking you back. You were on fire, you tried to get it off, it hurt, you fell over the staircase railing, the fire was raging here too. You were in pain, on fire, crawling ever so slowly to the door. Then it’s a blank in your memory, then Trey was holding you in his arms, you were extinguished but couldn’t move anything. Then you could only see Isabella’s face. That fucking look, it’s seared in your mind, watching your house burning down, being happy about it.

You’ve already cried enough over this moment, and even though you’re alone, you’re too COOL and don’t lose your COMPOSURE right now. You take a steadying breath, you were shaking a bit and you didn’t realize it. You grab the Lockbox and bring it to the table, taking a seat.

> Show the group
You: Everyone, come HERE, you’ll want to see this.

The hologram plays again. Mint, Cat, and Roach watch with rapt attention. Eventually it finishes, asking if you want to repeat the message and cat speaks up.

Cat: Mind if we play it again?
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No. 998776 ID: afe7de
File 162002853694.png - (8.21KB , 500x500 , C2_170.png )
998776

> Record it
You’re not comfortable doing that, this is serious info that could cause mass panic. You let the hologram play for a third time. Nothing new is said and you think you get the gist of everything. It finishes and Cat looks like he has something on his mind, he also looks very tired. Mint’s scribbling some stuff down on a notepad she found. You decide to pipe up.

You: So, thoughts?

Cat: Yeah, sounds like we have problems. To summarize, we’ve got a demon that tried to train Awakened, Angels that already invaded, a hand made dungeon, and potential of assasinations, along with the rest of the stuff. Kind of exhausting to hear everything laid out like this.

Mint: It’s certainly worse than I thought. Maybe getting paired with Master and Mistress will be a quick way to my death.

Willamina: And hearing about NUNITUS, ugh. Things just get more COMPLICATED.

Rex: MAYBE I DON'T GET IT, BUT OUR OVERALL OBJECTIVE HASN'T CHANGED, AND NOW WE HAVE A WAY TO KIND OF ACHIEVE IT WITHOUT MINT’S DEVICE.

Mint: True. But this still means that there’s probably another dungeon around here. Man-made dungeons aren’t able to produce Auction sites. Though how this place hasn’t been razed to the ground yet is a mystery, and if Saba knew, why didn’t he tell us. Maybe he didn’t know? Maybe he was never selected to join an Auction, but why Cat then?

Willamina: Either way, anyone want to see it again? I WANT the stuff inside.
>>
No. 998777 ID: afe7de
File 162002854693.png - (13.47KB , 500x500 , C2_171.png )
998777

The group assents and you confirm, the lock-box phases out of existence and you see the mentioned coin, bracelet, comm, and, is that a card? You thought there was supposed to be a key in here. You equip the bracelet, store the coin and pick up the comm and card. The card is a simple blank card with the word “SaBa” printed on it. The back side has some striping on it, maybe it’s a key-card and there’s a scanner or something on the wheel. You hand it to Cat.

You: I ASSUME this is the key, you should probably check the DRIVERS seat just in case.

Cat goes to the front of the vehicle and you hear another sliding door open. You take the time to investigate the COMM, it’s a sleek, silver piece of metal that is cool to the touch. You open it up and it says that it’s running the SaBaOS, you ignore the rest and skip past everything and are greeted to a wallpaper of your grandma. You didn’t realize she looked nearly exactly like you. There’s also little applications on it, one for teleporters, you try tapping it but just get a notification that no active teleporters are within range. Then there’s one for documents, you open that up and there’s just a bunch of research notes in it. You can’t make heads or tails of it and will probably need to let Mint take a look, or find a terminal to print this stuff out for her at.
>>
No. 998778 ID: afe7de
File 162002859168.png - (19.46KB , 500x500 , C2_172.png )
998778

Next is the app for your artifact, it has modes for burst fire, single stream, mist, etc. You set it to burst for now. There’s an operating manual for the Winnebago in here, looks like it just tells you how to lock the thing, and there’s a PHOTO app, you open it up, and you find two photos, the cover photo you saw before, and one of a young man, probably Marth Walpole, you’re surprised he doesent have any pictures of his kids, even his favorite son Shank. Lastly you see an app for a game called “DGN.CRWL” But when you open it you just get a black screen. After a few minutes of fiddling you close it and hear the vehicle start. After a moment it stops and Cat heads back to you.

Cat: Yup. You just have to hold it up to this panel and it activates the vehicle.

You flick your wrist and the coin appears, you’re divided. Part of you wants to give this to Cat, but another part of you wants to hold onto it until everyone has practiced enough. He hasn’t asked about it or brought it up yet, and you don’t think he’s going to from his temperament, so the choice is really on you. You’re going to think it over for a night. You put it away and look at the table. Everyone seems drained, this probably has had an emotional strain on everyone at the table. You suggest everyone take some time to gather their thoughts, process things, maybe for Cat to go get his stuff from the Stone and everyone take a breather. No one objects. You toss Cat his pants, but leave him topless, you like seeing him without his shirt. He stays seated for a little bit, like he’s thinking.

The coin will work on anyone with more than one power so long as they’ve only awakened once, just wanted to clear that up for some of you confused suggestors.

What do you do?

A. Talk to Cat about one of his theories? (which one?)
B. Talk to Mint and Roach?
C. Visit your mom?
D. Other.
>>
No. 998779 ID: eb1fcc

>>998778
worth noting, with the shards of detection in play awakening him a second time might cause problems. We want Cat low profile, the more people know he's a potential problem the more problems it will cause.
>>
No. 998780 ID: f8fa51

Give everyone some time to stew on their ideas. Talk to your mum. Hold onto the coin, it's yours and you shouldn't be too hasty to spend it, but ask Cat to think about how he would use it if the decision were his. You can always decide to go with one of his plans later.
>>
No. 998781 ID: f8fa51

Actually, this is a double-post, but something I've been thinking about with regards to the power-detection shard. Cat's power was barely even visible, even though it should by all rights be considered pretty powerful. That on its own could be shrugged off as the shards measuring power on different criteria than I would. However, the shards also didn't pick up on any of Cat's several artefacts. Something was dampening the detection, trying to hide Cat, and I don't think we're yet aware of anything that could do that. Something to think about.
>>
No. 998786 ID: e51896

D; clear our heads by just taking a walk with cat around town, and then go with him to collect his things from the stone. dont talk about anything about what we learned or Cat's theories just yet until we get back to the vehicle, you kind of want this moment of peace to help you and Cat refresh your minds before he starts telling you the heavy shit, especially after learning all that...

Maybe we can fuck Cat at the stone For his last visit at that room before he retrives his stuff, have that bit if fun before he tells you about his theories.

Otherwise, B. What we can do is have Cat pick up his stuff to take time to clear his head enough to be more ready to give his theories while we talk to Mint and Roach. Maybe ask Rex about the overmind a bit more, like what they look like. Ask Mint what she wrote down, if it is anything confidential from the recording, remind her that the information was meant to be destroyed and having notes about it could be risky and we'll need to order her to destroy it. Also ask if she got ideas for a crystal invention
>>
No. 998787 ID: e7c7d3

C: Visit the mommo
>>
No. 998797 ID: 538994

Alright, lets split up and take a break. C, go see mom.

Meanwhile, Cat can go pick up his stuff from the hapless stone and talk to some people and get some rumors there.

Also, look on the lyst's shop website and look up prices for a large incubator for the lucky egg, slushees for all four of us (dont get one with all three mixed, cat can have the white one to raise his cool stats) stamina liqours (so Cat isn't too tired for sex with you and other things this evening, gotta fuck him before her fucks Andrea tomorrow). A succulent for Rex, and stuff to build a glass enclosure door for his little cubby home, and some jerky. Based off the prices, give Mint the bux to pick those up from the shop while you and Cat do your own things.

Tell everyone to meet back here in 30 min to an hour.
>>
No. 998798 ID: 30b9f6

>>998779
This concern is countered by Cat's powers (and artifacts) currently being hidden/suppressed. That's not to say Cat can't procure other means to defend himself in a pinch - from artifacts, to being accompanied by someone of a body-guard-y bent to just training to become more bad of ass. He's certainly proven more competent in a fight than you'd expect (what with beating Cannie).

>What do
C - Talk to yo mama. You're overdue, and you do need to ensure that you and Cat are able to take time off from work to GO ON A GRAND ADVENTURE, or whatever you'll sell her. You probably really should lie to her on the exact nature of what you're doing A) because she'd get worried and B) because... Isabella might pester mom about what you're up to and you really don't want her to know.

(Besides, Cat looks pretty tuckered out AND they still have a meeting later today to swap THEIR artifacts with OTHER artifacts/money with Miss Iraphena - NUNITUS employee of the month - which probably at this point is part of establishing his cover so that NUNITUS doesn't GEEK him... which he seems oddly confident they will if he doesn't make a show of playing nice and pretending being in their debt!)

... hm. Two thoughts, though.

>One - Tricking Nunitus/HL
You could actually trade one of the Artifacts from your new collection - THROUGH Cat - and make Miss Iraphena / Nunitus think they've got an angle on you as well through your loathing of the Heroes' League ("I'd rather sell to Miss Iraphena's contacts than THEM") and your budding friendship with Cat. Cat could then - intentionally or 'accidentally' - feed them some extra information, particularly so they don't think you know as much as you do. For example, he could suggest that your Gramps didn't think you'd really have it in you to do anything great, so just left a vague and confusing suggestion about 'explore the world and enjoy what time you have left' along with a few artifacts, chief of them the Winnebago.

>Two - Tricking EVERYONE
Here's a COVER STORY that might work for you. What if you took a bunch of your most/best trusted friends (i.e. whoever you can trust and convince to come with you to conquer Saba's Dungeon), offered them a "ride around the world in the old Heroes' very own Winnebago" (free of charge thanks to your new-found riches), with the stated intent being to take a sabbatical to explore the world and maybe go visit some OTHER dungeons until you're ready to take the HL's 'GRAND' opportunity to face Donjon's Dungeon for FUCKING free for a month, woop woop.

Then - after you've ridden out of town and ensured no spirits are watching you - you drive off-road, POCKET the Winnebago back into your ring, sneak off to Saba's dungeon and vanish off the face of the earth for a month's time (having loaded the Winnebago and your various rings with supplies for the period already).

Nobody will be able to tell whether you actually used some Artifact your grandfather left you to slip under the radar, whether it was the Winnebago itself that suddenly couldn't be tracked, or how the hell you just disappeared. They'll be busy searching THE WORLD for you - at least if they're trying to keep you under surveillance (and they probably are) - while you'll be right under their noses here in Lyst the whole time, training like hell so you won't be as easy to kill if they decide you're a threat.

Granted, there's probably a few seers (hello Iraphena) and whatnot that'll be able to tell the gist of what'll happen (you vanish, only to turn up way stronger), but unless I miss my guess, they can't scry dungeons that well or everyone would know when the next Dungeon Break would happen and tragedies like Donjon's just wouldn't happen.

Heck, you could even double down and try to clear that OTHER dungeon too while 'missing', assuming you can find it.
>>
No. 998805 ID: b1b4f3

C. It's a good time to do it.
>>
No. 998806 ID: 4f57c5

If we're doing C, then lets try to keep much of what we got from our inheritence a secret, not that we dont trust her, but we kind of want to not draw too much attention to ourselves.

That said, hide your new artifacts from her. Also, ask for vacation time so you can use it to prepare, and get paid for our vacation too. We're not quitting just yet, at least not until after our vacation when we get everything planned out for saving the world and things woth our inheritence is settled

>>998797
Cat and Mint can do this while we're gone.
>>
No. 998856 ID: afe7de
File 162011281912.png - (7.51KB , 500x500 , C2_173.png )
998856

> Make a Supply list
You: Hey Mint, you mentioned you were in something like ADMINISTRATION before? And from how you talked you seemed like you’ve been in a DUNGEON or two? Am I right?

Mint: Hmm? Yeah. Mostly as auxillary support, it’s kind of a right of passage when you come of age and I did it twice. Didn’t have a power so I mostly maintained tech and fired Mana rifles from the distance. I also handled supply management and stripping monster corpses of their relevant parts. They called my job being a “Porter” back in my world. We didn’t really have rings like you have, so we had to make weight reducing bags and carry the supplies that way too. Why?

You: THINK you could make a supply list for 8, no, 10 people? Try SEARCHING on the Lyst-Y-Mart site and see what you can get from there and what we’d have to ORDER and have shipped to us.

Cat: I also need an Incubator, probably several stamina liquors, which I heard you can get from the Ruffled Haunch, and I was thinking about getting a SLUSHEE machine for the Winnebago. I don’t know if you all know this, but SLUSHEES actually improve your stats, which, by the way. There’s fucking STATS in real life!
>>
No. 998857 ID: afe7de
File 162011283240.png - (34.07KB , 500x500 , C2_174.png )
998857

Mint sets down her comm on the table and a projected keyboard and screen appear on it. She starts typing.

Mint: Calm down my idiot Master. It’s just the system’s way of quantifying your capabilities. And I’ll look into the stuff for an enclosure for Rex while we’re at it.

Cat: But yeah, all that can wait until after we’ve rested for a bit and dealt with our errands. I’ll probably visit Iraphena and see about those items she’s trying to pawn off.

You: Hey mint, can you SHAVE off a small artifact sized chunk of the CRYSTAL to give to Cat? Maybe he can use that to TRADE.

Mint then takes a chisel and hammer and taps the crystal a few times. A shard fractures off and she tosses it at Cat who stores it in his ring.

Mint: I don’t need rest right now. It sucks hearing about everything that’s going on, but I’ve always been the active one during moments of crisis. I’ll just go get my brains fucked out later or something at that Haunch place when I’m going to get the liquors. Maybe I’ll check if they sell ENERGY and HEALING liquors online too.
>>
No. 998858 ID: afe7de
File 162011284138.png - (14.14KB , 500x500 , C2_175.png )
998858

> Visit your Mom
She starts searching online and waves the two of you away. Cat puts on his pants and satchel while you put on your pants and store your bracelet and the rest of your belongings besides your normal COMM in your ring for now, you’re not sure how much you want to reveal to your mom, but are sure you could get away with the pin, ring, and Winnebago pretty easily.

The two of you go your separate ways and you head over to Mom’s. Mom’s house is only a few blocks over and you knock on the door. It’s a little after 6, so she should’ve been home a bit ago. It takes a few moments but you hear a muffled ”Coming, Coming! Sorry, I was finishing dinner! CANNIE, GET THE JERKY!”. The door opens and you see your mom, Nicky, in an apron, she’s a little messy all over, but brights up immediately when she sees you.

Nicky: AWH My little Caramel Apple actually came! Come in, Come in!!!! I made you your favorite dinner! And don’t worry, Izzy’s over at a friend’s place so you can actually enjoy dinner today.

She shuffles you in and you see Cannie walking down the stairs with just a massive jar of jerky. You try to sniff the air as a reflex, but remember you CANT SMELL and get a little disappointed.

What is Willamina’s favorite meal?
>>
No. 998859 ID: afa6f6

>>998858
>>What is Willamina’s favorite meal?
Baked macaroni and cheese with ground beef and broccoli!
Yeah, I just made that up, but it sounds good!
>>
No. 998860 ID: 30b9f6

>favfood
The food of the gods!

CEASAR SALAD (while it's got plenty of meat, salads are still a rare treat in this carnivore household)

It's also got everything a human needs, vital nutrients, plenty of proteins and delicious delicious dressings.

Goddess, that Ceasar was such a culinary genius, and you'll be forever grateful to your mom for picking up on that. Hell of a cook, they called him the Emperor of the kitchen! Or the Tyrant, you guess, depending on his mood - he was a bit like Saba that way, unrepentantly self-assured and always had to have things his way. Shame he died last year in that freak cutlery accident - all his assistants swore up and down he just slipped and fell on all those knives. Now there's even a big fight over who'll get to take over his food emporium!

But the recipes he created and shared with everyone are still as good as ever. The secret, of course, is in the sauce... and in the extra meat (again, carnivore household). Helps that when Mom makes one of her kids' favorite meals, she goes all out (as evidenced by the splatters).
>>
No. 998863 ID: 6c227a

Pulled pork nachos. With the damage to your sense of smell, you started having trouble tasting things too, but the assortment of textures, crunchy chips, soft cheese, stringy pork, and crisp jalapenos really appeal to you, and the taste hits all the notes you can still manage too. She never puts quite enough barbecue sauce on the pork though.
>>
No. 998866 ID: 50fddb

Curry. All types of curry, So long as it's SPICY!!!
You like being able to TASTE your food damnit, and curry never disappoints!
>>
No. 998867 ID: f8fa51

>>998860
I kind of want to back this one just for the joke that comes with it, but...

>>998863
Oh yeah, this'll do nicely.
>>
No. 998868 ID: e51896

>>998867
Maybe CEASAR SALAD was her favorite before she lost her senses, and it changed to Pulled pork nachos.

Also, Ceasar was a lion. He would also have televisions on for customers to watch shows on in the restaurant, and would always have it on when they have Universal Awakened Battle Entertainment on.

For some reason, he would always give a thumbs up or thumbs down whenever his favorite awakened fighter won or lost a match.
>>
No. 998872 ID: eb1fcc

>>998858
potato chip and pork-rind smoothies.
>>
No. 998875 ID: e2ce85

>>998858
Kartoffelpuffer!
I mean, potato pancakes
>>
No. 998876 ID: 30b9f6

Let's none of us forget CEASAR's incredible DICE & TOSS technique either. Watching his cooking show was probably one of your great post-tragedy motivators, both for your growing appreciation on how to ACT CONFIDENT and for learning how to cook despite your smell handicap.

(Confidence which had you staring an A-rank hero in the eye and making them sweat and cooking which Cat complimented last night, so BOO-YEAH, world!)

It was just another chink in your efforts to stay sad, bitter and mad at the world when that world's most IMPERIOUS chef was so unashamedly leaving snobby food critics crying in his wake on camera. CEASAR had a bit of a MOUTH on him when he got riled, and his show had great entertainment value as a result and taught you that you shouldn't be afraid to FUCKING EXPRESS YOURSELF however you want.

Maybe not the best role model all told, but WHO GIVES A SHIT?
>>
No. 998920 ID: 4646ad

Curry! No smell means no taste, unless you go EXTREME

Also, a little bird told me that stolen jerky tastes better.
>>
No. 998955 ID: afe7de
File 162020177352.png - (19.88KB , 500x500 , C2_176.png )
998955

> CAESAR SALAD
You sit down at the table and a plate is put in front of you in a matter of moments. It’s your favorite meal, a CAESAR SALAD. It’s a salad consisting of various greens, croutons, CAESAR dressing, and grated cheese. But your favorite part has to be the juicy spicy PULLED PORK bits scattered about. You can’t smell so it takes really intense flavors to really please you, you can taste, just NOT VERY WELL.

You think back to your time recovering in the hospital, all those hours spent watching the cooking channel, you got obsessed with CAESAR’S incredible DICE AND TOSS technique. He was a lion beast-kin that inspired confidence and it helped you not worry about failing at cooking with your handicap. He had a bit of a MOUTH to him, which you guess you inherited in a way to spite the world. You were so timid before, eventually you could actually stand up to Isabella too. He might not have been the best role model, but WHO GIVES A SHIT? It made you a better person, you were able to stare down and make an A-RANK hero sweat. You were able to make good cooking that Cat complimented. You feel PRIDE in yourself.

You shake your head and return to reality from your reminiscing. Cannie and Nicky are both seated with their own plates and Nicky says a quick prayer to GLUTOS, the MEGAFAUNA of feasts, prosperity, and sacrifice. The three of you happily dig in and talk about your days. You mention getting your inheritance, and Awakening and they both congratulate you. You decide to only mention the JOURNAL, RING, PIN, and WINNEBAGO to them, but you don’t go into too much detail about it so you don’t worry your Mom. Cannie talks about her day, how she walked in the park, spent some time with Isabella, and talked to Random about a job tonight at the morgue. Nicky shares that its business as usual at City Hall, nothing too crazy happening, and she subtly mentions how she does have a few extra hands that could take over and let her use up her vacation time.
>>
No. 998957 ID: afe7de
File 162020189844.png - (17.06KB , 500x500 , C2_177.png )
998957

Nicky: You’ve got like 3 Months of vacation time. Why not go on a trip in your new car? Cannie could come along and drive!

Cannie: A trip around the world sounds kind of nice actually, if you’d want me to come that is.

Nicky: I’d offer to join, but someone has to run this city! Plus I’d just get in the way, I’m an old lady after all. Wouldn’t want to be too far from Laura’s grave anyways. Sorry you never got to meet her.

Cannie: Sorry Mom.

Nicky: It’s not your fault she died in childbirth. We knew the risks. *SIGH*

Nicky fiddles with something under her apron and pulls out a small box. She gestures to Cannie as well and the jerky jar slides over to you.

Nicky: Here! A gift from us to you as a congrats for your Awakening!

You take the small box and shake it a little, sounds like it’s ring or bracelet sized. You then pop open the jar of Jerky, looks like there’s enough in there to last a month if you’re the only one eating it regularly. It’s got a shelf life of about 3 months. You take a little nibble. MMMMMM TURKEY flavored. You close the lid and get up.

You: Aww, thanks Mom!!! And you too Cannie!!!

You give them both a hug, they’re warm, it’s pleasant, and for a second you forget about everything that’s happening. Then it hits you like a bag of bricks and you feel like crying. You hold it in and sit back down, finishing your meal with idle chit chat.

Do you bring up or ask for anything from your mom? Do you open the box? And do you invite Cannie?
>>
No. 998958 ID: 094652

"Mom? What do you think about guardian angels?"

Don't ask Cannie to come along on your adventure, you may need to hurt Isabella in a few months.
>>
No. 998961 ID: da89f3

Yes, let us ask for vacation time, starting Tuesday. Ask if Nicky can hook you up with some movies for the trip too. Ask if she doesnt bring up your inheritence too much to others as you kind of want to privately celebrate what you've earned privately for a little while since everything is happening so fast.

we'll invite Cannie. Maybe Gena too. We'll need to take some time to think of who else to invite as well, like gruk, and andrea. We have until after the party on monday for Cat and you to form more connections for our crazy adventure.

Open the box too.

Hmm... ask if Cannie is also working at the Morgue tomorrow night too. depending on her answer, maybe Cat can tag along tomorrow after poker. (We intend to keep him all to ourself tonight since we really want to spend some alone time with him and keep him all to ourself tonight)

I wonder, should we bring her with us to the WINNEBAGO before she heads to work tonight, and talk to her with Cat and Mint a tiny bit about dungeon exploring and other stuff?

And should we invite Nicky to the party on Monday? (Im sure Gena planned on inviting her anyway though.)
>>
No. 998963 ID: f8fa51

Yes, you should bring Cannie along. And you should open up, too. Not necessarily asking about anything specific, but you should take the opportunity to talk about how everything going on right now is affecting you, with a readiness to answer some questions as they become relevant. Don't get too detailed, however, as there could be spirits listening.
>>
No. 998968 ID: 363bcf

Sure open the box.

DEFFO invite Cannie. Wasn't she involved with Nunitus not too long ago? Anything you can do to keep her AWAY from them is a GOOD thing.

Ask your mother for forgiveness because you're stealing the new hire and now she has less than 36 hours to get someone into the post office.

But seriously just ask her to stay in touch, maybe tell you about any new happenings or faces in town and what not.
>>
No. 998973 ID: e51896

Oh, you went to your family's in just your undies? Wonder how many people you caught staring.

Yes, invite Cannie, ask her if she is working tomorrow night too so Cat can plan ahead to join either tonight or tomorrow after poker... (maybe you can join in on Cannie's job too?)

Open the box.

And yes on vacation. Just tell mom after awakening, you want to think about what to do with your life moving forward, and the vacation should help you reflect.

Dont need to talk too much, gotta get back to the winnebago soon to get some alone time with Cat
>>
No. 998980 ID: b1b4f3

>>998957
What's in the boooooox?!
>>
No. 998981 ID: 30b9f6

>WHAT'S IN THE BOX
It's a gift! They're meant for opening!

>WORLD VACAY ROAD TRIP
Precisely your plan! The Winnebago's big enough, so you're thinking of snatching up some more peeps for the trip - you've got the money to fund the whole shebang 'n all now, no need for airplane tickets to Wano. You DO need to do some prep and planning first, so you won't be leaving town quite immediately... not sure when. You'll see who can and wants to come and wing it from there.

(dammit, now you actually want to go on a REAL road trip)

>Can Cannie come?
Boy, can she? Duh! You'll discuss details later.

>Anything to bring up with or ask from Mom?
Let's see... while you'd really like to trust mom with more of what's going on, you just don't have the desire to yet. But there's certainly things she should know and you could ask of her.

>One - Isabella
Ugh... this one's just a headache headsup. Show mom the message you got from Isabella (the one mentioning Max) and warn her she might become even more Isabella. Apparently she encountered the HL rep today and was literally reduced to tears from whatever was said. Guess she didn't take you Awakening and becoming rich overnight well? The whole grudge over Max thing is just getting sad at this point, you swear to the goddess. It's such a stupid wedge in the family - and it annoys you that you can't even call her that without wanting to spit. Just because... ah whatever. Mom doesn't have any new ideas on how to get her to bury the hatchet since last you asked, does she? Ignoring her has worked pretty well, but it doesn't feel like it's solving anything.

>Two - Land & Legal Stuff
Shit - you might owe taxes and stuff now? Help with processing that would be nice. Oh, and - if you didn't tell 'em already - they should know your inheritance got straight up GIMPED from what it should've been. You still got some value - the items you mentioned - and the land the mansion was on in particular, but not sure if you'll do anything with it yet. Does Mom have any ideas? You're half tempted to just leave it as-is for now. Maybe sell it... though selling real estate around these parts HAS been a noted difficulty, hasn't it?

Speaking of said real estate, you could straight up take that PAPER MILL off the town's hands. It'd be easy to join the lands with the estate ones, right? And you could make something of it. It's certainly got less baggage than the main Hadlee Estate. Your new friendployee Cat actually has a Tinker friend that's awful clever and interested in moving to Lyst too, so maybe you'll refit parts of it into a workshop and sponsor a cool invention or two. Getting Rupert to run his tinker 'club' meetings our of somewhere other than the back of his garage would be neat. Wait, do you need a permit or something for that?

>Three - Keep an eye out / stay safe
Don't let outside supers or the Heroes' League walk all over Lyst now that you've inherited the land - this is your turf now!

But seriously, you imagine there could be some, blech, negative attention coming your way, so you'd appreciate if she kept you appraised of strangers in town or more HL reps and whatnot. Maybe up security by, uhhhhh what's her budget this year? - kidding, kidding! But do increase it - you'll even make a donation for it. Seriously. You have no idea if the 'last Hadlee' Awakening is gonna have consequences - but what with the recent pyro events, you don't want to take any fucking chances with the enemies your old family might've made.

>Four - Propaganda and Lies
Speaking of making enemies, muse that you might do an interview with Aeglos, you've half a mind to give the HL a very public what-for due to the whole situation with the inheritance. You definitely don't plan on joining the HL, never ever - not after TEN FUCKING YEARS - though you might take them up on the offer to do a free month of Donjon dungeoneering after your sabbatical. Maybe you'll try out for Nunitus or one of the other independent big city guilds? Gonna ask Cannie more about her experience there later. Any mom-advice here?

(you're lying your ass off - you've got NO intention of joining Nunitus or of doing the month in Donjon's Dungeon without being super prepared)

>Five - Vacay for Cat the friendployee
You'd like to front some vacay time for your new friendployee, too. Granted, he's new enough that you can just make up an excuse to fire his ass and haul him 'round the world as an apology... ooh, you didn't think about that! That'd be fun.

And yeah, you know you were warned 'bout him having a touch-based power, but he seems like just the type of GIANT PRICK you could appreciate HAVING around (eyebrow wiggle). Besides, if he was gonna try and mind-control you, making you hand over the inheritance or whatever while you were in private would've been the moment, so you think he's pretty safe at this point.

>Six - Hugs
One more hug for the road. Actually, plenty more hugs before the road. PAIN IS GONE, YOU CAN HUG ALL YOU WANT, AHAHAHA!
>>
No. 999071 ID: e41867

>>998981
Andrea is gonna help us out with that paper mill, and I dont think we should sell the land if there is a dungeon made by our grandfather down there, plus Cat wants to buld a underground base there.

And i wouldnt do an interview, gotta lay low for awhile. Plus aeglos might be working with Isabella, she did give him that ring, and probably told her about Cat investigating the fire.
>>
No. 999082 ID: afe7de
File 162027750048.png - (15.51KB , 500x500 , C2_178.png )
999082

> Open the box
You decide to unwrap the box and it’s cute little bow. Inside is a small openable locket. You open the locket and inside is a picture of Nicky, you, Cannie, and Isabella. The other half has a picture of your mom and Dad, it’s cropped a little weird, like it was taken from another photo.

Nicky: That locket has been in the Lyst family for generations. Laverne let me keep it when I got married. I know you’re adopted, and I’ll never be able to take the place of your real parents, but you really have been a great daughter, so I’m kind of hoping it’ll give you some LUCK with whatever you’re doing in the future. Cannie doesn’t mind. And Isabella doesn’t need to know.

Nicky: I also included some old photos I found hidden in some boxes when I was cleaning the attic. I was able to find this one big photo of your parents from a community event, so I cropped it and put it in there. And I also put a family photo in it, from when you first started taking photos. You know, so you have some happy memories of both of your families.
>>
No. 999083 ID: afe7de
File 162027753138.png - (9.42KB , 500x500 , C2_179.png )
999083

> Talk a bit about your stresses.
You were trying to hold back the tears but they just start. You couldn’t keep your COMPOSURE. You decide to talk a little bit about the things that were bothering you.

You: Thanks Mom. *SNIFF* There’s just. It’s been a bit STRESSFUL. I learned some stuff with the inheritance that just makes the death of my original family that much HARDER. It brought back painful memories. And I have a vague sense that things are going to get a lot WORSE in the world in a few years and it. It’s just tough, you know. Maybe uh, I don’t know if you have the BUDGET but maybe increase the security around Lyst? Hire an awakened Fighter or two. I would be more than WILLING to pitch in a hundred thousand BUX just to see the town safer while I’m GONE.

Nicky: Sure, sweetie. I can look into it. You must’ve heard something awful if it’s making you this upset. I haven’t seen you like this in a while.

Cannie: Need me to beat up someone? Is it Cat? Is he putting weird ideas into your head? I’m sure I can beat him this time. I’m not tired.

You: It’s. Once I get a GOOD idea on how to explain this all I WILL. Sorry, that’s what the trip is for. To clear my mind, focus on IMPROVEMENT, become STRONGER as a group you know?

Nicky: I think that’s a good idea. I fully support your decision. Is there anything else I can do for you hun? You just need to ask. And I’m here to talk if you ever need it. No judgment, like when you were younger.

Cannie: I’ll be there for her if she needs anything! I’m sure Isabella will be upset if she hears about it, but she’s been getting on my nerves the past few visits, so maybe she’ll cool off if there’s some space between all of us.
>>
No. 999084 ID: afe7de
File 162027754177.png - (10.99KB , 500x500 , C2_180.png )
999084

> Buy the Paper mill
You: Actually, yeah. I was thinking of BUYING the old Paper mill since it’s attached to the Estate’s land. It’s going for really CHEAP, so the money could go to whoever used to own it and then I can FIGURE out what I’m doing with the land at a later date.

Nicky: I can take care of that, sure. I’ll have the paperwork ready for it by MONDAY or TUESDAY.

You: Thanks. I just had an idea of LETTING it be a big ol workshop for tinkers since we have Mint, Rupert, and a new guy moving to town on MONDAY according to Cat.

Nicky: Oh wow, Yeah! That’d be a great spot for them, much better then that cramped library basement. It’ll be a bit of a commute for them, but Rupert has a car, so it’s not a bigee. That’s awful nice of you to make a spot for them.

The three of you finish up your meals and toss the dishes in the dishwasher. You return to the living room and take a seat on the couches, continuing your conversation with some tea Nicky just brought in. You put on the necklace and store the jerky jar in your ring. Storing the jar gets a surprise from Cannie.

Cannie: Woaah, I want one of those!!!
>>
No. 999085 ID: afe7de
File 162027755180.png - (8.81KB , 500x500 , C2_181.png )
999085

> Get some of your mom’s sick movie hookups
You: ANOTHER thing, I was wondering if you had any cool movies or anything for me to take along. I was THINKING of bringing the TV and a few other things so we could all have something to wind down with in the EVENINGS.

Nicky: Of course, of course honey. I’ve got a lot of the new hits and can make a few copies for you, but not today because I have to run the Film Club later tonight. I know what you both like, so ill throw in a mix of everything.

Nicky: Call it a mothers intuition, but it feels like you’re going to be going on a bit more than just a globe-trotting journey. I won’t pry, but know I’ll be here if you need anything. And I’ll do you a favor and cash out your 3 months of Vacation when I get the paperwork done, ah, and I can let you know if I can find some more muscle for the town. I’ll also hold your and Cat’s jobs for when you get back. Someone’ll be filling the position, but if you both need work, even if its a few years down the line, it’ll still be there for you. You’re a good person my little Caramel Apple.

Nicky: But uhm, as your mother I’m a little concerned. Are you sure that Cat’s not trying to pull anything fishy? Cannie will be there so I’m less worried, but… You hear stories of folks from the big city, you know, trying to manipulate or con people out of their money, chopping them up and throwing them away after stealing everything they’re worth, brainwashing superpowers. I just want to know that you’re going to be SAFE in whatever you all are doing. I’d be happier knowing that you’re at least bringing along a few more people from town like Gena or Andrea or even Gruk, he’s a strong, caring man, if you can convince him to go I won’t charge him rent on his space at the clinic. Just having a magic car doesn’t mean you’ll be invulnerable after all. At the very least I’d like the both of you to call me once a week when you can.

Nicky: Sorry if this is overbearing, I know how I can get sometimes I just.

Nicky takes a deep calming breath, she looked a bit flushed and teary but she held back.

Nicky: It’s hard to see another daughter leaving the nest.
>>
No. 999086 ID: 094652

>>999085
"That's kind of what I'm trying to fight with my oodles and oodles of wealth. All I can tell you now is that there's a bunch of [Insert Religious Extremist Group Here] pulling the strings of the Heroes' League, along with other manipulative supervillains secretly posing as superheroes. Gampa Saba figured that the way he would be killed would have everything to do with the corruption in the League."
>>
No. 999093 ID: b1b4f3

>>999082
>RSA
Hmm, wonder what that is?

>>999085
Tell her you were planning on bringing Gena, yeah. Wait, Andrea? Would she even want to? She'd have to stop being a cop for like 3 months and wouldn't have anything to do while the rest of you are asleep. Plus it'd be kindof weird to have a cop hanging out with you at all times? Taking Gruk seems bad because he's the only source of Awakened healing in town. You'd feel awful if someone got hurt while he was gone and normal healing wasn't enough. (though he'd sure be useful as a party healer)
(hmm, Andrea's power sucks but we could use the coin on her to fix that? Not sure if that's a great idea... also she might get more useful powers as she gets stronger, or can MOD the stamina power to make it actually useful... We're probably going to want to wait to use the coin, I think. We should wait until we get some kind of forced-awakening item that strongly synergizes with someone's existing power.)
>>
No. 999095 ID: 8483cf

Awwww now she's gonna tear up herself.

Nicky is the best mom ever and you should totally call her once a week or more when you're starting out.

Oh also recognize her fears and let her know you care about her worries and stuff. Let her know you're keeping a close eye on Cat and won't let him try to pull any fast ones on you for your money or anything else. Cause it's true.
>>
No. 999097 ID: f8fa51

>>999085
Thank her and assure her you'll talk to Andrea and Gena, and you'll consider talking to Gruk. You'll have people along who love you and you won't be alone with Cat.
>>
No. 999098 ID: 30a19c

>a little overbearing
Nah, she’s the greatest. You OWE her so much for taking you in. SURPRISE HUG

>Cat
If he’s trouble he hasn’t shown it yet - and he seems to dislike the way the Big City folks do things so that’s a favorable sign, yeah? You’ll be careful. And you WILL bring others from Lyst. Gena and Andrea are nice shoe-ins. It’d be lovely if you could bring Gruk along - he’s been so helpful and while you won’t NEED his services any longer, you sure as heck would keep paying for them.

>be SAFE
You’ll... try to be careful.
>>
No. 999102 ID: e51896

Tell her you were definetly considering bringing Gruk, Andrea, and Gena along with Cat, his friend, and Cannie.

Also, IMPORTANT: let your mom know that Andrea said she might be able to also help you pay for the paper mill since she said she was looking for something to invest in. You will let her know by tomorrow if you convinced Andrea to help you or not, just in case it doesn't affect the paperwork when mom gets it set up. (No need to waste money when we don't need to, that is why Cat is having sex with her tomorrow after all)
>>
No. 999103 ID: 30b9f6

>>999102
Paper Mill is dirt cheap at 4000 BUX, Andrea won't need to pitch in there.
>>
No. 999105 ID: e51896

>>999103
Hm, true. I just thought saving any little bit of money helps.

Maybe instead we can convince Andrea to help use her money to keep the tinker workshop business running instead, like pay water and electric bills or something. She was offering to invest in something earlier after all.
>>
No. 999106 ID: 4c80df

Tell mom whatever muscle she is getting to protect the town while you're gone that it is no one from the heroes league. Both you and Cannie hate the heroes league after all.
>>
No. 999108 ID: 031458

Oh I'm looking for at least 2 more people mom, maybe more.
As for Cat, while we don't have to worry about him specifically, he's one of those kin with a power so absurd that people will hunt him down for it. Just knowing what it is puts both you and him in danger. And yes Cannie there is more to it than what you got from him.
He came to Lyst to hide, but given recent events I think he feels obligated to use his power for a greater good.
>>
No. 999118 ID: 4c80df

I don't think it is necessary to bring up that he has a power that people would hunt him down for, or hint that it is more than what Cannie knows. Mom could get more suspicious. Plus she isn't prying too much in Cat's business, so we should be fine.

Instead let her know one of the people we are planning on bringing on the trip (along with Gruk and Gena) is Andrea, who of course is a cop. She can scare Cat straight in a worst case scenerio, especially with her insomnia. Mom did say she'd feel more safe if we brought more people with us, so I think we should be fine to let her know that to ease her worries.

One thing we could do is invite mom to the party on Monday so she can get to really meet and talk with Cat. It might be a good idea to have the two get a serious conversation going to ease her worries and show that Cat is a good person, and let Cat apologize. (Plus it may make Isabella less likely to crash the party).

(If we do say anything, just say that his power is harmless, just a detection based power that he recently got, and he was just trying out his new power to try to level it up. You already set the record straight with him though to get him to be more considerate of people's privacy, considering he just moved to Lyst for privacy himself so people in the city wouldn't try to use him for his power. Though ultimately, lets keep quiet)
>>
No. 999121 ID: 30b9f6

Yo, revealing Cat's secrets without their explicit permission or there being some sorta crisis necessitating it is not cool.

And you're COOL.
>>
No. 999224 ID: afe7de
File 162036947960.png - (11.35KB , 500x500 , C2_182.png )
999224

You take a second to look at the mug you’re drinking. Hahaha, they still kept it around? You got it for Isabella’s birthday a few years ago and she loved it but didn’t get the joke. Funny enough it was the only present you’ve given her she actually liked, which made it all the more IRONIC.

> Let her know you care and you’re watching for funny business.
You: Don’t worry mom. I’ve been keeping a CLOSE eye and tabs on Cat’s peculiarities. The weirdest thing he’s done was get a bit too INVESTED in the Mansion fire, but given him finding out the Heroes League was INVOLVED, and knowing his opinion on them now, it kind of makes sense he’d be a bit SNOOPY.

Nicky: Hmm. If you’re sure, then okay. I trust your judgement.

> Won’t hanging out with a cop be weird?
You: I’m surprised you suggested bringing Andrea on the TRIP though?

Nicky: Hmm, I wonder if it’s that strange. I’ve seen her sneak off to the Post Office at random times before. I’d imagine you two were a little… intimate. Plus she’s just like you, saving up tons of vacation time and not using it, at a rate three times as fast as anyone else. If she wasn’t so good at her job we’d have reduced her hours.
>>
No. 999225 ID: afe7de
File 162036949355.png - (11.10KB , 500x500 , C2_183.png )
999225

You sweat a little at the thought of your mom having secretly seen some of your more risque moments with Andrea, but you’re pretty COOL and maintain your COMPOSURE. You imagine your mom has planned for Andrea’s break so you’re not worried about taking the cop off her hands.

Nicky: Plus, having a cop with you wherever you go means you’ll probably have less trouble if someone tries to start anything funny.

Cannie: And ME! Don’t forget about me Momma. I can beat Andrea in a fight! Well if it lasts long enough anyway, girl has limitless stamina…

You: ANYWAY, yeah, I’ll talk to Andrea and Gena. See if Gruk is INTERESTED, though won’t it be bad if we don’t have a healer in town and something HAPPENS, it’s not like I need his help anymore, anyway.

Nicky: We can live for a little bit, after all, we all did just fine before Awakened appeared. Though it’s up to you to convince him. And what do you mean? He’s been your doctor for years what with your NERVE PAIN?

You: So the thing is, when I AWAKENED. It cured my nerve pain! I’m not in constant pain ANYMORE!!!

Cannie and Nicky: THAT’S GREAT!!!!

Nicky: Yeah then you probably don’t need him as much.
>>
No. 999226 ID: afe7de
File 162036952602.png - (11.07KB , 500x500 , C2_184.png )
999226

> Be careful about HL hires
You get excited hugs and back pats and everyone cheers for you. It’s nice to be with family that cares about you. You also take the chance to voice your conern about any Heroes League reps she might hire to protect the town before you forget, she says she’ll take it into consideration, but that it’ll be much harder to find someone who’s high ranking enough to protect the town and isn’t a Hero, but she’ll try. She has some connections after all.

> Talk about Cat’s Secrets
You don’t want to do that without his explicit permission, or there being some kind of crisis necessitating it. It’s not COOL at all to do that kind of thing. Though you’re interested in talking to him about Awakening Mom, just so there’s someone with firepower in town able to protect it. Maybe if you remember to talk to him about it before you leave. Or maybe you shouldn’t be greedy about this, it already seems like he’s having a hard time figuring out who to trust. You’re already leaning on him to Awaken Cannie after all. Plus he mentioned his friend from town coming in and he might want to Awaken her too.

You all finish your tea and say your goodbyes. Your mom gives you a big hug and Cannie joins you on your walk out, saying she’s going for a short park walk before heading to the Morgue. Eventually the two of you reach the Winnebago and Cannie’s jaw drops in awe. She walks around the vehicle and seems impressed.
>>
No. 999227 ID: afe7de
File 162036955742.png - (16.76KB , 500x500 , C2_185.png )
999227

Cannie: This thing is freakin sweet! It’s a bit retro, like 60 years retro, but you can tell it was well loved and modified.

You: Wanna come inside?

Cannie: Hells yeah I do!

The two of you come inside and you hear the toilet flush, Mint popping out of the bathroom a few moments later.

Mint: Ah, hello Mistress and uh…

Cannie: Cannie. Her sister. Mistress? You into role-play or some shit?

Mint: I’m from a very… different place then here. My apologies.

Cannie: Whatever. I’m gonna take a peek around.

After a few moments she walks around and pokes her head into a few places, notices the fridge is empty, you head over and shove the jerky in there. Eventually she reaches the nook with the bonsai tree and you suddenly remember Rex, rushing over and bumping her out of the way, sitting on top of the counter. Cannie grunts but moves on to explore the rest of the place.

Mint heads back to her workspace and continues messing around with the Crystal. Eventually Cannie reaches the drivers area and after a few moments returns.

Cannie: You weren’t kidding, this place is hecking sweet. Looks like it’s got modern steering equipment and monitors too. Probably wouldn’t be too difficult to drive I think.

The two of you continue to make idle chit chat before she starts heading towards the door. You think for a moment, is there anything you want to talk to Cannie or Mint about one on one? Anything private you need to get off your chest? Or is there anything that you want to do, or anyone you want to Text? You get the feeling that Cat will be back in a bit, so it’ll probably be time to decompress, fuck, and you want to watch some stuff on your bed with him, get some cuddles in. You’re not sure if you want a FULL ON RELATIONSHIP with him or not, there’s a lot of emotions going on and you don't want to just latch onto him just because he gave you powers, but casual sex, cuddles, and chilling sounds pretty nice.

This is your last chance to do things as Willamina before we switch back to Cat
>>
No. 999228 ID: 094652

>Relationship
Wait until Cat tells the rest of his secrets first.
But yes to the orgy.
>>
No. 999234 ID: e51896

>you don't want to just latch onto him just because he gave you powers

He's done more for you than give you powers, he's been a very good worker despite some hangups (like snoop on your mom, and made Gruk sad which you're sure was unintentional), he was a very good listener about your past, and was able to look past all your flaws. Maybe it is too early for a full on relationship, but maybe we can take things to the next level.

What can Willamina do: Ask what Cannie hypothetically would think about dungeon exploring, like maybe during vacation. And ask Cannie when she is working tomorrow! that way, Cat can plan on working with her at the morgue tomorrow before poker, and maybe after working with her at the morgue, he can see about awakening her with the book, and talk about Isabella and her secret awakened power (if she is willing to keep it a secret too).

Afterwards, lets explore the Winnebago for secrets.


Important for when we return with Cat: HAVE CAT REMOVE THE DEMON EYE AMULET AND PUT IT IN THE COILING RING.

Reason why: >>998858

>Izzy’s over at a friend’s place.

Isabella is most likely visiting Ms. Iraphena. If Isabella is there, her spirit is there too, and Cat is not COOL enough to keep his composure to ignore it, especially since he couldn't keep his cool around Max's spirit.

keeping the amulet off to not see Isabella's fire spirit will make Cat less likely to lose his cool. We really don't want Isabella to know Cat can see her fire spirit.

Granted, we won't know what the artifacts we are looking at will do until we leave, but it is better to get an artifact at random than have Isabella know our secret, especially if she plans on starting something at Willamina's party on Monday. She could get more sneaky if she knows we can see her spirit

if we want two artifacts, maybe along with that crystal we can give the phoenix ring too, we probably don't need it if it has a 30% chance of turning us into a demon upon revival.
>>
No. 999235 ID: 864e49

>>999227
Maybe talk to Cannie about Nunitus?
Maybe try convince her to stay and wait for Cat? You haven't hung out in a while, the morgue job ain't going nowhere, you could get Cat to Awaken her and she could join in the reverse gang-bang.
>>
No. 999240 ID: afa6f6

Ugh, the more I think about it, the more I think Cannie is going to get hit hard when she finds out just how badly Isabella has been lying to her, and probably her mom to, all this time. Theres a lot of troubling implications about her personality that comes along with her hiding her powers, and what shes been doing with them, and this has been going on for years apparently.
>>
No. 999241 ID: b1b4f3

Text Cat and warn him that Isabella might be at Iraphena's house.

I disagree on taking off the demon eye amulet. If Isabella is there, Cat can just ask for her to leave. Then if it gets hot in the room later he can go "Fuck off Isabella I know you're trying to use whatever weird fire power you have to mess with me" because honestly, three "hot in the room" incidents related to Isabella is enough to come to that conclusion without knowing about the spirit.
>>
No. 999258 ID: e51896

>>999241

The thing I'm worried about that is that even if we convince her to leave, her spirit can phase through walls, so nothing is going to stop her from just going to hide out somewhere else like in a different room or close outside the house, and use her spirit to spy on us anyway as we trade and talk with Iraphena and potentially have her catch on we can see the spirit if Cat loses his cool, especially with his cool stat being pretty bad. He barely managed to keep Isabella from knowing the first time we encountered the spirit.

Plus there are chances that Isabella might catch on to Cat seeing her spirit if he tries to talk to her into leaving and Cat is starts making obvious glances at the spirit as well or if the spirit feints an attack or does something to scare him, which will bring up difficult questions from Isabella. One thing we know about her from the friendly bean is that she is very persistent, and she isn't going to leave so easily and start asking hard questions if we ask her to leave.

Which is why I think we need to prepare for the worst and sometimes make some sacrifices now and then. Honestly, I really want to have the opportunity to find out what each artifact could do, but not having that detection on what an artifact could be temporarily is a small price to pay if we want to continue playing dumb with her and keep our secrecy of our detection of spirits from Isabella in the long run. having her potentially find out early of our advantage of seeing the spirit could be more trouble than it's worth and could make her do more strategic moves against us, so it may be better for us to not get too greedy with our artifact's abilities and keep our cards close to our chest as much as we can. It isn't like we are losing too much when we get an artifact, really just the crystal.

Overall: not know what an artifact will do is better than having Isabella potentially know our secrets.
>>
No. 999259 ID: e51896

>>999258
One thing to add too, Iraphena has an artifact that can detect people's emotional state. If Isabella and her spirit doesn't catch on to our nervousness in seeing it, Iraphena might bring up our emotional state causing some suspicions.
>>
No. 999263 ID: 8483cf

It's sexy time. Then watch some cheesy TV afterwards, no telling when we'll have time for that again.
>>
No. 999267 ID: 30b9f6

>Texting
Send message to INVITE GENA AND ANDREA over for an early meet and 'Exclusive Elysian Winnebago viewing' tomorrow. Cat's been promised to date Andrea for the evening tomorrow (but you'll beat her to the punch, heehee), but you can at least have a serious chat with them about everything that's going before that.

INVITE CANNIE TOO, especially if you don't end up giving her the lowdown tonight.

Text to SCHEDULE a meeting with Gruk on TUESDAY (MONDAY you'll be meeting Cat's friends and that'll probably be a whole thing). Tell him to come to the Winnebago with massage gear, you want to show it to him (also it's spirit-safe, like your gramps recommended - all talk about SECRETS should probably happen in the relative safety of the vehicle), with the excuse you want him to massage you there and pay extra for the luxury. It definitely feels like telling Gruk should be kept separate from telling Gena and Andrea and Cannie - he's... more of a grown-up. This will be less of an adventure to him and more a necessary thing to do.

>Talk to Rex
Mentally tell him to hang in there, you're gonna get through this stage of SECRECY-KEEPING and get him some more peeps to talk to soon. You can't wait to introduce him to your friends. Or culture in general. Did he know there's a Wano show about a giant heroic bug that's downright awesome? Not Donjon Bad Hero-hero, either, straight up a Wano thing. It's fictional sadly, but that shouldn't ruin anyone's enjoyment of the show. At least... you THINK it's fictional? It's live action, and some of those special effects were VERY REAL now that you think about it...

>Talk to Cannie
Have a bittersweet moment. Reminisce about the old days - back when you, Cannie, Max and Isabella were friends and things hadn't gone pear-shaped. Back when you were playing tag around the abandoned Paper Mill, pretend-kissing, all that good stuff. Where did things with Isabella go so wrong? How'd she end up so... FUCKING OBSESSED with Max? Has she even GOTTEN LAID yet - or is she still keeping herself EXCLUSIVE for a dead guy? Siiigh...

Take the opportunity to inquire about Cannie's time among Nunitus - it's a smaller, neutral guild, right? How's that work? Heck, what does 'neutral' MEAN, and what do they do? Also... wasn't she actually introduced to it through Isabella? How'd your sister get an in with them? Did she ever tell Cannie? Was it through Miss Iraphena? Nunitus uses that eye symbol thing, after all, and you've seen them both wear it.

...ugh. Quietly let on you know why you were raving about eyes now after the fire. It's one of the hefty things you'll share with her. In a bit. You want Cat here for the sharing sesh - it's related-but-not-related - but he might be wiped for today, you want to bone him, and it can probably wait for tomorrow. Some kinda deal with Miss Iraphena going down on his end, plus apparently the HL rep knew his dead brother, so you haven't been the only one on the emotional rollercoaster today.

It's been... yeah, it's been a long day. Mostly good, though. Give her a hug and thank her again.

(And you barely slept last night. If not for your ENDURANCE you surely could have used another STAMINA LIQUOR.)

>Talk to Mint
How would the new resident Tinker feel about getting to freely dip into your pockets for a bit? Within reason. You've a bunch of supplies that need buying, both in preparation for THE TRIP and so you can sponsor her WORKING WITH RUPERT on her PROJECT for the next few days or so. She had some kind of administrative experience, right? If that include planning for trips and securing supplies, you want a budget and a list that you can ok, and she can have what's needed, with a little bonus on top if the job's well done.

Alsoooo... is she a sub? You got a certain vibe from her earlier. You don't mean to pry into HER HISTORY (not with Cannie here and as of yet uninformed), but you're certainly interested in knowing a little more about her as, ohoho, AN OBJECT OF DESIRE.

(In fact, if she suggests she's subby, you will immediately and imperiously COMMAND her to go on and tell you more of her escapades and preferences! Hopefully it'll get you in the mood for fun in the sack with Cat.)

>What to do with Cat when he gets back
Sex 'n cuddle pile to relieve stress sounds GOOD. For the both of you. You could consider bringing in Mint and/or Cannie, buuuut you do kind of want him for yourself. Oho. Maybe if you can get them going separately they can join in after... (unless Cannie REALLY needs to go do that job)
>>
No. 999271 ID: 30b9f6

>>999267
Ah, didn't catch on that Cannie looked to be in the middle of leaving. Guess it'll be hard to get her to stay.

Hm. You could also ask if the job she's gonna be doing tonight is Nunitus-related?

(And if yes, ask Rex if he'd be willing to keep an eye on her, make sure she's safe - like if the Nunitus person tries to convince her to wander into the proverbial back alley or come to the Big City on some sudden Big Mission We Have Need Of You On or something, then to at least voice-in-the-head warn her NOT to do so.)
>>
No. 999288 ID: 031458

Consider holding Cannie up until Cat gets back. If she's going to be going to be going with you, she's gonna need to be in on the secrets.

As for a relationship with him.... Nah. Not yet at least.
Casual sex? Sure.
Realistically though, you've known each other for ALMOST a week. Yeah he's super cool, but you'd be doing BOTH of you a disservice by starting something serious right now. Aside from not knowing each other well yet, YOU are emotionally vulnerable to him from the sheer SHOCK of recent events, and HE CLEARLY is bearing a MASSIVE mental load right now.
So let's not rush things.
>>
No. 999295 ID: afa6f6

>>999258
>>999234
The problem with taking off or getting rid of the Demon eye amulet is, Iraphena already knows we probably have it, and could just tell Isabella about it, its part of the whole reason she even wants to trade with us.
Whats more, Not having it doesnt protect us from any danger, it just means Cat cant see or avoid it when its headed for him. Even if Isabella doesnt think Cat can see her spirit, she already knows that He knows that she has a power, and its not stopping her from going after him if he crosses her somehow, or for no reason at all, and him getting close to Willemena just makes that more likely to happen as time goes on. Even if that werent the ase, it would also only be a somewhat decent plan if Isabella's Spirit was the only one around that we had to worry about which Cat KNOWS is not true.
Blinding ourselves to the things we know are dangerous and out to get Cat seems like a bad plan all over.
>>
No. 999296 ID: f8fa51

Deciding not to use our Demon Eye Amulet here because Isabella is going to be there is pointless if we don't continue to do the same in future encounters. And that doesn't sit well with me. We'd be better served either practicing our poker face or just resigning ourself to losing the secret that we can see spirits; because having an advantage that your enemies know about is still better than deliberately losing that advantage just so your enemies don't know about it.

With that resolved, we might as well start now. Go in with the amulet, and try to practice not giving away what you see.
>>
No. 999304 ID: 0983a8

Honestly, going in without the demon eye Amulet is cowardly. We NEED to know what those artifacts do or else we end up scammed.

And if Isabella finds out we can see her spirit during our visit... ¯\_( ツ)_/¯ 
>>
No. 999307 ID: 309e75

If we're going in with the amulet activated, can we at least stop at the mart first and pick up some white slushees to raise our cool stat? I feel it wouldn't be wise to go in unprepared with Isabella's spirit and Iraphena's artifact to detect our emotions.
>>
No. 999311 ID: afa6f6

>>999307
What emotion are you worried about her feeling? Theres not a lot of anything on that front she'd actually get out of that. The only ones she s likely to get off us wont tell her anything anyway. And Cool wnt stop us from FEELING emotions anyway, it will just make them less obvious in behavior, I dont think that will fool an artifact.
>>
No. 999312 ID: f7f1cf

>>999307

Going to the shop will just waste too much time. You dont have to worry so much, everything will be fine.
>>
No. 999323 ID: f8fa51

>>999307
Sure, a little prep never hurt anyone.
>>
No. 999348 ID: afe7de
File 162046401968.png - (9.33KB , 500x500 , C2_186.png )
999348

> Have Cannie wait until Cat comes back
> Gauge interest in dungeon delving
You get Cannie’s attention and ask her to hold up a bit. There’s something you want to talk about.

You: So, hypothetically, how interested would you be in I DUNNO, visiting a DUNGEON on our trip?

Cannie: Ahh, so that’s why you were acting a little sus earlier. I mean, I did the whole bag carrier thing for a bit, it’s not that great. I’m okay in a scrap, but at my level you can’t do anything to the monsters on the lower levels without an artifact or an Awakened ability. I guess you could get away with a mana pistol but you’d still need an actual close combat specialist.

Cannie: So unless you have something that could make me actually useful I think I’ll probably vote for not doing that.

You: Just uh, CONSIDER it. We might have a solution, it depends on a few things, there’s uh A LOT going on behind the scenes. And it wouldn’t be Donjon’s Dungeon.

Cannie: So we going to go into details now… or?

You: When Cat gets back. Some of this hinges on if he wants to do a certain THING or not, and I’d rather not get your HOPES up preemptively.

Cannie looks a little aggravated but assents.

Cannie: Fine, I guess I’ll wait or whatever. I don’t NEED to walk through the park or anything, just wanted to get some air. Mind if I wait outside though?

You: Yeah, sure. I’ll JOIN you in a little and we can chat about old times and other STUFF.
>>
No. 999349 ID: afe7de
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999349

She heads out of the Winnebago and you head over to Mint, she looks pretty distracted but drops what she’s doing when you get close to her to give you her attention.

Mint: Yes Mistress?

You: I was THINKING, did you want a budget for getting supplies to make some stuff? I don’t really know how to get it but MAYBE we can go through Rupert as a source?

Mint: That would be appreciated. But I think we should wait until we get to the underground lab. It’s this one’s assumption that there will be some form of supplies and resources. We’ll also have a better gauge of what is actually needed. I also wanted to mention, if you find too many kin I would be willing to stay behind and be more support working on tinkering or making things that would be useful.

> Talk about Mint’s sex life
You’re not really that interested. Seems like she just needs time to adjust to your world. Things were definitely different where she’s from. You’re sure you could get whatever information you wanted out of her, but if she gets really desperate you can just throw Andrea at her or something.

> Talk to Rex about a Wano shows
You: Hey Rex, sorry about the secret KEEPING, hopefully we won’t have to hide you and you’ll be able to talk to more kin SOON. It’ll be fun to introduce you to some kin, maybe even a Wano show or two, there’s this live ACTION one about a giant bug hero! It’s super cool, fictional probably, but some of the SFX were a bit REALISTIC, so who knows. Oh, and it’s got ENGLISH dubs.

Rex: THAT SOUNDS FUN, THANK YOU WILLAMINA

Rex does a little dance in his cubby, he seems excited to be included in things. You take this moment to grab two glasses of water, expend [1 ENERGY] to chill them, and head out to the porch to sit with Cannie. Maybe reminisce about old times, talk about how fucked Isabella’s been getting. You think about messaging Cat that she’s probably over with Iraphena, but its a bit late for that now. He’s probably fine.
>>
No. 999350 ID: afe7de
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999350

...
>>
No. 999351 ID: afe7de
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999351

Your name is Cat (Catherine) Alexander, and today has been a long day. You’ve had theories things were fucked, but you didn’t think they were this fucked. You’re now facing down a supposed member of the organization thats most likely responsible for the dungeon break that killed your family and a lot of the good people in the Heroes League, while another supposed member is wailing in the other room audibly. You’d feel bad for her if you weren’t PRETTY DAMN SURE she was also at least partially responsible for murdering Willamina’s family. Sure, it could’ve been an assassin, but at this point you’re better off assuming that these two will be enemies in the future unless you can DO SOMETHING about it. And as of right now, you both don’t know what you’d do and don’t know if you would even want to befriend them with their behind-the-scenes tactics and threats.

You had a WHITE SLUSHEE on the way over here so you’re a bit COOLER than normal. You also bought a pack of SMOKES, spending your last 10 BUX in the process. You quit a while ago, but things are getting worse and worse and you just needed the one smoke, you stored the rest away in your backpack. It’s made you calm enough to function for the next hour or so, but you’re going to need to fuck, get high, probably cry a bit at the futility of everything after all this is over. You really don’t want to keep smoking but if this tension keeps up it’s going to be hard to resist. There’s no sight of Willamina’s Spirit right now, but she’s probably around, LISTENING. You also feel bad for lying to Willamina earlier, you did see something happen between Liminal and Isabella, but it was an exchange between spirits, so you kind of couldn’t reveal what happened without revealing that tidbit too, not like you could hear them either. Speaking of which, now you have access to tons of money and someone who is willing to let you go ham with it and you’d think that would help you be calmer, but that just induces MORE anxiety in you. You like Willamina, but don’t want her to become self destructive or just dump everything on you. You’re GLAD she didn’t just give you the second awakening token either like it looked like she was considering. That would only have made you more of a nervous wreck that felt like everything was being put on your shoulders more than it already is now. Not that you don’t want it, but because you feel like this is a decision that should take more TIME.
>>
No. 999352 ID: afe7de
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999352

You take a deep calming breath and look over the items in front of you. There’s another reason you’re having a hard time with your COMPOSURE just barely hanging on. One of the items Iraphena has set in front of you is your BROTHER’S RING. And the name just hurts you to no end. You examine the items again with your Demon Eye.

CALLAN’S HOPE - A sealed ring studded with barbs and spikes, the interior spikes will retract when it’s true owner Catherine Alexander wears it. It will become unsealed with it’s owner’s blood.
RUNNING SHOES - A pair of blood red shoes from another world seeped in the blood of an Awakened. These shoes absorbed their owner’s power upon death and now increase running speed and stamina.
GRIP GLOVE - A single glove that makes it difficult to knock whatever you are holding out of your grip, can be worn on either hand.
BLACK BAR - A short sword with a thick and heavy squared bar shaped blade made of dull black metal. Neither particularly sharp nor long, the blade is however exceedingly non-reactive, seeming to harmlessly deflect heat, electricity, mana, etc without changing. The blade possesses the ability to change shape according to its wielder's will, allowing it to lengthen, broaden, curve, sharpen, or even split down the middle as needed, though the extent the shape can change is limited in scope by the material of the blade, meaning it cant do more then the original mass of the blade allows for.
DUELING BANJO - An instrument a part of the “DUELING” set. When a cohesive tune is played on this instrument an entity you focus on that can perceive the music will be forced to target all of their attention towards you. This compulsion remains as long as the banjo is played. Defeating another dueling instrument user will destroy the loser’s instrument and increase the power of the winner. This item has the potential to Evolve.

You’re kind of pissed that it feels like she’s offering only bottom of the barrel shit for your items. But you were able to get her to consider trading for the shard after LYING about it’s origin, saying it came in the Coiling ring, for a single item. She’s also willing to trade a single item for your remaining TWO QUESTIONS and THREE FAVORS. She still wants the Coling Ring, Phoenix ring, and Demon Eye Amulet, willing to go so far as to offer two items for a single one of them. Funny how someone on the Angel’s team wants two very much demon related items and one seemingly unrelated one. You were drawing some conclusions but had to stop before you let your emotions go wild. You’re sure she has more items somewhere, you could try to CONVINCE her to show more of them, or just take what you can and leave. You bring your focus back to the room and away from the items and a faint wailing can be heard from the other room still.

You really want to ask how she got that ring, but knowing her she’ll just try to get another Question out of it and not let me get an item for them. Your POKER FACE might be fine, but she can still tell that your emotions are riled up, she’s not smiling exactly, and has a more neutral expression on. But you can tell she’s satisfied she put you on edge.

Miss Iraphena: So, are you interested?
>>
No. 999354 ID: e07f67

Callan's ring was an interspacial storage ring too, right? Frankly, I wouldn't mind trading the Coiling Ring for it, especially if we can get another item.

NOTHING here compares in usefulness with the Demon Eye Amulet, so you're sure as hell keeping that.

The phoenix ring could go if necessary.

Also, you should agree to at least one trade to avoid making an enemy of her. I'd say trade the Coiling Ring for CALLAN'S HOPE and the Black Bar.

The Duelling Banjo could be a good thing to have for a Tank party member, but we don't have that yet.
>>
No. 999355 ID: 094652

"Yes, but I don't want to spend my best gear on non-premium goods.
Mostly because I've seen one of these items before, and I know it was stolen."
>>
No. 999356 ID: e07f67

>>999354
I forgot to mention, make sure you DO NOT call the items by their name.
>>
No. 999357 ID: afa6f6

>>999352
I think Cat should say something along the lines of hoping that she was being sincere earlier about not being an enemy, or at least antagonistic, but if shes going to jerk him around by putting THAT in front of him, than it seems like that was a lie too.

I'd like to trade the coiling ring for Callan's and one other item. My vote would be for the Black Bar, but the Banjo or Shoes would be cool too. Not keen to give up the amulet or the phoenix ring for any of this stuff, theyre both way too valuable, to the point I can only imagine shes trying to provoke us somehow. Cant figure out why though.
>>
No. 999358 ID: e07f67

>>999355
As long as she hasn't let out that she knows we know what the items are, we're better off not letting this info out either.

In fact, we should ask her what those do, though not as a big-Q Question. She'll likely either answer it's a blind purchase just like in the Auction, or tell us to drop the act (assuming she knows it's one).
>>
No. 999359 ID: e07f67

>>999357
> I can only imagine shes trying to provoke us somehow
Could she be trying to provoke us into revealing we know what the items are?
>>
No. 999360 ID: 864e49

>>999354
>>999355
If you can convince her to give you your brothers ring then trade the coiling ring for the blade and glove and trade TWO QUESTIONS and THREE FAVORS for the banjo.
>>
No. 999362 ID: f16886

Consider parting with the Phoenix ring. The possible set effect of the coiling ring and the power of the demon eye are too good to lose.

There are only two things here that you want:
YOUR BROTHERS RING
and
THE SLAVE CONTRACT of the DRAGON GIRL Iraphena purchased at auction.

I suppose the black thing could be made into an indestructible shield if combined with some crystal shards, but besides that, nothing else is really worth.
>>
No. 999366 ID: e51896

>>999362
Pretty much this

Important: We're not exactly sure if Callan's Hope is a interspacial ring or not, so lets keep the coiling ring (it seems like it does more than what we know). Instead, lets just give the phoenix ring, since it has a chance of turning us into a demon upon revival, and it'll be funny if someone on the angel side becomes a demon.

Here is what I am thinking:

crystal for CALLAN'S HOPE

Phoenix ring for Krasla. If she wants more for Krasla's slave contract, then maybe we can trade both the coiling ring and phoenix ring for Krasla. But mainly, no, I'd rather keep the coiling ring.

If she doesn't want to give Krasla away since he was her most expensive purchase, then lets get the black bar and banjo since we can get two items for the phoenix ring.

If we do give away the coiling ring, make sure we put all our items in our backpack first. (unless we already did that)
>>
No. 999369 ID: 031458

>>999366
Oh yeah, Krasla, that was their name. I don't think we were even given a gender.
>>
No. 999371 ID: 0a9945

Crystal for Callan's hope. Though I was thinking maybe telling Iraphena that the ring is actually yours and you had it stolen after getting nearly killed in the city, and prove to her it's yours by putting your blood on it. Maybe we can get it for free? Then again, she might want to keep the ring once she learns that and take it off the table.

The phoenix ring for the black bar, and running shoes.

Keep coiling ring and demon eye amulet.

The thing about getting Krasla is that Iraphena might give Krasla an order to become a mole in our Villains' Alliance group. Probably a bad idea to ask for that slave.
>>
No. 999374 ID: 9a2966

>Facing down a member of the organization that conspired to kill my family
IS Miss Iraphena really on Nunitus' side, though? She had that moment earlier where she sort-of-bitterly said that it wasn't the DEMONS Cat needed to be worried about - and BOY HOWDY do we now know what she was referring to!

It might be she's the ANGELS' PAWN, and isn't very happy about it. If an obsessed, semi-crazy lady like Isabella is Iraphena's SUPERIOR it does indicate the organization she's in doesn't necessarily trust or value her much. It may be that she's just stuck in a rut, forced to acknowledge that - according to her visions - the world is going to end in certain ways and all she can do is play her part as ideally foreseen, both for her and the world.

... so yeah. Maybe you don't have to feel bad or hate her or anything. If anything she could just be a person in the same bind you're in. It's really too early to tell, though, heck, if you can get her out from under Nunuitus' thumb at some point, she might be grateful and become a hell of an asset. For now she's your contact and fixer, a person you need to give good reason to shield you from Nunitus' and Isabella's wroth. The more you can present yourself as an exploitable asset willing to work with HER, the better. And the more sympathetic you can come across to her, the more you might be able to perhaps get her to flip sides eventually.

>Artifacts on offer
Make a show of physically TOUCHING all the artifacts. Tell Iraphena you're interested in the DUELING BANJO after you pick it up - put it aside. The others are so-so. Except for CALLAN'S HOPE - goddess, it's really called that - which you're getting NOW. But of course, YOUR BROTHER'S RING was a shoe-in from the start. Probably why she put it there, right? How'd she... no, you're not spending a QUESTION on that yet, much as you'd want to. Unless she's willing to offer, given that it was STOLEN from you.

>Try to trick her
Smile weakly at Iraphena and tell her that as she might surmise you've UPGRADED your powers using, like, a ton of your ACHIEVEMENT POINTS - a fair amount of which was left unspent after the auction, in fact. Say you can now tell whether something is an Artifact and even get a basic description of what it can do.

Both are true statements, and combined they imply that you upgraded your power to gain the ability to TOUCH and know what artifacts do. Precisely the sort of tricksiness a psychic like Iraphena could approve of - even if she (and this is a fair likelihood) is realizing you're pulling it.

Share that you've identified the few artifacts you picked up from the AUCTION and that you'll trade those descriptions too if you trade them along. Make mention there's some items that seem scarce on details, like Callan's Hope, which just says it's 'sealed', so you don't think your power necessarily gives the complete picture, but it's a good start.

ANYWAY, having this sort of utility power - heck, being ABLE to Achievement-upgrade into this sort of utility power - still feels like it's painting way too large a target on your back, which you don't like. So AGAIN, you're telling her all of this in confidence, hoping she doesn't, y'know, rat you out to the world.

>And dicker (as in bargaining, not screwing)
So, last time she traded THREE QUESTIONS and THREE FAVORS to tell ONE person NOT related to the authorities about your power details. So you imagine she'd like to do something similar concerning this new fact. What is THIS knowledge worth? Knowing someone has the power to tell whether something is an ARTIFACT and ALSO WHAT IT DOES should be worth MORE than just knowing whether someone is an Awakened, right?

Like, WAY MORE, especially if the artifact in question is hard to figure out. Some artifacts have special requirements which can be difficult - or impossible - for even experts to identify, right? You imagine the way SHE figures items out is from using her oracular power - but that doesn't help her if no-one actually is able to figure the item out because the requirements are too hard, yeah?

(very much gauge her reaction to being told this - if she seems dubious of your claims she might know what the Demon Eye Amulet is supposed to do, probably precisely through that alternate future vision trick)

At any rate, you can do artifact identification in exchange for solid repayment, but you're also happy to let her take the CREDIT and say it was HER VISIONS that cracked the code. That boosts her star and keeps YOUR power on the down low, which is just what you'd want.

>Persuasion gambit
Use the above story as an element to PERSUADE Miss Iraphena to show you MORE THINGS. Tell her that you're not super impressed with the current line-up, as there's no way these would be the ONLY ITEMS she'd have access to. Your new - and, sigh, for the foreseeable future - SLAVE Mint has some knowledge of how the demons do things and told you this entire area must be a so-called AUCTION SITE. Which means Miss Iraphena could've been in ANY number of auctions already. She sure acted like it wasn't her first time when you met during the last auction.

So. She brings a few more items out from her closet, you IDENTIFY things for her if that's a need she feels she's got. Preferably you want this service exchanged for other items, as you want to stock up for the incoming APOCALYPSE. Like you imagine X amount of others are...

(And especially as there might be items that SEEM like weak artifacts which she'd be willing to trade, but which have hidden powers, unlock requirements and advantages that even her future-sight wouldn't be able to detect. I imagine Max's KNIFE ARTIFACT was one of these scry-proof items.)

>Trade
Trade the CRYSTAL PIECE for CALLAN'S HOPE. It's yours. It belongs on your finger. ...did it always have those spikes?

DO NOT trade anything else YET - and remember the COILING RING is not the only thing that can be traded. We have the EGG and the BOOK as well (though the book is probably going to Cannie).

At any rate, hang on with further trades until you've had a look at WHAT ELSE SHE CAN OFFER, if your persuasion attempt is successful.

>Don't Trade At All
DO NOT trade away the Demon Eye Amulet. It's been an incredible ace in the hole. Tricking Nunitus into thinking it's part of Cat's touch-based power also leaves it useful as a surprise element. It's worth a shot, at least.

DO NOT trade away the Phoenix Ring. The Ring is a CRITICAL ace-in-the-hole considering the dangers you're up against.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Set was a former adventurer from a different world who'd turned into a demon through a similar artifact... or else why'd she be motivated to do the things she did? Given how hands-off she's been, there's probably restrictions to what she can do as a demon... or consequences. Perhaps Set trying to prepare adventurers against the incoming invasions lead to the early secret intrusion by the angels? Sucks if so, but as the inheritors of that legacy it's up to you, Will and company to make that mean something - you were, after all, gonna get screwed regardless. And it's a variable that wasn't in play when Mint's world fell - one that may be giving Cat's world a slightly better chance.

In short: keep the dang ring. Even if this world gets turbofuck'd, maybe someone becoming a demon (if the 30% chance procs) it'd allow them to do like Set did and try to make a difference for another world someday. At the very least it'll still save a life, once.

>>999360
>>999363
I suspect Miss Iraphena does not know that Cat knows specifically what her purchases were (Cat got a LOT of advantages that auction, and I'm starting to think it might be in our best interest to keep that fact VERY HIDDEN from Nunitus' knowledge - someone might be playing loose and fast with whatever rules exist). Even if a trade for Krasla IS offered it should be coached in terms of 'if you picked up the other slave, I'm interested in trading for her contract'.
>>
No. 999375 ID: e51896

>>999350

Just noticed in that darkness that is a picture of the demon Set >>998714 with Nunitus symbols and Cat. Wondering if Set is a part of Nunitus or something... I lightened the image in the disthread.
>>
No. 999376 ID: 031458

>>999371
Nah asking for the slave is safe so long as we keep the Demon's eye amulate.
If she transfers the slave properly to us, we will be able to see a magical tether between us and said slave. We can then just order the slave to discontinue all standing orders from Iraphena.
>>
No. 999380 ID: e51896

>>999374
Another possibility could be the Iraphena could be Isabella's slave, which is why Isabella was referred to as Iraphena's superior, but she doesn't really like Isabella, just that she has no choice but to be ordered to do what Isabella says.
>>
No. 999382 ID: 9a2966

>>999380
I find the possibility that she's under the compulsion of 'do as we say or you die, and you can tell the future so you KNOW someone will find out and kill yo ass - but if you play nicely you and yours get to live' more likely.

I wonder if perhaps MOST of the seers, oracles and whatnot remaining on this world are under this sorta implied threat. Or under government protection, if those are actually competent / haven't been infiltrated and neutered.
>>
No. 999386 ID: 9c48ac

>>999380
I feel like the demon auction would probably not allow a slave to participate, but what do I know?

Speaking of slaves, I don't feel we particularly need another one. We've got plenty of allies who are willing to help of their own free will, which is better. Besides, we don't even know if slave contracts can be transferred without involving demons, do we?

>>999374
I agree with basically everything says here. In particular, I think pretending we can innately identify artifacts by touch is very clever.

Other than your brother's ring, which we OBVIOUSLY have to get, nothing here has more than minor utility. Even at a two to one rate, I'm doubtful that they're worth trading any of our current artifacts for.

If we are trading any other than the crystal (which again, I'm against), the outgoing trade would be the COILING RING, which is also on the level of minor utility if we ignore the possibility of it combining with other items. And I would say the top two artifacts here are the GRIP GLOVE and the BLACK BAR, although really all four are pretty close in power level.

But yeah the DEMON EYE AMULET and the PHOENIX RING are both much too valuable to trade for this jank.
>>
No. 999390 ID: afa6f6

>>999386
Also agree with all of this, and im super surprised that so many seem eager to give up the Phoenix Ring, considering its the only thing preventing Cat from suffering an instant fatal accident, since its the only defensive item or power we currently have.
Also no one seems to be considering the fact that, should we trade the Phoenix Ring away, that would mean that Nunitus, the group that is EXPLICITLY our enemies even if all the members arent will have it, which means one of our enemies will be able to come back from the dead, and maybe with a power up as well.
We dont even know if turning into a demon inherently makes you bad, and even if it does it might be worth it just to keep one of Nunitus from having it.
>>
No. 999391 ID: b1b4f3

>>999352
DO NOT trade the demon eye amulet. Obviously you should trade her the shard, and you may as well buy the Black Bar, since a shapeshifting object has many uses. It's a universal lockpick! Also it seems like a decent weapon for Gena.
I think you should trade the phoenix ring to her, but on the condition she shows you some more items to choose from. These aren't that great, except for...

Demand your brother's ring. You are its true owner, it doesn't belong to her. You can prove it by just wearing it. Tell her if she has any real desire for your friendship, she will give it to you. Also you're the only one that can use it, anyway. It's worthless to her. If she won't give it to you for free then you may as well cut ties with her.
Considering that ring and your coiling ring have some connection you're going to want to have both, so we can't trade the coiling ring, at least not until we find out what happens when they're combined.

I don't think you should try to trick her or do anything shady. We know by now that Iraphena is not complicit with Nunitus' ill deeds, and has been likely using her precog to manipulate Isabella into liking her, which is why that conversation between the two of them flowed so naturally yet the phone call was a little awkward. I think she wants the phoenix ring because it gives her added safety for potentially getting away from Nunitus or outright fighting them. I really don't think she's a slave, though, because she's in the auction. Doesn't make any sense for an auction-bought slave to also have auction power. More likely she was part of Nunitus before getting invited to the demon auctions, and can't get away from them too easily even after she found out how fucked up things are.

Depending on how she handles you wanting the ring, we might want a better relationship with her. We do know at least that she's hiding the fact that you're part of the demon auction. Why would she do that other than to keep you safe?
>>
No. 999393 ID: 0a9945

The thing that makes me wonder is why she wants the coiling ring so much. It's not even a really good storage ring compared to the others we've seen
>>
No. 999394 ID: 031458

Y know... When Willamina... and Cannie for that matter, are told about Isabella... We're gonna be at war with Nunitus. Isabella's gonna be taken down one way or the other... But so long as people OTHER than us know the secret, Iraphena is going to know ahead of time...
Which means we're going to have to take down Iraphena too.
The Stasis Sphere doesn't KILL anyone, so even if Iraphena had the Phoenix Ring, it wouldn't work...

Though I'm tempted to just take what we can get and wash our hands of miss Iraphena, it may be of use to signal that we are interested in doing business, but most of this Trash wont cut it. If we can meet her again, in a few days we might be able to set up an ambush and IMPRISON her in the Stasis Sphere.
Then we would be free to loot her house of her fancy weapons and artifacts, and assault Isabella at our leisure.
>>
No. 999395 ID: afa6f6

>>999393
The thought that comes to my mind is that they dont actually know exactly what it does, or that it appears similar to another thing that they want.
After all, the auction description didnt really tell you anything, and they dont have the benefit of a Demon Eye Amulet that tells you what everything does.

Speaking of which, where is everyone getting this idea that the Coiling Ring combines with stuff, of that it has something to do with Callen's Ring? Neither of the descriptions say anything about that that I can see?
>>
No. 999398 ID: e51896

>>999395
Idea came from here: >>997015

>Maybe it was a part of a set and they could combine, you think about the act of coiling, it’s a series of loops or spirals right? The ring looks like an snake eating itself, maybe it needs to be fed something? You wish your Amulet would give more information. The idea of smashing the lucky egg against your ring or your amulet comes to mind

I'm starting to think maybe we should just only get Callans ring with the crystal, and just leave and keep the rest of our artifacts.

Yeah, I'm changing my vote to doing this.
>>
No. 999399 ID: b1b4f3

Maybe she wants the coiling ring *because* it resembles Callan's Hope, and she thinks the coiling ring can be used to unlock it?

Wait a minute, she should already know Callan's Hope belongs to Cat. Didn't she get these items appraised? Does she not have access to an appraisal item?!
>>
No. 999400 ID: e51896

Liminal did also mistake the coiling ring for one of Callan's ring.

Yeah, we really shouldn't give away the coiling ring!!
>>
No. 999401 ID: 9a2966

>>999393
Same, but we should probably give her ONE of the THREE things she really wants to keep her thinking Cat is pliable and have something to show for her trouble - to neuter Awakened power - is after all Nunitus' end goal. In order to keep them thinking they're doing GOOD on that, it's a sacrifice we should make.

The COILING RING is just the least obviously useful item to trade given how 'ordinary' spatial rings can be straight up BOUGHT. It's probably part of a set or can be expanded / fed other spatial items, and so on, but we don't know. Shame we never had time to do proper testing with it.

Also, keep in mind that we haven't really given her much information on what items we bought. It can still be part of our story that we didn't actually secure the Phoenix Ring and the Demon Eye Amulet during the auction, so as much as she'd want them Cat can't provide.

>>999391
>If she won't give it to you for free then you may as well cut ties with her.
Maybe not suggest cutting ties ever, as that would give her no reason to argue your case and try to convince Isabella/Nunitus not to geek Cat. Rex did hear Isabella saying already that Iraphena's trying to be in your corner.

Also, as much as it's tempting to attack her for presenting Callan's ring to gouge Cat's heart, we can't really blame her for the providence of an item that's been stolen for years. If anything, there should be some gratitude she arranged for a way for Cat to get it back. And the fact that it's sealed probably means it hasn't been messed with.

(heck, it might've been through Max she got permission to do so - because if Isabella is Iraphena's superior, Liminal/Max might be even further up the ladder from her)

>>999394
>Moment someone else is told Iraphena will inform on us
Gonna burst that bubble - if so we'd already be screwed, ever since we told Will, or Mint, or even Rex - and nobody's ambushing Cat right now. Iraphena might be able to see the ripples around Cat's actions, but until those actions are set in stone she's probably clueless - much to her annoyance.

>In a few days, Ambush Iraphena
Their seer agent disappearing would DEFINITELY give a tell to Nunitus something's up in Lyst. Probably not wise at this stage. It definitely shouldn't be done until Cat and crew have managed to push through Saba's Dungeon and gotten stronk.

And, sadly, if anyone, Cat should be the one taking on Iraphena, alone. He's the only one currently immune to her predictive powers and able to catch her off guard. Using the STASIS SPHERE to take her out in one fell swoop could be an excellent move, mind you. Of course, that means letting out the fickle faerie and having no way to get it back in the box...
>>
No. 999403 ID: 9a2966

A thought strikes me that we're buying Callan's Hope NOW - so if it IS part of the same set as the Coiling Ring, maybe if we bump them together while wearing them both perhaps they'll reveal whatever set effect was intended and we'll actually get to know whether we want to trade the ring away or not.

If it does not, we still don't know what the heck the Coiling Ring's secret is and its value to us is still negligible, at least compared to the amulet/ring utilities.
>>
No. 999408 ID: e51896

>>999403
Good idea.

Here is what I am thinking we should do:

First, trade Callan's hope with the crystal, then "accidentally" prick our hand on the ring's barb so the ring activates again with our blood, and Iraphena doesn't get suspicious. Then, inspect it with the demon eye amulet.

From there, after we inspect it with the amulet, we can decide to either get rid of the coiling ring or not.
>>
No. 999410 ID: b1b4f3

Iraphena's precognition is just that, precognition of future events. She can't read minds, she can just read future possibilities and the outward reactions to her actions, and act on that. Except in Cat's case, and anyone directly associated with Cat. So our secrets are safe, so long as nobody leaks it to anyone outside of Cat's inner circle.

Thinking on it further, I think Iraphena knew exactly what the ring was, and put it on the table for trade so that Cat would get it, assuming he'd recognize it on sight. This benefits her in multiple possible ways: ingratiating herself with Cat by seeing a family heirloom returned to him, guaranteeing a profitable trade, and if she's working against Nunitus it would also clue Cat in on the fact that they're up to no good. She can't know for sure that Cat knows about that, after all, and the obvious conclusion of "Nunitus took this ring off my brother's corpse" does not make them look good.

I feel like this makes it more likely she's working against Nunitus, and her boss doesn't know she put it up for trade. We think we're being listened to right now, right? Maybe Iraphena does too, and it won't do us or her any good to get pissy at her.
>>
No. 999412 ID: 0a9945

>>999408
>>999403

These. Do this before we decide on trading anything else. Lets look before we leap. I want to detect if at least there is some connection between the coiling ring and Callan's ring when we inspect it first with the amulet first
>>
No. 999413 ID: 9a2966

>>999410
>Nunitus took this ring off my brother's corpse
Actually according to Cat himself
>>997437
he lost the ring six years ago to some thugs. Had no idea what it did, either.
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No. 999418 ID: e51896

One other idea, nothing related to the artifacts but more towards Isabella. What if we tore up the picture of Maximilian and Callan, and just give Isabella the picture of Max while we keep Callan's half? I mean, I know she is psycho and potentially an enemy, but maybe... we can mend old wounds with this as a start, or have her continue thinking we're her friend? maybe give that half of the photo to Iraphena and tell her if she wants to she can give it to Isabella when she calms down... you don't really want Max's picture anyway
>>
No. 999419 ID: b1b4f3

>>999413
Wait, what?
Then why is it spiky and sealed now? Was Cat lying, or... is this a different ring?
>>
No. 999428 ID: 5a788d

>>999419
Or it grew spikes when someone else tried to wear it.
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No. 999440 ID: afe7de
File 162052741994.png - (6.16KB , 500x500 , C2_191.png )
999440

> Take a moment to collect your thoughts.
You do this and evaluate the items in your possession. You’re not giving up the Demon Eye Amulet guaranteed. You were thinking about giving up the phoenix ring, but are too DIVIDED on the idea of splitting from your only extra life mechanism. You don’t even know if turning into a demon will change you mentally or be a bad thing. You have a theory that Set might be an adventurer from another world that went through something similar. Then there’s the Coiling ring. You’re not sure if there’s something hidden in it, but you don’t really have the time to discover what. Maybe it’s just a boring inter-spatial ring after all. One thing’s for certain. Inter-spatial rings are actually extremely rare. You’ve seen a lot in the past few days, and even one that has as much space as yours is coveted by Iraphena.

You’re a bit disappointed at the display of items here and are doubting if she’s genuine in wanting to keep you as a potential ally or non-threat, so you’re going to test those boundaries a little. But first thing’s first, you’re getting CALLAN’S HOPE. You pull the shard of Crystal and place it on the table, picking up CALLAN’S HOPE. All but one of the spikes retract. And Miss Iraphena looks surprised.

You: I’m going to be frank here, I assume you know that this belongs to me right?

Miss Iraphena: Well you traded for it, so it is now. Weird how it just did that, though.

You: No, I mean that this item LITERALLY belongs to me. It was my brother’s I even have a damned photo to prove it thanks to Liminal.

You pull out the photo from earlier and show it to miss Iraphena. In it, on Callan’s hand is a shockingly similar looking ring now that the spikes have retracted.

You: This was STOLEN from me like 6 years ago. So I want to know, right now, are you really trying to be friends or allies even. Because I’ve been manipulated and stressed the entire day and I’ve had it, and this, this right here, seems a bit too fucked up and a bit too coincidental.

You’re shaking right now and are holding onto the ring very tightly, you feel something warm in your palm as you grip it hard and a slight sting. You probably cut yourself on the one remaining barb, but you aren’t focusing on that right now.
>>
No. 999441 ID: afe7de
File 162052744060.png - (6.89KB , 500x500 , C2_192.png )
999441

Miss Iraphena: I-I-I no. I didn’t know that. I just knew it was a sealed ring that I couldn’t get rid of. I found it in some pawn shop in Donjon and was able to find out it was an artifact, but not what it did.

Miss Iraphena: Please, take it. Seeing it do that and that photo is evidence enough. You don’t have to barter for it. I. You’re not the only one who has it rough.

She looks to the other room where the endless wailing can be heard from. Seriously, how does she have the lung capacity and throat strength to cry for this long at this volume. You feel your STRESS reduce SLIGHTLY at that. You grab the ring with your other hand and wipe off the blood. You want to investigate the ring, but feel you’ll probably be distracted for a bit, so it’s time for another gambit. You take several deep breaths and stop the shaking, it’s time to try to PERSUADE her further. You touch the remaining artifacts, making a show of examining them.

You: Now, I’m not asking this to use a “QUESTION” but can I get at least a vague idea about what these things do? I assume you’ve had these items appraised so you at least know what you’re giving up?

Miss Iraphena: Somewhat, I have an artifact that lets me know if something IS an artifact or not, and I can use a combination of my power and experimentation to get more information, but the kin I know who actually appraises high quality artifacts but he charges such a large amount for his services that it’s only worth it to do that on Auction items. Or ones that I can’t actively test.

Miss Iraphena points to the remaining 4 artifacts one by one and gives her own description.

BLOODY SHOES - Increases running speed
STICKY GLOVE - Increases grip strength, making it harder to drop or let go of things.
TAUNTING BANJO - Attracts Aggro on focused target so long as you can actually play the instrument.
FORMLESS BLADE - By focusing on this artifact you can change it’s shape, longer, shorter, even split is easy to do.

Miss Iraphena: And from the best of my knowledge that COILING RING is an inter-spatial ring. They’re harder to come by without going deep into a lot of dungeons, and my other one is full, which is why I’m offering two artifacts instead of one for it.
>>
No. 999442 ID: afe7de
File 162052745189.png - (8.27KB , 500x500 , C2_193.png )
999442

You squint your eyes and try to see if she’s trying to DECIEVE you. You don’t THINK she’s lying. An idea starts forming in your head. Maybe Miss Iraphena isn’t all that bad. She’s definitely complicit in some shady shit, but you could maybe turn that around. Though this requires going out on a limb and giving some somewhat false information. You’re going to go for it anyway. You’re going to use your SMARTS to try to get a leg up now.

You: How about this, then. You need someone to properly appraise your stuff right? Hypothetically how much would you be willing to pay for these services. Would you be willing to offer more high quality artifacts, you’ve been around the block a bit and have been to at least one other auction then I have, and as evidenced by that cool Naginata over there, you’ve been in a dungeon or two.

Miss Iraphena looks contemplative and thinks for a moment, it seems she wasn’t expecting this kind of response. Maybe she doesn’t know what the Demon Eye Amulet does. Maybe she actually has to physically touch the object to see it’s future or figure out it’s use. Eventually she returns her attention to you and responds.

Miss Iraphena: I’d be willing to offer more items if you could accurately appraise 5 other artifacts I have, in addition to these at the table, yes. If you appraise them I would be willing to offer you one high quality Artifact and one low quality Artifact, but you would have to guarantee that you would be trading me that COILING RING, which you’ll be compensated for additionally. Or, if you could prove that you can accurately appraise one high quality artifact that I have had properly appraised, I’d be willing to offer a few more items for you to browse from for this trade.

Miss Iraphena: You use your Achievement points and get something good I assume? Probably a logical extension of your power, sensing things.
>>
No. 999443 ID: afe7de
File 162052748985.png - (5.68KB , 500x500 , C2_194.png )
999443

She gets up and heads into the other room before you can give a response, she looked… asscited? FUCK, you mean Excited. You’re kind of surprised your PERSUASION SUCCEEDED. The wailing continues but it’s more like background noise at this point. You take a moment to look at your brother’s ring while she’s away.

CALLAN’S HOPE - A High quality artifact that can store the soul on death, converting it over the course of 5 years into a SPIRIT, specifically a SPIRIT OF HOPE. It’s original wielder can designate a target on death, that target will become the new Owner. Only the owner Catherine Alexander can form a contract, see, and hear the spirit. If the owner refuses to form a contract or 10 years pass since the original owner has perished then the stored soul will return to the cycle of reincarnation with a higher quality soul from the refining process. Requires [5 ENERGY] to be activated, forming a contract requires no further energy. Contracts do not take up an Awakening slot. This ring will then convert itself into a random ring-based artifact. It has a 65% chance of being converted into something totally random, a 20% chance of being converted into an inter-spatial ring, a 10% chance of being converted into another soul storage vessel, and a 5% chance of being completely destroyed.

You take a very deep breath. You’re feeling very COOL right now, very CALM. You can see Callan again. You manage to maintain your COMPOSURE. You put on the ring but don’t activate it yet. The final spike retracts and the ring fits snugly on your hand. You’re keeping it on your other hand, just so nothing strange happens with it and the Coiling ring. You don’t want it to accidentally destroy Callan’s soul.
>>
No. 999444 ID: 8483cf

>Maybe you can be the one to turn her around.

HAHA

We aren't falling for one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war on the continent off Wano", but only slightly less well known is this: "Never assume that you are the one to reform a sexy member of the opposite sex!"
>>
No. 999446 ID: afa6f6

>>999443
Well, that seemed to work out better than expected. Im certainly more positive about Iraphena then I was when we started.
>>
No. 999460 ID: e51896

Right, we can probably offer Iraphena a cigarette to show there's no hard feelings after this is done... if she smokes.

Even though she is insane, I still want to tear apart the photo of our brother and Max and give Isabella Max's side of the photo to at least give the facade of friendship... or maybe... it can potentially set things up to give us the chance to heal her mental state at some point? We can give it to Iraphena to give to Isabella since she said she's been having it rough with Isabella crying and can help Iraphena deal with that.

Anyway, if we haven't already, lets put all the items from our coiling ring into our backpack until Iraphena returns, starting with the artifacts like the lucky egg, and Lightning god technique handbook, and the Magic Cultivation book Ummm... put Andrea's soaked panties in another compartment of the backpack.(I assume and I think Cat would have already done this though)

After reading what Callan's ring is, I think I feel more confident in giving away the coiling ring depending on the new artifacts she brings... though maybe we can test it real quick while she is gone. Lets grab something like our shitty multitool, and try feeding it to the coiling ring (like Cat mentioned here >>997015) My theory is that it'll make the coiling ring's capacity grow.

Having Callan back as a spirit will be cool. Ultimately, I would want to seal a contract with him, though we also have to consider that spirits can drive their hosts crazy, according to Saba.
>>
No. 999462 ID: 094652

Aw crap, they cored his soul out of that ring didn't they.

Well if they didn't, make sure you tell Willa that her brother cheated death as well so she doesn't feel envious that reality seems to spiritually overcompensate you.

>>999441
"Iraphrema, I need to know right now: do you like Isabella? Or do you hate her?"

>Reincarnation, soul-refining
Disturbing yet interesting. What are the angels and demons after?
>>
No. 999463 ID: b1b4f3

>>999441
>Isabella seriously crying her eyes out
Damn, did Max straight up reject her completely once the inheritance was done with? That's rough. ...she's going to be more dangerous because of this, isn't she. Ughhhh, there's like a 90% chance she'll just blame Willamina again, and the full rejection means she has no reason to hold back. Good thing Will has the pinion now, that evens the playing field.

>>999442
You didn't give her any false information at all though? You said you can appraise items, but not how.
Also I guess that explanation for her wanting the coiling ring makes sense. We don't strictly need one, so... trading it would work. It's probably got some sort of hidden aspect to it that even our high quality appraisal item can't see, but the only thing we have to experiment with is Callan's ring, which is far far too precious. Well, that or the phoenix ring, which is too valuable to just feed to the coiling ring and potentially get nothing out of it.
My guess is that it eats other interspatial rings and combines capacity. It's also just a generally high quality interspatial ring. Willamina has one of similar quality though, so we have interspatial storage for items that need that kind of security.

>>999443
Holy smokes. Bro spirit! BRO SPIRIT! Also wow, good thing you got the ring back, you only have a couple years left to form the contract.
Hey, forming a contract means you'll be able to see spirits without the amulet.
also,
>return to the cycle of reincarnation
You now have irrefutable evidence that reincarnation is a thing.

Oh, since you and her are talking about the Auction in the open, you're acting like this room is secure. Gotta confirm that though. Just straight up ask her if this room is secure from eavesdropping. Spirit proof? No Nunitus monitoring devices or tiny spies in the walls?
You should ask her if she likes working for Nunitus, considering they're up to some shady business.

Look at the Coiling Ring again with the demon eye amulet. Its description changed once, will it change again...?
>>
No. 999467 ID: f8fa51

The spacial ring is rare, but not unique. Useful, but not necessary. It's not likely to save our ass at any point. So sure, offer up the coiling ring to try to smooth things over. Plus, if you allow it to "get out" that you're an appraiser, that could be a pretty good way for you to get your own income without openly trading in your real power.

It's important that you make a show of examining the items you're appraising and make physical contact. We don't want people to know we can so much as glance at them and know what everything they're equipped with does.
>>
No. 999468 ID: de9524

>>999460
Ripping the photo is probably unnecessary, we can just make another copy of it back at the post office.
>>
No. 999486 ID: 0a9945

>>999463

>Just straight up ask her if this room is secure from eavesdropping. Spirit proof? No Nunitus monitoring devices or tiny spies in the walls?You should ask her if she likes working for Nunitus, considering they're up to some shady business.

Methinks this might be considered using one of our questions. And I don't think we want to let on that we know of spirits by asking if the place is spirit proof, or ask about spies.

Maybe instead we can just say in a form of a nonquestion, "hmmm... compared to what I saw from the Heroes League, Nunitus must be a more lax alternative to work for, also considering both you and Cannie are members" and see what response we get from her.

And yeah, lets check the description of the coiling ring again, but look at it from different angles, and certain spots like the mouth of the snake
>>
No. 999487 ID: 9f8373

Ass... ASK (Rupert wasn't wrong) Iraphena, either as a question or if it must be a single QUESTION: It seems like the way this works you have to be in some opposition to eachother, but... what happened? How did she react when she learned about the demon war? How long ago was it? This has just been a lot for you and its been stressing but, empathy-wise, it must have been just as crazy for her at some point. She looks a little bit as tired as you. Asking for mentorship isn't fair if you have to compete, but maybe promise some sort of answer back someday if you can learn her story?

Also, the chaos causing is apparently a fun thing for the demons. Offer to join her for some next level pranking maybe if the moods good? Between your two power/itemsets, could be fun.
>>
No. 999489 ID: b1b4f3

>>999486
>Methinks this might be considered using one of our questions.
It has nothing to do with the future. I don't get why people are so paranoid about wasting a Question, she's obviously not going to dock us one without warning us first.
Plus, knowledge OF spirits can't be considered to be that rare, but I would be ok with leaving that specific part out of the "is this room secure" question. The "tiny spies in the walls" part is a Dr McNinja reference mainly. Overmind likely does not have spies in town because they have to report back to her, and thus they would not be particularly good at their jobs over a long distance unless they're a species good at traveling long distances. Just birds in that case, nothing that could actually spy on you indoors if you shut the blinds.
>>
No. 999490 ID: e51896

>>999468
Actually, I wonder if we can just take a picture of the photo of Max and Callan on our COMM, and then rip the photo and give to Isabella Max's half, and get it printed from our COMM later. No big deal if it is saved on our Comm as backup. (Not sending her our brother's pic on our phone though).
>>
No. 999498 ID: 53560f

>Maybe Miss Iraphena isn’t all that bad.
Do keep in mind she was ready to have you killed if you refused her offer to share your identity with someone.
If we try to ally with her then we should keep her at arms length and monitor her as much as possible. Probably plan for betrayal.

For now just wait for her to return.
>>
No. 999499 ID: e07f67

>>999490
Yeah, this would work a LOT better.
>>
No. 999501 ID: de9524

Come to think of it, did we only make 1 copy? If we made multiple copies of the photo then this is an entirely moot point.
>>
No. 999528 ID: b1b4f3

>>999490
Copies are inferior to the real thing. Make a copy and give that to her instead.
>>
No. 999533 ID: 031458

Honestly I wouldn't mind appraising more of her stuff if it meant holding on to the coiling ring.
>>
No. 999536 ID: e07f67

>>999498
I think Iraphena really doesn't want to harm Cat, but if she's ever outright ordered to, all bets are off (especially as we don't know if she's slavebound).
>>
No. 999537 ID: 12197a

I still think ultimately just taking a COMM photo of Max and bro's pic, and give Isabella Max's half of the pic. the picture we got from Liminal is already a copy of the original after all.

Alternatively, we could say to Iraphena that we could offer to help her out to potentially calm Isabella down a little if she happens to have a copier to give her a new pic. Iraphena already saw the picture after all, so it should be fine. Wouldnt really be using up one of her favors either since we worded that we are the one helping her with this.
>>
No. 999539 ID: 6c227a

>>999498
>Ready to have you killed
uuuuh [citation needed] please

Say that you have learned a little more about the context of that comment she made before, about the demons not being the problem. See if you can get her to elaborate on anything. She's precognitive, right? So she has seen what is coming?

Go ahead and confirm the coiling ring is an interspacial ring and yeah, its handy enough that you're kind of attached to it.

Right now the things I am interested in are the sword (because we are considering recruiting a strong brawler) and the gloves (because Cat doesn't want to get his pistol disarmed). And we still have the crystal for trade since she is being cool about the ring. Let's see what else she pulls out.

You can tell her she's basically right on most of the stuff here so far. The shoes also increase stamina for running longer. The blade is resistant to energy attacks if you can manage to block with it. The only one that's got some major hidden features is the Banjo. Apparently if you fight somebody with a similar item, the loser's item is destroyed Highlander style.
>>
No. 999547 ID: b1b4f3

To be clear, I am voting we trade the coiling ring. There's no solid evidence it's valuable beyond being an interspatial ring, and we have access to Will's. One minor problem is we'll have to take everything out of it before handing it over, but... I think the only thing in it is the gun right now?
>>
No. 999548 ID: 9a2966

>Iraphena is fooled into the deal - and sympathetic
Good and good. Promising signs, if they can be trusted.

>Callan's Hope unsealed
Oh. Oh brother.

If this wasn't a fraught, tricky situation, you'd say fuck it and summon and form a contract with him immediately, but it is... THIS. So you don't. Your sudden, unexpected, reunion deserves its own space. Or an emergency, like if the demonic fire spirit attacks you while you're here and you need something - someone - you can rely on to fight back with. I bet spirits can fight spirits! Or put them in a time-out bubble, as it were, if Callan's power is preserved in spirit form.

Maybe just talking, too. It seemed like Max's spirit and Isabella's were chatting, yes? Later, once you've summoned Callan, he might be able to listen in on spirit conversations.

>Demonic fire spirit
Speaking of which, Cat haven't seen her, has he? I wonder if she's whispering things in Isabella's ears - twisting the knife as it were - or if she is trying to console her, or not just giving a shit and doing her own thing, eyerolling at Isabella's antics.

We do know some spirits can be tricksy. Angelic ones in particular were mentioned liable to try to drive their owners insane according to Saba. But this one's Demonic! Though then again, its owner works for Nunitus, which is Angelic so they might've given it special marching orders somehow? Or maybe demonic spirits just LIKE to twist their owners' psyche. That... might explain why Isabella turned out the way she did. If what's essentially her invisible friend since childhood has been constantly feeding her a steady diet of psychotic-laced positive reinforcement... ugh.

Too much speculation. You need some way to know more about the nature of Isabella's spirit. And to figure out what went down at that mansion. WAS Isabella a recipient of Saba Hadlee's CATACLYSMIC CONVERGENCE? That... doesn't sound quite right. Wouldn't she have been even more powerful and possibly even crazier as a result? Given it literally risks the person turning into a MONSTER.

>Isabella's crying / Max's photo
I'm not sure giving her a picture of the object of her current grief is going to be very helpful - besides, she has a SHRINE's worth of photos already, doesn't she? Maybe she'd still appreciate one more, but another picture of Max is unlikely to make her FEEL GOOD right now.

The crux of Isabella's problem is that... well, she ain't a normal gal. Her psyche's been damaged somehow - both in the past, and just now, today. We don't know for sure what made Isabella so obsessed with Max, nor what Max said, but given that he's her OBSESSION, whatever rebuke was served might've, uh, damaged something today, like a cherished belief - such as a formerly rock-solid conviction that Max will eventually marry her because they pinky promised when they were eight, or whatever. This has left her unbalanced - from her cries earlier it's clear she is at least partially blaming herself ("I'm stupid!").

So she's in need. In need of affirmation, comfort, something to assuage her hurt or give her HOPE not all is lost with Max, or at least affirm her woes and let her properly continue to have a good ol' wallow in misery.

The trouble here is if all that grief gets turned into a super-grudge at, say, Willamina. If Isa fully snaps, who knows how things will go - that Incarnation of Fire power seems, well, POWERFUL. Sadly we don't know the condition for a full-on snap from her - though her ever-grief just now isn't a very encouraging sign of stability.

So the REAL question is: is there really anything Cat can - or should - do for Isabella?

On the one hand, she's... uh. Turned out to be surprisingly creepy, crazy stalker-ish, mean-spirited, probably behind the animal pyro events, and still a likely suspect of the Hadlee family mansion fire (if no longer all the murders, since Saba Hadlee could have been ultimately responsible for quite a few of those, given all the SOUL ORBS Will claims to have seen). For all that she has a cute ass and puts up a welcoming front (which, to be fair, might be real as long as you're not on her bad side) these are A LOT of worrisome flags, and she's done little to make herself seem deserving of sympathy and second chances.

On the other... she's got this shoulder demon (/demonic fire spirit) who could've put any amount of twisted ideas in her head. She's certainly suffered some kind of trauma in the past and seems - now more than ever - like a damaged individual. Not to mention she IS probably just being used and abused by Nunitus, maybe even Max. Maybe she's always been a little cray, but it's definitely POSSIBLE Isabella really is just another casualty on par with, uh, war orphans or some shit. Still capable of doing heinous evil, but she kinda just grew up into it and didn't know or understand better and still probably don't.

Right now she's in shock and her beliefs are shaken though, so there's a chance Cat can influence what kind of state she leaves that shock in. Turning over even a copy of the picture as a show of sympathy might not be a bad CONVERSATION STARTER, at least. After all, Cat 'knows' she had a childhood sweetheart in the 'dead' Maximillian.

But that STARTER needs SOMETHING MORE. After all, Max ISN'T dead and Isabella being in his bad book is what her BIG BOO HOO is all about. She needs something to THINK ABOUT that'll turn the TRAINWRECK OF HER THOUGHTS back onto SAFER TRACKS. Something that'll work to STABILIZE her or at the very least give her safer ideas to FIXATE on. Though the demonic fire spirit might sabotage any attempt to talk her down, pending its own agenda. It'll certainly gonna be hard for Cat to ignore it - again - if it's there. Then again, maybe he doesn't need to any longer. Max does know Cat can see spirits. He might tell Isabella at some point, and then the jig is up. Then again, Max might not be on speaking terms with Isabella right now. I get the feeling Max doesn't touch base with his BIGGEST FAN all that much, or he'd certainly have realized she was still sporting a raging hate-on for Willamina.

>SOMETHING MORE
So, BEFORE going in with the PICTURE, maybe slow-ease her into becoming accepting of having an conversation at all? Poke your head into her room while Iraphena is fetching stuff.

"Heyo, WEEPY WAIF. You've got some lung to you - that ACTING CAREER could really TAKE OFF if you gave it a shot, you know."

Toss her your packet of cigs (and expect it to be gone soon, and good riddance now that you think you have YOUR BROTHER back).

"Take these. I know the sound of HEARTBREAK when I hear it. Try to de-stress a bit. Breathe and hydrate. It's definitely not just your fault, though we all fuck up somewhere. Relationships be hard, yo."

See if you can get her something to drink. Ideally non-alcoholic, or only weakly so (a really drunk Isabella might be a different nightmare to deal with - or real easy, who knows?).

"I've had my heart crushed once or twice too, y'know. We can commiserate for a bit after I'm done talking to Iraphena, if you're okay with that. If not... well. I do have a thing I want to show you, and I think you might want to see it, too."

Something like the above should 'prep' her for Cat coming in with the image and for anything Cat wants to pitch to her afterwards in terms of relationship advice (oh goddess, better make it good).

>Trading & Identifying
Take care to TOUCH and EXAMINE the artifacts Iraphena brings out of storage.

TAKE the deal to APPRAISE the TABLE ARTIFACTS plus the 5 artifacts Iraphena brings, in exchange for 1 lesser and 1 higher artifact + selling the COILING RING for two more lesser ones (or 1 higher one???). Tell her you'll try to appraise the 1 High-Quality artifact she KNOWS WHAT IS as well just for the hell of it. You're as curious as she is whether what you get to know reflects the true nature and value of an item. Though, perhaps, after all of this you're getting low on ENERGY? You could suggest to do it another time - gives you a new excuse to visit Iraphena at some point, after she's gotten ahold of even more artifacts.

Review the full spread, their quality, and keep in mind how many artifacts you'll be owed for your pick list.

And sure, this could be giving Nunitus artifact ammo, but it's also making you useful in their eyes and earning you more stuff to potentially use in your group's first DUNGEON. Also, if Nunitus' cat's paws and minions can earn more money or equip better gear from you appraising their stuff, you're at least not going to first end up on a HIT LIST.
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No. 999552 ID: 9a2966

>>999539
>Ready to have you killed
This stems from the first Rex/Roach spy report, when he followed Iraphena and Isabella back home to Iraphena after Cat revealing his "power" to them in the diner.
>THEN MISS IRAPHENA MENTIONED SHE WAS GLAD YOU TOOK THE DEAL OTHERWISE THEY’D HAVE TO SEND SOMEONE AFTER YOU AND THEY BOTH CHUCKLED, ISABELLA THEN MENTIONED SHE’D BE SAD TO DO IT CAUSE SHE KINDA LIKES YOU. THEN MISS IRAPHENA THANKED ISABELLA FOR PLAYING ALONG WITH HER UHHH I THINK SHE SAID SCHEME.
'Someone' in this case being Isabella's demonic fire spirit, probably. Presumably because they're both HL/Nunitus members and they're supposed to fuck over anyone who is capable of upsetting the angels' apple cart, by, say, participating in demon auctions.

It's not one of Irephena's better looks, but that WAS somethign said in front of Isabella, noted psychopath and SUPERIOR of Iraphena. We also know from Roach/Rex spying on Isabella (back when he lost his original body) that Iraphena also wants Isabella to be more 'hands off' on Cat.
>“THERE’S A NEWCOMER LOOKING INTO IT BUT THEY’LL REACH THE DEAD END OF IT SOON ENOUGH. IRAPHENA WANTS ME TO BE HANDS OFF BUT FRANKLY I COULD GIVE A RATS ASS WHAT SHE THINKS, I’M HER SUPERIOR AFTER ALL.”
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No. 999557 ID: b1b4f3

>>999552
Knowing what we know now I suspect that first conversation was Iraphena playing along with Isabella's craziness to keep their relationship positive. Iraphena can easily manipulate people by simply looking into the future and picking actions that push the conversation where she wants it to go.
Iraphena tried to persuade Isabella to leave Cat alone but it didn't work. She can't use her precognition to help OR hurt Cat, but has tried to help anyway.

So basically no she's not going to kill Cat. She's been protecting him, both from Isabella's desire to keep the fire under wraps, and from Overmind's desire to eliminate risky Auction members.
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No. 999599 ID: 6c227a

>>999552
Oh, "send someone after you" was ominous, but vague enough I wasn't expecting that murder was the next step in their escalation process. I assumed intimidation or something. Still, really interesting if that would have been their response to you not taking the deal, instead of, you know, just telling your secret anyway. Implies there are some very rigid rules in place.
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No. 999602 ID: afe7de
File 162062732127.png - (9.87KB , 500x500 , C2_195.png )
999602

> Empty out the Coiling Ring in preparation for trade.
You already did that earlier. Everything’s snugly fitted in your backpack, even Andrea’s Panties. Though you shoved those in the plastic bag you got from the Lyst-Y-Mart. You also learned something new about the ring. The panties were still just as sopping wet as when you got them and the water cups you had inside were just as cold. THOUGH YOU THINK THAT’S JUST A PROPERTY OF INTER-SPATIAL RINGS. You gave the panties a good sniff on your walk over just to help calm yourself too. Though it had the added effect of just making you a bit more horny. Probably why you keep thinking about Iraphena’s ass.

> Copies of the photo?
You noticed there was a photocopier and fax machine in the hallway leading up to this room, so you pop over to it and make a copy of the photo. Maybe leaving it to Isabella will cheer her up. There’s of course no way you’re actually going into the room to see or talk to her, best to leave that up to Iraphena. You just want to show some compassion and maybe that will be the ticket needed to not have her want to flambe your ass.

> Feed the multitool to the Coiling Ring
You tried shoving objects on top of the ring but no effect was present. You also scanned the ring again, just as a precaution, maybe something has changed.

COILING RING - An inter-spatial ring, Can store/retrieve objects within it’s 1 cubic meter space. (DEA - If it does something else, I can’t tell)

Still nothing new. You feel pretty convinced. YOU ARE GOING TO TRADE MISS IRAPHENA THE COILING RING unless the artifacts she presents are shitty. You are also willing to trade the SHARD and your FAVOR/QUESTIONS, which would mean you could get 1 high quality artifact, and 4 low quality artifacts. You are also CONFIDENT that you could exchange three low quality artifacts for a high quality one, making your net profits 2 HQ artifacts and 1 LQ artifact. Iraphena returns wearing a new ring, you of course investigate it.

BOUND INTER-SPATIAL RING [MK IV] - Can store/retrieve objects within it’s 3 cubic meter space. Bound to it’s owner Leshanna Iraphena. Becomes unbound on death.
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No. 999603 ID: afe7de
File 162062733606.png - (11.06KB , 500x500 , C2_196.png )
999603

So it’s another inter-spatial ring, she probably keeps her more valuable artifacts in that and hidden away somewhere in her house. You grab the shard and she slides the objects on the table over, placing a singular, rather large plush figure. It reminds you of a Megafauna almost, but doesent look like any of the ones your world is known to worship.

Miss Iraphena: I already know what this does. But, please. A demonstration if you would. This item’s not up for trade.

You’ve already committed yourself to the trade, so you make a big show of touching the thing whilst also scanning it with your Amulet.

STUFFED BEHEMOTH: An oversized stuffed toy with realistic fur and hide. A cartoonish recreation of THE BEAST OF THE LAND. Once fed enough energy it will grow and transform into a realistic version of it’s namesake, a two story tall beast of titanic muscle and fury with control over earth and stone. It is STRONG and TOUGH and will follow simple commands and act to defend the individual who FIRST poured energy into it. It remains active until it’s energy is exhausted, damaging the body accelerates the process. (DEA - Part of a set of three.)

You relay the information to Miss Iraphena, not wanting to lie for the sake of this description so you actually get the future opportunities she is presenting. She looks pleased and a little shocked that you got it so accurately.

Miss Iraphena: Hmm, Excelent. Yes. I do believe we can do business. Though I wasn’t aware it was a set item. Those are hard to come by, and it’s partners are even harder to come by. So, have you considered my offer, the coiling ring for a high quality artifact and a low quality one, as well as for whatever else you are willing to trade?

You: Sure. But what if the higher rank items you present aren’t something I’m interested in?

Miss Iraphena: Considering you are fairly new to all of this, you probably don’t have access to artifacts in a way other than me or Willamina, who has proven herself to be selfish in the past and I would measure she wouldn’t be willing to part with anything she has gotten. I think you’ll be fine soaking the loss of getting two low ranking artifacts in exchange for the coiling ring. I’ll even do you one better, you can take a High ranking artifact instead in addition. So just for your Appraisal skill on these 10 objects and your Ring I’m offering 2 high ranking artifacts and one low ranking artifact.

Miss Iraphena: I of course reserve the right to pull something off the table after you appraise if it’s too valuable, but I’ll replace it with something else of higher value as compensation that I won’t remove no matter what is revealed about it. Sounds fair? Here, I’ll place the items on the table while you decide.
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No. 999604 ID: afe7de
File 162062735883.png - (7.21KB , 500x500 , C2_197.png )
999604

You: Sure. Mind if I ask a Question though. What’s it like working for Nunitus? I heard they were like a neutral guild or something but wanted more details then the website gave.

Miss Iraphena: Not much to tell about em really. It’s like working at any other guild. You do jobs that they request of you, fill out paperwork, etc. I had an argument with the woman running it, we’re still friends, but I’m more like an INDEPENDENT contractor now. Selling them info on a needs based basis. We keep in touch frequently, Isabella wor- nevermind. I used to go on dungeon runs but kind of RETIRED from that life ten years ago after the argument. The stuff you’re seeing is things I’ve gotten from my many, many dungeon dives. I’m considered a more fortunate person to have this many artifacts, and I only haven't sold them for the very very obvious reason that we both know and aren’t going to say aloud.

She places all the objects on the table and removes the stuffed behemoth, which you kind of consider a display of her own force. Like she’s telling you not to fuck with her or she could pull this out and level anything you throw at her? You don’t have anything like that. But maybe this is your chance to even the odds so to speak? She places a few more artifacts on the table and you re-evaluate all of them.

LOW RANKING ARTIFACTS

RUNNING SHOES - A pair of blood red shoes from another world seeped in the blood of an Awakened. These shoes absorbed their owner’s power upon death and now increase running speed and stamina.
GRIP GLOVE - A single glove that makes it difficult to knock whatever you are holding out of your grip, can be worn on either hand.
BLACK BAR - A short sword with a thick and heavy squared bar shaped blade made of dull black metal. Neither particularly sharp nor long, the blade is however exceedingly non-reactive, seeming to harmlessly deflect heat, electricity, mana, etc without changing. The blade possesses the ability to change shape according to its wielder's will, allowing it to lengthen, broaden, curve, sharpen, or even split down the middle as needed, though the extent the shape can change is limited in scope by the material of the blade, meaning it cant do more then the original mass of the blade allows for.
DUELING BANJO - An instrument a part of the “DUELING” set. When a cohesive tune is played on this instrument an entity you focus on that can perceive the music will be forced to target all of their attention towards you. This compulsion remains as long as the banjo is played. Defeating another dueling instrument user will destroy the loser’s instrument and increase the power of the winner. This item has the potential to Evolve.

You’re willing to just straight up tell the truth on what all the original low ranking artifacts do. She also puts another Low ranking artifact out on the table, probably to even out the loss of Callan’s ring.

MAHOGANY STAFF - This staff increases the ease at which one can cast spells and abilities. Increases CRIT chance with spells.
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No. 999605 ID: afe7de
File 162062739411.png - (10.23KB , 500x500 , C2_198.png )
999605

And now for the HIGH RANKING ARTIFACTS

WASTED MIND - A small sphere of ancient technology with a transparent surface. When actively in one’s possession and not stored in an inter-spatial ring, this acts as a mental enhancer, increasing one’s intelligence, thought processing speed, and creativity. It improves mental or psychic abilities as well. Side effects may occur after more than one hour of use with increasing severity.
(DEA - Side effects include mental fatigue, apathy, confusion, paranoia, memory loss, and total brain death.)

FOXING GLOVES - Based on the innate skill of the original Fox-kin, a blow struck on a foe with these gloves saps a bit of the target’s STAMINA and gives it to the wearer instead. (DEA - Can be used to interact with SPIRITS and IMMATERIAL BEINGS, but this goes both ways)

TENSION SUIT - A belt with a rather large buckle with an inlaid button in the center, based on the technology of another world. When pressed replaces the clothes the user was previously wearing with a body suit with armored plates over it, the suit changes based on the wearer. Provides increased defenses but tears and exposes skin when the user takes a lot of damage, yet the damage reduction doesn't decrease with a larger amount of exposed skin. The suit repairs itself by it’s next use.
(DEA - The wearer’s physical abilities increase in relation to their emotional state, the higher the display of emotion, the more extreme the power boost. There is a slot on the side of the buckle for custom modules that a high level tinker could use)

DRAGUN’S MOUTH - An opulent looking double barreled shotgun with the appearance of a dragon. This weapon has an internal energy supply which refills over the course of a day. Energy can be expended by pulling the trigger to release a roaring blast of mystical flame.
(DEA - By grasping the dragon’s mouth and pulling on it in a specific way, one can cycle through different elemental shots. Elements include Fire, Freezing vapor, lightning, compressed air, and acid)

The last item is a sword wrapped up in bandages, you can see eyes poking out of it and it looks a little menacing. You scan the bandages and blade.

BINDING BANDAGES - To low ranking appraisers, appears as normal bandages that are tough to tear. Traditionally are used to disable the properties of items or creatures. For each loop wrapped around a limb or the body the creature suffers from restrictions to their abilities. Using the full set of bandages leaves them able to communicate but unable to move.

DAEMONMAW - A parasitic living sword. It’s made of organic but magically durable materials. Once picked up by someone with their bare hands it fuses with their body and cannot be separated until the host dies. Once assimilated it increases the host’s POWER and STAMINA. But their appetite is increased and shared with the weapon. The weapon can hide inside the host’s body and reemerge from any point without harm, it is considered a part of the host’s body. Drains vitality and energy from targets it strikes. Can consume deceased victims, increasing in power.
(DEA - If the host dies, their body is consumed as well, the sword will change shape after fusing with their host to become a more suitable weapon for them)

Miss Iraphena: You should be able to investigate these items. But be careful with the wrapped sword not to remove too much of the bandages, the bandages should be mundane, but once it’s removed it could forcibly bond to you and I’d rather you actually PICK a thing instead of be forced to take it because of an accident.

What do you tell her, and what are you interested in?
You will have one more update after this one to decide what you take, votes for kept and sold items will be tallied up during this time.
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No. 999606 ID: 094652

>tension suit
I see a certain someone blushed herself to death.

>What to tell her
All low level artifacts
Wasted Mind: "Like the title says, you use it for too long, you get Wasted. And by wasted I mean you die. Iraphrema, please promise me you'll only distribute this one to those who know it kills after over an hour of use."
Tension Suit: "Okay, you need to be more... 'excited'... to get the full power out of this one. Or you could just mod it with the workshop access right here."
Dragun's Mouth: "This one has all the elements of Tiamat. You're going to have to poke around with the barrel to figure it out."

Purchase
The binding bandages. Without the freaky curse sword.
Get the Wasted Mind as well, Rex could try using it one body at a time or all bodies in the hive mind at once.
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No. 999607 ID: f8fa51

I'd say accurately appraise all the artefacts, but I'm torn on the bandages. We could really fuck her over by glossing them over, or we could earn her trust and hopefully a little gratitude by revealing that she has a whole extra artefact she didn't know about. In the end, I think it's best to try to build a working relationship with Iraphena, even if you can never really trust her. We don't really have any purpose for getting the bandages, but getting Iraphena to trust us could be worth a lot more.

I say we get Daemonmaw and Dragun's Mouth, since those match our fighting style and what we really need right now is a way to deal damage to extraordinary threats. We could also get the foxing gloves instead of Deamonmaw.
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No. 999609 ID: 53560f

Alright, here’s what to say.
Fully explain all low ranking items.
Consider buying MAHOGANY STAFF.
>WASTED MIND
Explain everything but fail to mention the negative side effects.
>FOXING GLOVES
Explain the stamina theft ability but leave out the bit about interacting with spirits and transferring energy.
Consider buying this, we’ll need it and it’s energy theft will work well for us.
>TENSION SUIT
Explain everything.
>DRAGUN’S MOUTH
Explain everything.
Consider buying, would work well with gun-kata.
>BINDING BANDAGES
Explain that it can bind people and objects at range. Do not mention the property nullification effect. Consider buying.
>DEMON’S MAW
Explain everything except the storage ability. Add that it will slowly and eventually kill it’s user.

Shopping list:
MAHOGANY STAFF, FOXING GLOVES and DRAGUN’S MOUTH/BINDING BANDAGES.
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No. 999610 ID: b1b4f3

>>999604
>Independent contractor
Huh. Her lying about that doesn't make much sense tbh. I think Isabella was lying to Max about being her superior, which also explains why Iraphena was talking to Overmind over the phone instead of Isabella. Sheesh, the eavesdropping we did was REALLY MISLEADING!!! I guess you kindof need to spy a lot to make sure your information is accurate, and cross-check it with other sources if possible...

I guess since she's mostly independent we might be able to trust her a bit. Not sure if we can let her in on any big secrets, but... probably should stop treating her like a potential enemy.

>>999605
Go ahead and give her the full info. Nothing here looks too dangerous for her to have, and they all seem about the same power level. Also, lying on an appraisal could bite us in the ass later if Iraphena finds out.

Low rank artifacts I'm interested in:
grip gloves, black bar, mahogany staff

High rank stuff I'm interested in:
Foxing Gloves (good weapon for Cannie, and also useful for HUGGING YOUR BROTHER) (the energy sharing aspect is sadly being removed since it's too gamebreaking)
Tension Suit (because it's cool and we have a tinker. Hmm, who's the most HOT BLOODED member of our team?)
Daemonmaw seems good too. Might be better than the Black Bar for Gena, even. Or maybe she'll be able to dual wield?

>2 HR one LR artifact in exchange for the ring and Appraisals
Nice. I guess that means we can get 2 HR 3 LR by trading the shard and the favors+questions. We can always just BUY a Question from her later.

My top picks are Black Bar and Foxing Gloves, I see no reason not to get those. Though, if the Dragun works with Cat's gun-kata it'd wind up a top pick as well... Cat's eventual fighting style is a bit up in the air though isn't it? Either he sticks with gun-kata and tries to find good artifacts that work with it, or he goes full Dart, or a combination of the two somehow via a gadget? I'm leaning towards the Dart path because we know for sure it'll be extremely powerful while his gun-kata is a personal style and reasonably effective but with no for sure signs of being strong in the long term.
We're also not sure what the other members of our team will want, though. Maybe we shouldn't trade everything right away? Or can we get Iraphena to agree to do a trade-back thing if we decide a different artifact would work better?
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No. 999612 ID: 6c227a

Ask if you can get a sense of how much damage the Dragun's Mouth does when you pull the trigger. A sawn off shotty should be reasonably compatible with your gun-kata style, right?

Would you have to wear both Foxing Gloves to get the effect? Or could you wear, say, a Grip Glove in one hand and a Foxing Glove in the other hand?
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No. 999619 ID: e07f67

Now that the cat's out of the bag when it comes to appraisal, I'd say tell her the full truth about those items.
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No. 999620 ID: afa6f6

>>999619
This, lying at this point seems both pointless, and potentially damaging, especially if an effect is potentially life-threatening.

Specifically warn Iraphena about the side effects of Wasted Mind if she decides to keep it for herself. She's earned at least that display of concern.

Do please ask what the descriptions she had gotten for these items before was though, im curious as to just how far off a standard appraisal would be on some of these more extreme artifacts. Like if potential maiming gets omitted.

Trades: For the Low Ranks, I think the Black Bar and the Running Shoes are the most useful currently out of the bunch, So we can trade the crystal for one of those.
For the High Ranks, I can honestly see a use for all of them, so the only one I absolutely want hands down is the Tension Suit, its both a power amplifier and an defense, AND its upgradeable, so anyone could get some use out of it. In fact, I bet Will could get some good use out of it, shes pretty fiery, though shes pretty well kitted out already.
The Foxing Gloves would be great for Cannie, and the the Dragun's Mouth for Cat, but...

Im KINDA interested in taking Daemonmaw, its really potentially powerful weapon, maybe endgame if it powers up enough through feeding it.The problem being, im pretty sure if it eats the body after the host dies, revival like the Phoenix Ring, or resuscitation aren't going to work , which would be...bad. SO maybe as something to give someone other than Cat? It says it will chaneg to a form more suited to the host when it bonds so it may not even stay as a sword.
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No. 999622 ID: e51896

About the photo we copied: say you might be able to offer Iraphena some help with Isabella. Tell her you're not sure if it'll help with Isabella's mood or not, but maybe you can help Iraphena out if she can pass the copy of our photo over to Isabella after you're both done trading, maybe Isabella might feel a little better...

KEEP:
The questions and favors, giving us 3 low quality and 1 high quality artifacts. Never know when we might need Iraphena's questions or favors.

Items I'm interested in:

low quality:
GRIP GLOVE
BLACK BAR
MAHOGANY STAFF (can help with magic)

High quality:
TENSION SUIT
DRAGUN’S MOUTH (good thing we have a pistol license)
(can't decide on the two of these)

Big no on:

WASTED MIND (we won't have a inter-spacial ring to store it in after trading the coiling ring. Having it in our backpack will most likely give us the negative side effects.)
DAEMONMAW (it's cursed! though, it might be something to get anyway if only to keep it away from any enemies)


Kinda no on:
Foxing gloves: we'll be able to interact with other spirits anyway once we get Callan back, as evidenced with how Cat saw Isabella's, and Liminal's spirit speak with each other..

What to say during appraisal:

WASTED MIND
explain everything, no need to list what the side effects are, which could raise the value and have Iraphena switch it out for a potential better artifact

FOXING GLOVES
Explain everything but leave out the bit about interacting with spirits, but we can mention it can interact with Immaterial beings.

TENSION SUIT
Explain everything except what the Demon Eye Amulet mentioned about emotional power boosts, and the tinker parts, lowering the perceived value. It's a potential item we want.

DRAGUN’S MOUTH
Explain everything except what Demon Eye Amulet mentioned about switching elemental attacks. This is another item we might potentially want. This is good for Gun-kata.

BINDING BANDAGES
Tell her that apparently, this is an artifact too. Explain everything. This will show how good our appraisal skills are to help her with future appraisals

DEMON’S MAW
Explain everything except that bit where it will fuse with your bare hands, and instead say it will fuse when you touch it, making her think she'll still need the magic bindings and gloves won't work. Exaggerate the side effects a bit, mentioning that the user's appetite raises significantly.
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No. 999623 ID: 864e49

>>999605
Tell her everything

Things I want so far:
DRAGUN’S MAW
TENSION SUIT

DAEMONMAW only if it can change shape at will else BLACK BAR

If we go for the DAEMONMAW then get the BLACK BAR for Cannie, if we get the BLACK BAR get her the FOXING GLOVES.

In fact get the BLACK BAR regardless, we can give either it or the cursed blade to whoever we Awaken with rogue powers.

GRIP GLOVE could help us not lose the DRAGUN.

So that's 3 or 4 HIGH items and 1 or 2 LOW items.
Fuck
Can we bargain?

Meh:
DUELING BANJO - cool but we'd need someone that can beat people with it and be able to play, plus what are the chances we come across another DUELING instrument.

MAHOGANY STAFF - do we know anyone that can cast a descent number of spells.

WASTED MIND - I don't trust this thing.
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No. 999643 ID: bd5b08

Hey, we have a tinker familiar with the technology of another world. We should get that belt. The grip glove is nice too so we won’t be disarmed of our mana pistol.
Not a Question, but we should ask if she sees that sword being bonded to anyone any time soon. (I wonder if the dragon will end up with it?) We can tell the artifacts to her straight.
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No. 999651 ID: 9a2966

1 high quality artifact, and 4 low quality artifacts OR 2 HQ artifacts and 1 LQ artifact -

Costs Crystal (1 low quality), Coiling Ring (1 high, 1 low / 2 low), QUESTIONS AND FAVORS (1 low) and ARTIFACT IDENTIFICATION AID (1 high).

>Willamina, who has proven herself to be selfish in the past
Already untrue since you got the CRYSTAL from her (and she very nearly gave you the token of Second Awakening), but then again, Iraphena doesn't know the depths to which Willamina is indebted to Cat and the truths shared between them.

Act a little confused. Did she mean Will was excessively selfish in the literal past or perhaps the Will of a different past future was selfish, so to speak? Because it hasn't sounded like Will had much in the way of artifacts to selfishly hog prior to receiving her inheritance just now, so unless that's more a broad personality trait you're a little confused.

>Miss Iraphena's Nunitus details
Sounds like some truth coached in lies or vagueness. Sounds like she got cold feet from something, wanted out, and got out - sorta. She still HAS TO DO WORK for them to keep them sweet. In fact, we know she isn't considered to have fully left Nunitus thanks to Roach's sleuthing of Isabella. Her friend in Nunitus might be an angel or one of their rubes who believes in what they're doing (light-aspected Awakened are SAFE, after all). Iraphena probably KNOWS Nunitus is an angel organization - and how bad that is - based on her earlier mutters regarding how the demons wasn't the only thing to be afraid of.

>Artifact Assessment - Truth
Tell the truth about all the Low and High-Level artifacts (including revealing the Binding Bandages, which she FOR SURE is going to exchange with another high-quality item). We want her good and impressed and while you don't fully trust her, this will at least make it seem like you do. If you do feel like really hiding something, it'd be best to - if possible - just omit details, rather than direct lie. This can always be explained away as your power not being good enough to detect all the information all the time.

If Iraphena takes away the Foxing Gloves and you want to bid on it, ask her what she'd want to RECONSIDER that particular decision - maybe it's your SIXTH SENSE tingling but you've had the heebie jeebies happen to you more than once in this town even during your short stay, so if there's a ghost or spirit out there you want the ability to fend it off if it goes violent. To get her to CHANGE her mind, plonk down the LUCKY EGG, state what its description is and tell her that as someone who can see the future, this kind of odds-based artifact should be RIGHT up her fucking alley, and you'd situationally consider it a High-Quality item in her hands. Maybe more than just one.

(Heehee, it'd be like tempting her with a lottery ticket that has GREAT ODDS at being something good - who could resist?)

This sort of deal could also be struck for any other item we really want that Iraphena insists on taking away once we've told her what it really is. We can probably safely argue that the Lucky Egg is worth trading a high-quality artifact for on a 1-on-1 basis - at least to her, who can influence what it ends up as.

Of course, if we don't need to pull it out, we don't have to.

>Artifact Acquisition
As things stand you can get 1 High-Quality (HQ) and 3 Low-Quality (LQ) items, or 2 HQs and 1 LQ. Offering the Lucky Egg MIGHT get you ONE MORE HQ ITEM.

It's important to remember that you're GETTING ARTIFACTS FOR A TEAM and not just yourself. Think about good item and power SYNERGIES, and stuff that might cover weaknesses or flaws.

In my opinion, your picks should be:

Dueling Banjo (1 LQ) - Learning to play a tune on a banjo should be possible for most people, so as an item it can even be swapped between team members according to need. It's good for all sound-perceiving enemies, allowing you to stop someone who was bearing down on one of your friends and force them to engage someone who is FAR AWAY - interrupting the flow of combat on the enemy's end, forcing them to waste time running back and forth, ignoring the others who might also be attacking it.

And it may be able to Evolve. It's real good for a LQ item. Use that as your argument for getting it - it's a potential investment.

Mahogany Staff (1 LQ) - We have have spellcasters and ability users on our team who could benefit from this (Ice and Storm control for Will and Healing for Gruk both comes to mind), plus a tome that'll allow any number of SMART team members to learn and cast a powerful simple attack spell (Magic Dart!). Therefore this is an item that can be traded around according to need - for example, handed off from a damage-dealer to a healer after the end of a battle so that the post-battle heal spells can get that little boost. If Iraphena wonders why you're getting it, say you're interested in learning magic.

Black Bar (1 LQ) - This would be the PERFECT weapon/tool for whoever ends up Awakening with [The Rogue’s inner monologue] - not only can it act like their short bladed weapon of choice, it can also turn into WHATEVER THIEVES' TOOL IS NEEDED FOR A JOB. It's even completely non-reactive, so it can be used to poke at things that have been wired with live electricity and shit. Its synergy for the Rogue-wakened is just SO GOOD it'd be A CRIME not to grab it.

Foxing Gloves (1 HQ) - Sure, you'll have your brother to cover the spirit angle, but... you are fucking going to hug the shit out of Callan soon no matter what. Besides, having MORE oomph to work with against any attacking Spirits is probably good anyway. 'sides, the gloves would actually come really handy in straight ordinary fights too, considering your LOW STAMINA.

And that's 3 LQs and 1 HQ. I'd really have liked to pick up the Running Shoes as well - good survivability item there. Maybe we can argue the reveal of the Binding Bandages was worth a 4th LQ item?

If you decide to use the Lucky Egg to wrangle another HQ artifact:

Dragun's Mouth - General good all-rounder weapon and lets you have something for situations in which a particular element is needed. Can be used by anyone with gun experience which is probably you and Andrea.

Of course, wait with final artifact picks if Iraphena trades out any items, to see what she replaces it with.
>>
No. 999652 ID: 9a2966

>>999651
Whoops, ignore my early-on head math notes up top there.
>>
No. 999657 ID: dbcf75

Tell truth on all items. Yes, she is going to take some of the artifacts away for turning out to be too valuable than she thought, but we should get on her good side if we want her protection, and give her a reason to convince others like Isabella not to come after us. Plus, we'll probably get rewarded for our honesty

I'm interested in

Tension Belt
Dragun Mouth
Mahogany Staff
Censorblack bar
>>
No. 999659 ID: dfbac0

I believe we should say everything except the DEA notes, and only give them for WASTED MIND as I personally distrust Iraphina.
I know some of you believe se is simply being used and doesn't know what her organization truly does, but that's naive thinking at best. Miss Iraphina is a smart individual and she has shown to be nervous about being left in the dark, meaning she would want to know a lot about her organization. She also has precognitive abilities with modifications, and so she should be able to access more info then a normal person. We should not be under the idea she doesn't know what's going on, as she has all the resources necessary to know. She's only now pushing the fact she's independent because she's a good social manipulator, and senses we know something about nunitus.
So, fair warning: DO NOT TRUST IRAPHINA
>>
No. 999669 ID: afa6f6

>>999659
Whether shes trustworthy or not is really irrelevant to me, its more that withholding information on purpose doesnt really get us anything, and can potentially backfire if she finds out some other way down the line.People worry she might switch out items, but that would just give use a better look at whats she has if she does, and this is all stuff she chose to bring out anyway, so i'd think shed not be too invested in it anyway.
If she gets to keep some of the items knowing what they do, so what? None of them is a big game changer without having some kind of drawback anyway, and for the ones dangerous to the user, we may not trust Irephena, but we dont want her to DIE.
The only thing i'd even consider hiding is the upgrade potential of the Tension Suit if we decide to choose it.
>>
No. 999676 ID: b1b4f3

If she removes something because she wants it too much based on the appraisal results, she said she'll replace it with a higher value item that she will not remove no matter what the deeper appraisal says. That means it's to our advantage for her to remove items, so long as it's not something that's specifically overpowered for our group, and the items shown are not like that. Which means it's to our advantage to be fully honest.
>>
No. 999704 ID: 031458

I'm gonna suggest trading for:

Black Bar- It's really synergistic in a lot of ways with stuff Willamina has. It's a great pick.

Foxing Gloves- Almost a must have, Seeing as they patch up your weaknesses. If we can bring Cannie over, they would make a great match for her as well.

Tension Suit Also fucking amazing for a melee fighter like yourself or Cannie.

Honestly though, with the synergy between Foxing Gloves and Tension Suit, I would argue that if we decide not to take one, we don't take either, and instead spring for DAEMONMAW and Running Shoes, as we get essentially the same benefits, just in a slightly more roundabout and less flexible way.

-----
Well, wanting to be on Nunitus' periphery would explain why someone of your caliber is in Lyst of all places. Your face says something happened, but I'm not gonna push you on it.
anyway...
You know I'd be lying if I said part of my reason for taking the post office job wasn't to meet everyone in town?
Gives me a good way to grind my power too, even if it's admittedly a bit rude. Still. It's been developing quite nicely.
Our powers complement each other pretty well I think. I don't wanna do anything with your guild, but if you find yourself with some investigative freelance work, call me up. Maybe we could work together.
>>
No. 999723 ID: afe7de
File 162072644974.png - (19.12KB , 500x500 , C2_199.png )
999723

> Give the Full Truth with one Omission.
> Point out the bandages are an artifact.
You ask if she can let you know what the original descriptions she had were when you were done, and as if she knew, she pulls out a small piece of paper, folds it and places it in front of her, claiming this is the description and she’ll give it to you when done to check. You let her know everything about the artifacts except that the TENSION SUIT can be modified with tinker based upgrades. You also point out that the bandages are an artifact and she looks fairly confused.

Miss Iraphena: Huh, well thanks for that. Kind of you to not just take it from me without mentioning it. Sorry but I’ll be taking back this, the WASTED MIND, and the BLACK BAR. The WASTED MIND could cause some heavy damage even if you know how to use it, and the BLACK BAR became 1000x more useful now that it can deflect elemental effects. I’ll think about what to add while you read over my notes. I was going to also take back Flametongue, uh, Dragun’s Mouth, but I heard you use guns so I’ll be kind and leave it. Plus I don’t really have another gun related artifact that I’d be willing to exchange it for..

You take a moment to read the notes that she presented to you:

MAHOGANY STAFF - Makes spell use easier.
MENTAL ORB - Increases intelligence but causes the user to pass out after 1.5ish hours.
GLOVES OF VAMPIRISM - Syphons Stamina from attacked targets.
MORPH SUIT - Covers the user in an armored suit, tears easily, but the suit is back to normal when re-used.
FLAMETONGUE - A shotgun that shoots magical flames in bullet form, recharges fully over the course of 20.1 hours.
DAEMONMAW - A Living Sword. Will bond to you on skin contact. Seems Cursed?

Miss Iraphena: Kind of surprised I got the name right for the living sword though. I literally just made them up because the Low ranking appraisers didn’t name them. I’m still thinking about the items, take a moment to think about what you want from what’s here.

You: Would you be willing to do any trade-backing or something in a few days if I decide another artifact works better?

Miss Iraphena: No. I’m going to be going to Donjon sometime next week and swapping some out or outright selling them now that I know their proper use. You’ll have to make due with what you get today.
>>
No. 999724 ID: afe7de
File 162072645962.png - (6.11KB , 500x500 , C2_200.png )
999724

You take a moment to think about what you want. You also take a moment to think about some practicalities. You look at the foxing gloves, you try to focus on one and get the knowledge that the effect would be the same. So you could have one person wear one glove and one kin wear another if you wanted. You also look at DRAGUN’S MOUTH and assume that it would be as strong as a magical shotgun would normally be, which is to say there’s no way to know without testing it and you doubt Miss Iraphena would let you fire it anywhere in her house.

Miss Iraphena pulls a folded duffel-bag out from her ring and tosses it over to you.

Miss Iraphena: Here, I’m taking your inter-spatial ring so you’ll need something to carry your stuff in. It’s a very low ranking artifact, consider it thanks for mentioning the bandages. It can store about 1.5x the space inside and the weight of whatever’s in there is reduced by half.

You check it

DUFFLEBAG OF CARRYING - A duffel bag modified with an enchantment to increase storage space by 1.5x and reduce the weight of held objects by half to the bag’s carrier. Can fold up for easy storage.
(DEA - Fun fact: these are actually super common low ranking drops in certain dungeons)

Miss Iraphena: I’ll put out an extra two items because of the bandages. I don’t want you complaining anymore that I’m not at least TRYING To be considerate of you anymore though.

You decide to check back in and yup, Isabella’s still wailing. It died down a little bit but picked up again after a few minutes. She probably was getting a drink. You take the moment to pull out the copied photo and hand it to Miss Iraphena.

You: Thanks. She seems really down and uh, I heard she liked Max, well I got this picture of him and my brother from the HL rep that came by today, maybe it’ll help brighten her spirits? Should I tear him out?

Miss Iraphena: No, it’ll be fine. I’ll give it to her later. Kind of you.
>>
No. 999728 ID: afe7de
File 162072682268.png - (9.79KB , 500x500 , C2_201.png )
999728

Before you can say “no problem” she puts out 5 new items.

LQ

LASER POINTER - Shoots a beam of light that distracts any Beast-Kin or beast-like creature. Weaker willed ones will also experience an irresistible urge to chase and catch the dot produced by this device.
(DEA - Technically a piece of technology, but it was dropped by a monster so it’s more durable and it messes with the sensory receptors of beasts that view it)

HOP-KICK BOOTS - A pair of high tech boots that enhance the wearer’s jumping and kicking abilities. The boots respond to certain leg and foot motions to release jets of energy that increase the legs speed and force, allowing for harder kicks and higher jumps.
(DEA - With a small amount of practice you can jump multiple times in the air or even change your trajectory. Aerial kicks are much more powerful with this artifact. A maximum of 3 jumps can be made before the boots need to touch the ground to recharge.)

PHANTOM DAGGER - A curved dagger with an almost transparent cloudy white blade. While in hand, the blade, the wielder, and their possessions have the ability to phase through a few inches of solid matter. Can be used to bypass armor and pass through locked objects with sufficient practice.
(DEA - If you unphase part of your body that is in an object while phased through an object you are shunted from your position in the direction of wherever the majority of your body is located. Takes a high degree of SKILL to use properly.)

HQ

SQUEAKY HAMMER - A comically over sized toy hammer. When it strikes the target, no matter how much force is put in the blow, it just squeaks. 2 seconds later the target takes a blow as if the hammer was a sledgehammer.
(DEA - Hitting the enemy with the other side of the hammer, causing a squeak, before the first blows 2 seconds are up causes both hits to happen at once, dealing the same amount of damage as the heaviest blow)

SECURITY STAFF - A lightweight extending staff with weighted caps on each end in red and blue. It can extend and retract 1 meter. Gives the wielder “DANGER SENSE” when it is held. The danger sense increases in severity depending on the proximity and the higher threat it is. It’s range is approximately 2 meters surrounding the wielder, the length of the staff.
(DEA - When detecting danger that will immediately kill the user if not avoided the staff will give a slight precognitive vision of the event and massively increase the wielder’s REFLEX, lasting for about a second by expending a charge. This staff can hold 3 charges of this effect. One charge is gained every 8 hours.)

OLD ITEMS FOR EASE
LQ
RUNNING SHOES
GRIP GLOVE
DUELING BANJO
MAHOGANY STAFF

HQ
FOXING GLOVES
TENSION SUIT
DRAGUN’S MOUTH


You’re a bit sad. You REALLY wanted the BLACK BAR, but it’s off the table now. You REALLY REALLY want DRAGUN’S MOUTH. You REALLY want the TENSION SUIT. You WANT the FOXING GLOVE. And you KIND OF want the MAHOGANY STAFF. You also do a re-totaling of your trade-able items and gains, asking for some clarification from Miss Iraphena, in the process you hand over the Coiling Ring as part of your agreement. For the Favors/Questions you can get ONE LQ ITEM. For the SHARD you can get ONE LQ item. For the appraisal and COILING RING you’re getting 1 LQ and 2 HQ items. She also says that she’s willing to convert 3 LQ items into 1 HQ item and vice versa.

So you could get [3 HQ items] or [2 HQ items and 3 LQ items] or [1 HQ item and 6 LQ items] if you were willing use all your trade items.

You’ve done all the negotiation you can for now, time to pick what you’re going to keep and head out of here.
>>
No. 999729 ID: de9524

...Is it just me, or is the Demon Eye Amulet getting really chatty?

In any case. The Black Bar may be lost, but that Phantom Dagger is meshes just fine with the rogue Awakening dagger.
>>
No. 999732 ID: e51896

[2 HQ items and 2 LQ items]

HQ
DRAGUN’S MOUTH
TENSION SUIT

LQ
PHANTOM DAGGER
MAHOGANY STAFF

HOP-KICK BOOTS (Only if we decide to trade the question and favors)

KEEP:
Questions and favors. (This will be more valuable than we realize)

After we're done, thank Iraphena, apologize for snapping, you just had a bad day today, and tell her if she needs anything else appraised in the future, give you a text.
>>
No. 999733 ID: 094652

Get the Tension Suit, the Security Staff, Mahogany Staff, Hop-Kick Boots, and Laser Pointer

Triple Jump OP
>>
No. 999734 ID: f8fa51

Definitely get Dragun's Mouth. I also want both the Security Staff and the Foxing Gloves, but we'll probably have to choose between the two. Let's also grab the Phantom Dagger and the Hop-Kick boots.
>>
No. 999735 ID: 53560f

Alrighty, I vote for:
HQ
dragun’s mouth and foxing gloves
LQ
Hop-kick boots, phantom dagger and mahogany staff

Too many people have spirits so the foxing gloves are mandatory.
>>
No. 999737 ID: 4850f5

>>999735
Supporting this, except with Dueling Banjo instead of Hop boots.
>>
No. 999738 ID: e07f67

>>999732
Like this, but I'd take the Foxing Gloves over the Phantom Dagger.
>>
No. 999740 ID: e51896

>>999738
The FOXING GLOVES are High quality, the dagger is Low quality. We can't take Foxing Gloves over the Phantom Dagger unless we go for 3 Hq artifacts and lose two other low quality artifacts along with the dagger.
>>
No. 999744 ID: afa6f6

>>999728
I Really Like the Security Staff, but I think we need more firepower over safety at the moment
So, with trading the crystal:
LQ
PHANTOM DAGGER
+
HOP-KICK BOOTS

HQ
DRAGUN’S MOUTH
TENSION SUIT
>>
No. 999748 ID: ac162e

Save questions and favors

We can most likely interact with spirits with Callan's ring when we get him, so the foxing gloves probably isnt needed

If we get the hop-kick boots, we'll need the tension suit to protect us from fall damage (just be sure to wear socks)

High:
Dragun
Tension

Low
Hop-kick
Dagger
>>
No. 999752 ID: 6c227a

>>999748
The foxing gloves are also real nice with Cat's gun+punch fighting style, and provide a less lethal attack upgrade if we aren't trying to devastate the kin we are fighting with an elemental shotgun. It can augment Cat's low fortitude in a protracted fight. And since it can be split, it's practically two items. I want it.

Dragun
Foxing gloves

hop-kip boots
mahogany staff
phantom dagger
>>
No. 999753 ID: e2ce85

>>999732
Wait....
could we/Willamina punch Isabellas ghost with the foxing gloves and the fire protection ring?
Then this is a must have.

HQ:
FOXING GLOVES

And i forfeit my vote to all other choices
>>
No. 999754 ID: 031458

I'd prefer to pick a set of item's based on their synergistic effects with one another.

Dungeon Cat
FOXING GLOVES + TENSION SUIT + DRAGUN'S MOUTH

Everything our best boy needs to run dungeons unpowered. This kit covers all of Cat's weaknesses and accentuate his strengths.

Plot Armor
DAEMONMAW + TENSION SUIT + SECURITY STAFF

Slow to tire, hard to hit, hard to damage, self healing, immunity to one-shots, immunity to disarms.
This combo turns anyone into a tank. Combos well with PHOENIX RING for even more shenanigans.

Beowolf/Berserker
DAEMONMAW + FOXING GLOVES + MAHOGANY STAFF + RUNNING SHOES or HOP-KICK BOOTS

High sustain, High mobility, Simplified ability usage, Attrition combat capable. With this combo someone could fight FOREVER. Essentially guarantees victory over individual opponents.
Best used by melee combatants who are also awakened. If we still intend on giving Cannie the lightning god book, this combo would make her unstoppable.

Smooth Criminal
SECURITY STAFF + PHANTOM DAGGER + GRIP GLOVES + HOP-KICK BOOTS + LASER POINTER

A serious infiltration kit that combos fantastically with ROGUES INNER DIALOGUE. Between Rex and whoever we awaken with that artifact, this kit would give our fledgling organization instant, POWERFUL spy capabilities.

------------

Personally I lean closest toward the Dungeon Cat or Beowolf set, but if pieces of any one set start being favored over another, My vote will swing toward the other items in that set.
>>
No. 999756 ID: 9a2966

>>999754
If you pick a clear vote for something instead of giving the quest runner more vote-processing overhead, your vote is probably more likely to be effective. If I were the runner, I would not try to process that kind of 'if X then Y' caveat at all, because it'd be a giant pain in the behind.

(I CAN appreciate the effort in outlining outfit synergies, however. Although my own take is that we should think of procuring items useful for the entire team rather than make one individual in it super-awesome.)
>>
No. 999757 ID: 031458

>>999756
I appreciate your input on this and get that giving the author extra work is, among other things, less than optimal.

My issue is that individually I have no opinion on the items, and don't care about what we get. They are all useful in their own ways.

...So I constructed use cases for them based on their abilities to hype myself up about this part, and then shared those use cases here. Maybe they will be useful, or perhaps there are other like minded individuals playing.

Honestly, I just tacked on the vote distribution part at the end without much thought...
>>
No. 999758 ID: 6c227a

>>999756
We should absolutely be on the lookout for items to help the team as a whole, but right now in a fight Cat is a regular ass person who would nevertheless benefit from going on dungeon runs, so yeah, getting items to buff HIM while he buffs everybody else is a fair take.
>>
No. 999759 ID: 9a2966

>>999757
Which is fine and I as a fellow poster appreciate the ideas that went into it! I'm absolutely not trying to nail you to the wall here - just felt like saying you're more likely to influence what is gotten by making a clearer vote.
>>
No. 999768 ID: b1b4f3

>>999728
>PHANTOM DAGGER
Holy shit that's good. Another use of its phasing would be to avoid attacks and bypass someone trying to parry your attack. It's like partial invincibility once mastered, and the recoil effect can be used to increase maneuverability. Like a toned-down version of Mirio Togata's power.

Shopping list:
LQ
Phantom Dagger
Hop-kick boots
keep the favors/questions.

HQ
Dragun's Mouth
either the Tension Suit or Security Staff.
>>
No. 999788 ID: 864e49

>>999728
DRAGUN’S MOUTH
FOXING GLOVES

HOP-KICK BOOTS
PHANTOM DAGGER
GRIP GLOVE
>>
No. 999797 ID: afa6f6

>>999754

>>Plot Armor
>>Combos well with PHOENIX RING for even more shenanigans.
I feel like I have to point out that the Phoenix ring might not work with Daemonmaw, since its just going to immediately start eating the body on death.
>>
No. 999798 ID: 031458

>>999797
>Phoenix Ring - Should the user die whilst holding the ring the ring will break and the user will be revived at a random nearby location

Rules don't require the body to be intact, only that you have it on you when you die. Hell, the sword probably does some much appreciated cleanup.
>>
No. 999803 ID: 5378af

I suggest the foxing gloves, since we did run into a spirit, would be nice to have a way to deal with them.
>>
No. 999814 ID: b320b1

Daemonmaw was taken off the table anyway
>>
No. 999823 ID: afa6f6

>>999798

I know, just pointing out a possible interaction, since neither are super specific either way.
We cant get it anyway now, unfortunately. Maybe after a few dungeon runs we'll have something she'll be willing to trade for the other artifacts, next time.
We'll even have the bonus incentive of pre-appraising them for her, which should up the value.
>>
No. 999834 ID: afe7de
File 162080448007.png - (8.69KB , 500x500 , C2_202.png )
999834

> Save the Questions and Favors.
> HOP-KICK BOOTS
> PHANTOM DAGGER
> DRAGUN'S MOUTH

You're pretty solidly sold on these three purchases. You set them aside and stare at the FOXING GLOVES and the TENSION SUIT. You're 50/50 on these two, so you take a moment to review the pros and cons.

If you got the FOXING GLOVES you'd be able to touch spirits and other incorporeal things. It'd also shore up your WEAK STAMINA, since you normally use your GUN-KATA at close range. The problem would be that the gloves would be about HALF AS EFFECTIVE on you specifically since you switch off between shooting, hitting with your gun, and hitting with your fists. So only EVERY OTHER HIT would restore stamina using GUN-KATA. But you could always just give the gloves to someone else to use, like Cannie. Or just use one glove yourself since it has the same effect if you're only using one.

If you got the TENSION SUIT then you could either give it to a more fiery member of your party like WILLAMINA, or cultivate a more HOT BLOODED personality over the course of it's use. It would shore up your defenses as you're NOT VERY TOUGH. There could even be ways around this with some modifications done by Mint. You think the party would probably appreciate it if you got this too because maybe you could REVERSE ENGINEER it if you put enough tinkers at it, after all, it is based on TECHNOLOGY. Though you expect the replicated suit would only be HALF as effective without more experimentation. Also it's a very WANO-like device, and you're sure at least Will, Gena, and Andrea would get a huge kick out of it.

The last bit that tugs at your mind is that the FOXING GLOVES could provide you with a way to fight off SPIRITS, but you'll have CALLAN for that, you think you're DEFINITELY going to form a contract with him unless he DOESENT WANT TO. You also ponder if you could find a way to bring Callan into the Winnebago. It blocks spirits from seeing/hearing/getting inside of it, so if you have a way to summon him to your location, maybe you can get him in, but you'll need to summon him for him to leave too. It's something to consider.

> TENSION SUIT
You eventually decide on the TENSION SUIT. None of you have any form of armor, so it might be worthwhile to give this to someone on the front line so you have a TANK. Thinking on the artifacts you all have, you've got spells, lightning, a dagger, two guns (your mana pistol included), boots, a healing artifact, and a spirit who could potentially fight. You think you have enough weapons, plus the suit doubles as a weapon with it's physical ability boost, so you could even give this to a non-awakened, or an awakened with a crappy power like yourself and have a useful fighting force.
>>
No. 999835 ID: afe7de
File 162080449176.png - (9.13KB , 500x500 , C2_203.png )
999835

You point out your purchases and Miss Iraphena agrees, she asks what the dagger and boots did, but you state that you're low on energy for now, and that she'd have to pay for your services. You do however open an invitation to her to have you appraise more artifacts in the future with proper compensation. It wouldn't be bad to have an extra source of income, and it makes you feel good to be petty in not wanting to reveal more information given how she's acted in the past, even if she's trying to be nice now.

You chuck your backpack in the duffelbag and shove everything else in there. it fits with plenty of room left. You zip it up and sling it over your shoulder, it's pretty light.

You: I'm off. Thanks for the trade.

Miss Iraphena: Be seeing you. Thanks for the ring. Makes my life easier.

You head off from Iraphena's place, leaving the constant wailing of Isabella behind you. The entire walk back you keep fidgeting with the ring. It’s comfortable having it back where it belongs, in your hands. You’re trying really hard not to just activate it in the middle of the street. Eventually you reach Willamina’s house and see Cannie and her sitting outside. You wave at them and Willamina looks like she’s about to get up when you hold up a hand.

You: I uh, I need a minute inside. Can I use your living room for a sec. Maybe the Winnebago. I just uh. I got something that will make me really emotional and I need a minute.

Willamina: Yeah, SURE, use the Winnebago, Mint popped out to stop by a few places, I lent her some BUX.
>>
No. 999836 ID: afe7de
File 162080450210.png - (8.96KB , 500x500 , C2_204.png )
999836

You head inside the Winnebago, it’s empty sans the skittering of Rex. You pop the terrarium into the cubby underneath his and drop your dufflebag on the floor. You take a seat on the couch and examine the ring again, you get a little more information after focusing a little harder and trying to think of a specific thing. You can suck Callan back in here if you don’t want to sign it right now, and if you release him he’ll safely vanish even if he’s in this no-spirit-zone. You expend [5 ENERGY] and a bright light starts to shine off of the ring. You’re blinded and you cover your eyes. You hear a voice.

Spirit: -ll be fine. I believe in y- HUH? Where? Didn’t I die?

You uncover your eyes and see the spirit, it’s the spitting image of your brother. The tears start flowing and you sob audibly, but you cant help but have a smile on your face. The spirit turns around and looks at you. He rushes at you and gets you in a hug, he’s slightly warm but feels like hugging a firm jello. You embrace Him in return.

Spirit: Cat? CAT! You made it! How am I here? Wait am I a ghost? Did you Awaken and make me a ghost? It’s like a second hasnt even passed for me. Hm wait. I’m getting some information now. Ugh, getting a headache. Ah okay. I died. The ring saved my soul, I’ve become a spirit of hope, blah blah blah, contract with you, blah blah blah, reincarnation, blah blah blah, 8 years?
>>
No. 999837 ID: afe7de
File 162080451177.png - (58.33KB , 500x500 , C2_205.png )
999837

You release your brother-spirit and take a seat, still sobbing a bit, he cracks his spectral neck and floats in front of you.

Callan: Hey bud, I’m here. Its okay. Take some deep breaths. Every-thing’s fine, well, relatively speaking. I am still technically dead. But hey! We can hang out for a lifetime if ya wanted. Even knowing about reincarnation now, I’m in no rush. Plus like. If it’s been 8 years, shit’s probably going to get bad soon. We can pass on together when the time comes, nbd.

You: I… It’s been hard without y’all. Everyone died that day.

Callan: I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. Saving you was the last thing I remember. Hey I see you transitioned, great job guy! You feeling better on that front at least?

You nod. You’re still feeling emotional, but it’s less a sad feeling and more a relieving feeling. You have so many questions. You want to just sign the contract and make sure he doesn't just accidentally up and vanish but you should probably talk to him first.

Callan: You probably have loads of questions for me, so feel free to lay em out.

What do you talk about?
>>
No. 999839 ID: 30b9f6

>What to talk about
God, this whole mess, all of it. Your power. Coming to Lyst. Meeting the citizens, getting wrapped up in things. Demons and angels and auctions, oh my. Meeting Max.

Abbreviated version first, of course. You just got back his ring BY CHANCE after having lost it - and having no idea what it did in the first place. You'll lay it all out properly when you've got time.

How would this contract thing work out? You don't want to do something that'll get him locked down. He could be - heh - a free-spirited free spirit if he wanted.
>>
No. 999840 ID: b1b4f3

>>999837
>Did you Awaken and make me a ghost?
Well first off tell him you did Awaken, but your power is... Awakening. You can Awaken others. Also yeah you know about the impending war. But, it's different this time. The Angels are here early, and are doing something different. The Hero's Association has been corrupted by them, and Nunitus is partially if not entirely responsible.

Ask him how the contract works, and how spirits work in general; information seems scarce.
What can a Spirit of Hope do? You've only witnessed one spirit's abilities so far.
Does he remember a kid named Maxamillian Hadlee? You uncovered some kind of arson/mass murder coverup surrounding him and the Hadlee Estate, but you don't have enough information to make good conclusions as to why it went down how it did.

Also you've got to introduce him to your friends! Well, just Willamina for now, since you'll have to give people the amulet for them to be able to see him, and you don't want its abilities to be known by anyone that hasn't agreed to come along on your dungeon raid.
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No. 999842 ID: f8fa51

Yeah, you really just need someone to pour your heart out to right now. Talk about whatever comes to mind. Your triumphs and heartaches of the past eight years, your worries, your hopes. Just get it all off your chest.

Then ask him about the contract thing, what it would mean for him, whether he wants it. Because you sure as damn want to steal some more time with him.
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No. 999843 ID: 4850f5

Oh, uh, if Rex is around tell him you just summoned the ghost of your dead bro turned spirit, but he probably won’t be able to see or hear him. Maybe feel the effect of whatever he can do? Reassure them you haven’t gone off your rocker, at least.

At some point you also need to get Will back in here, fill her in on the acquisitions, introduce your bro by proxy... wait, was that Cannie with her? Is she planning to fill her inn today?

Uh... might as well save yourself explaining everything twice. Call them in.
>>
No. 999844 ID: 094652

Start crying.
"All this time I lost faith in... everything. The Heroes Guild has been infiltrated and taken over by supervillains, Isabella (oh, that's Max's friend) has been driven looney by a demon, and the whole world's going to get raided by demons in three years or less.
The bad news is that I now truly believe... that Heaven is corrupt and Hell is full of Comedians. Like, reincarnation? Genocide of the impure? They lied so much. And Hell won't stop laughing.
Good news is that I found faith in you. Welcome back bro-
Oh and Max faked his death after most of the Haydee clan was murdered, so if Willamina shifts uncomfortably around you getting to live while her brother died, I want you to be the one to tell the news. Spirit of Hope and all that.

... So... Want to help me test these spirit glove thingies out?"
HUG
>>
No. 999846 ID: e51896

pretty much what the above said, But tell him you'll need to keep it brief and will talk in more details later. You think Willamina wants you to awaken her friend Cannie, and convince her to join her new alliance to save the world and they're waiting for you...

And tell him that despite all the odds, you're going to try to save this world, even if it means conquering all the 72 dungeons in the span of a few years, and you'd like his help to do it. I mean, he is a spirit of hope after all... Having him here is giving you the hope and confidence you need to do it.

maybe also ask Callan about Max. You think that he might be still be alive and he was partners with him when he changed his name to Liminal after the fire and everyone thought he died, and you're just confused about that... but be sure to tell him if he doesn't want to tell you yet, that's okay... Liminal did threaten you though and recorded you without your consent, because you think the heroes league corrupted him in that regard...

...and tell him as far as Cannie goes, about awakening her, telling her your secret power, and Isabella's secret power, and trying to convince her to join Willamina's alliance instead of Nunitus... it's going to be hard because you have been keeping your powers a secret so you wouldn't get kidnapped by anyone, or government officials, or the now corrupted Heroes league. You've also been keeping her sister Isabella's powers a secret and Cannie has been egging you on to reveal it, but you're also scared about revealing them considering you heard Isabella went psycho over the years after losing Max and might hurt you, or reveal parts of your secret power to others.

Like you are definetly planning on revealing them to Cannie now, but... you're worried she's going to confront her sister about it even if you tell her not to... Basically, you need his moral support to help keep you calm and give you advice to get you through revealing your secret power and Isabella's secret power to Cannie.

And... tell him that this place is spirit proof, so once you form a contract with him soon, you need to figure out some way to have him stay in here with you despite the spirit repellent the vehicle has.
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No. 999873 ID: b348d4

He knows too? Am I the last one in the family to figure out the apocalypse is coming?
Has he ever heard of the demon auction?
Liminal has been replaced by an impostor. Does Callan know of any contingencies the real one would have had in place?
>>
No. 999883 ID: 864e49

>>999837
Do you still have your powers?
What is a SPIRIT OF HOPE, what can you do?
Were you aware of how fuck the Hero's League is.

>>999844
We didn't get the gloves kome, and we don't need them.
>>
No. 999886 ID: 9a2966

>>999873
>Max replaced by an impostor
Note that I doubt Max/Liminal has been replaced - for one, he had all the Awakened Powers we'd expect, including having Warp powers and a Spirit, which Saba Hadlee made mention of. Saba also mentioned that it was the UN-Awakened Walpoes of the Hero's League who got replaced by angel impostors, indicating it's hard or impossible to swap out with someone who has a known Awakened power (i.e. the angel can't easily copy that ability).
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No. 999887 ID: 39911f

We can probably scan Callan to see if he still has his bubble power. Who knows, we might even get an achievement for scanning a spirit.

Make sure to let Callan know we can't sign a contract yet until midnight, or tomorrow when your energy is reset, you only have 2 energy points, and the contract costs 5... and the spirit barrier issue needs to be solved as well.

>>999843
Pretty much this.

Tell Rex "oh, sorry Rex, I just got a ring that had my brother's spirit, and I'm talking to him now. I'm not crazy, dont worry..."

...

Then tell Callan "oh, sorry Callan, I just awakened this roach a few day ago, and now it can telepathically talk to people. I'm not crazy, dont worry..."

And, yeah, a lot of the things people are talking about can be explained with Cannie in here, best not to waste her time before she needs to work.

Ask about Max and his current identity as Liminal, why and how did that happen, how did max survive the fire?

We'll need to remember that Callan was part of the heroes league, and Max was a valuable partner to him. Straight up telling him the heroes league and max is evil might give Callan the wrong idea.

I think the best way to put things is that ever since Callan died, the heroes league got corrupted, and some good people like Liminal, who you know is Max you think got brainwashed, as when you met him, you found out he was recording your conversation with him without your knowledge, and he threatened to reveal your power, saying he'll keep it confidential... for now.

Make sure you tell Callan that you believe that Max can be snapped backed to his senses, and be a hero again, especially if Callan helps you. You do not want to be enemies with the heroes league and want to fight against the corruption, and perhaps at some point work with Liminal/Max to save the world.

Then afterwards, we'll get Cannie and Will in here, and from there, we can explain to Cannie, and Callan everything else like the apocalypse, Isabella's ability and your ability (as long as she promises you and Willamina to keep these a secret and not confront Isabella as you don't have the full story on everything just yet), let Cannie know that you rather not have Isabella find out you told Cannie she has a power or she may reveal part of yours. and give Cannie your lightning ability book to awaken her, unless she wants to awaken from our power.
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No. 999892 ID: e7c7d3

Tell him about the dick
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No. 999967 ID: afe7de
File 162089380132.png - (51.32KB , 500x500 , C2_206.png )
999967

> Cry
You just start bawling. Today's been extremely tiring on you. You start pouring out your guts about the past few years and make these statements of note:

You job hopped quite a lot since you had to support yourself.
Nearly all of your friends and aquaintances died in THE INCIDENT.
Your house was destroyed in the monster break and so were your posessions.
Your ring, this one, was stolen and you were beaten nearly to death multiple times.
You ended up living in the bad part of Donjon for this duration, the place most affected by monsters became a slum.
You were kicked out of college because you weren't awakened.
You eventually awakened and moved the fuck out of Donjon because fuck that place.
You got the transition surgery and got a cool cock from it.
You learned a weird form of martial art called GUN-KATA to defend yourself using a mana pistol.
You made new friends in LYST
Some people and kin in LYST find you hot for some reason

Max listens intently as you pour your soul out to him. He gives you a gentle hug with his soft, supple arms.

Callan: You've had it rough, buddy. I don't remember Donjon being that bad when I was around though, a lot of good people must've died that day for it to get that bad. But hey, you’ve made some new connections, things are getting better, and we were able to reunite!
>>
No. 999968 ID: afe7de
File 162089381761.png - (8.01KB , 500x500 , C2_207.png )
999968

> Heroes League Corruption
You start going into detail about how the Heroes League had changed. Getting greedier with each passing year, stopping most of their public work projects, hiking prices to enter the dungeon. They called back the relief effort they were doing overseas and instead focused on profit margins and the citizens of Donjon started to adopt attitudes where Awakened were superior to the rest. Callan looks contemplative at that.

Callan: Now that you mention it, I remember that being a BIG THING about two years before I died. There was a push to find ways to make the most money out of the dungeons wheras me, Shocker, and a few other S ranks heavily pushed back against that. Shocker almost left the league over it but that was enough to keep the status quo.

You: You know, he saved my life several times. Whenever things were pretty much the worst he happened to be nearby. He's one of the very few Heroes I still have respect for. Though he quit the league and became a vigilante, but because of his clout they left him alone.

Callan: Good to see his morals didn't die. Shame it didn’t work out between us.

You: I didn't know you were so close to shocker.

Callan: We dated a little bit in high school, didn't work out, but we were comrades y'know. Similar strength level, similar outlooks on life.

You: So you knew about the corruption in the guild?

Callan: Saying I knew implies something a bit weird about it. I knew there was corruption just like every organization, but I was spearheading initiatives to get young awakened, and other randos I might have told you about to become a part of the new generation. I donated a lot to charities, and tried to establish programs to get young tinkers help they needed to develop. I thought I was doing a good job and we could start those kinds of programs in other regions, y'know, inspire HOPE, the training programs were actually successful, they just took a while.

Callan: It’s a shame I couldn’t be more impactive. And that the guild took all the awakening items as I got them.
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No. 999969 ID: afe7de
File 162089385401.png - (7.67KB , 500x500 , C2_208.png )
999969

> Spirit Questions
You: So uh, Spirit of HOPE huh? Can you elaborate on that a bit?

Callan: So spirits are like… physical embodiments of KARMA, like the sum of your impact on the universe? You start with a SOUL, they’re pretty bare, and it all kind of builds up into this weird sticky honey like blob that, if its of high enough quality, becomes a spirit. The ring did *STUFF* to me and now my soul is strong enough to keep this form and manifest in the spirit plane. Something like that anyway. I can’t use my BUBBLE powers yet, but as a spirit of HOPE I have new ones.

Callan: The thing about HOPE is that it’s about BELIEF and POSSIBILITY. It’s similar to LUST in intensity and can manifest in different ways. Once we form a contract you’ll actively feel this sort of HOPE ENERGY, which will make things A LITTLE BIT easier for you to do if you BELIEVE you can do it. The stronger I get, the stronger that effect is on you, and I’ll even be able to spread the effect on others. Eventually I’ll also be able to manifest things based off of our combined belief, like my BUBBLES, though my knowledge on this is kind of cryptic.

Callan: It looks like I can travel up to a kilometer away from you, sending brief mental messages. But the telepathy doesen’t work when we’re within talking distance. There’s like a bunch of tiny inconvenient things like this I’m trying to filter through. This is of course after we’re contracted. I can be summoned or desummoned on command, but if I’m de-summoned I’m stored near your soul or dantian or something. Blah Blah Blah, okay here, yeah. I can see and hear what you’re doing basically and protect you from attacks on your soul, but I can also just ignore it all and do something else. Apparently there are ways to get me to physically manifest too but that info’s obscured, I probably need to get stronger.

You: Wow, you can actually kind of do a lot. And having the ability to enhance whatever I’m doing just by thinking positively about it sounds kind of cool. You briefly mentioned reincarnation, so is that a thing? Were any of the religions right?

Callan: Not thinking positively, BELIEVING you can do it, even if it’s an irrational belief. And uh… Let me think. There isn’t really a heaven or hell, well not in relation to the cycle of reincarnation. I’m sure those places exist as separate planes your soul can get dragged to if it was absorbed or captured or some shit. Basically when you die your soul is like sucked out of your body around a week to a month after you die. Kind of like it doesent want to leave. But it doesent go anywhere in our galaxy, it kind of like, gets shunted to another dimension, It's kind of hard to explain. Imagine there's like a pocket dimension somewhere where souls are teleported, they then do *SOMETHING* and eventually are recycled and reincarnate depending on their KARMA or the power of their SOUL. Apparently SPIRITS have it easier when they reincarnate.

Callan: So to answer your question, some of our religions got parts right, like the bit about reincarnation being a thing, but others got it pretty wrong, promising paradise. It’s more like an endless loop.
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No. 999970 ID: afe7de
File 162089388146.png - (54.09KB , 500x500 , C2_209.png )
999970

> Let Rex know you aren’t crazy
You: Oh right, HEY REX, I'm not going crazy, I'm talking to the spirit of my brother, so don't get all worried about it.

Rex: KIN TALK TO THEMSELVES ALL THE TIME, I DIDN'T THINK ANYTHING OF IT TO BE HONEST. MINT TALKS PRETTY AUDIBLY WHEN NO ONE'S AROUND.

You: Oh, and Rex is that roach in the cubby with the bansai tree. I Awakened him and he learned telepathy, pretty neat!

Callan: There's a lot to unpack in those two sentences, but I'll save MY questions for YOU until the end.

You: Oh right, my Awakened ability is to [AWAKEN] creatures. So I woke roach, a badger, Willamina Hadlee, and Mint. I can also [UPGRADE] them at an energy cost.

Callan: I’m skeptical but you have no reason to lie to me, try awakening me. I’m like a fresh palette.

You try to upgrade Callan but are given a few new notifications.

[Achievement - Scanned a SPIRIT] + 10 AP
[INVALID TARGET, CANNOT UPGRADE, REQUIRES CORPOREAL FORM]

Huh, okay, you can't awaken spirits, at least in spirit form.

Callan: Huh, I felt that. Wow, okay well I just got info about that. Yeah I believe you now. Holy shit. Wait. AND you can UPGRADE them too? The fuck is this kind of shit? Alright, alright. Wow. Yeah. Okay. We should talk future plans and stuff at some point because this is a game changer.

You: You got info? Explain.

Callan: So because I’m made of basically pure Karmic energy I could read the signature of the ability you just used on me and get a basic breakdown of what it did or didn’t do. So I know that you’re some “Great Awakener,” Fantastic name by the way, just absolutely great job picking that subconsciously, and that you just tried to upgrade me, and that the root of that comes from the ability to be able to Awaken anything with a mind and corporeal form. I’d have thought bugs were too simple for that but I guess they’re smarter than I thought. Aaaand apparently this ability came from a d- YEOWCH.

You: ARE YOU OKAY!?!?

Callan: Yeah: I was trying to say a- FFFAFARRK- Okay, okay. Can’t say that, got it. Something is protecting you, apparently from finding out about it too. Lets uh, talk about something else.

Feel free to keep talking to Callan, after enough suggestions for Cannie or Willamina to get back in the Winnebago come in, they’ll appear mid-conversation, or you’ll end it and call them in.
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No. 999971 ID: b1b4f3

>>999969
>an endless loop
Hmm, isn't zen buddhism basically about escaping the cycle of reincarnation to reach a realm beyond?

>>999970
>more questions?
Eh, I think that's about enough. How about that contract? Oh, Cat, what was in the journal?

And don't forget we gotta meet Cannie tonight.
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No. 999973 ID: b1b4f3

Oh, ask Rex what Mint talks to herself about.
>>
No. 999974 ID: f8fa51

You're still... you, right? And apart from some restrictions on what you can say, you're not obligated to act in certain ways?
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No. 999977 ID: e51896

OH! I just remembered we had new stuff in our Achievement Store when we scanned Liminal. What were they?

and yeah, remember briefly what was on the journal.

maybe also remember what happened with Isabella and Liminal and their spirits, and how that spirit faked an attack on you.

So if his soul can be de-summoned close to your soul, that probably might solve the whole spirit repellent thing the Winnebago has. He probably can't leave the winnebago when he is inside when summoned, and cannot enter the Winnebago when summoned outside. We'll need to de-summon him in order to have him enter or leave the Winnebago. At least, that is what I'm thinking. We should tell him about this, and ask with his knowledge on spirits if this idea can work before we form the contract with him. Otherwise we might have to wait for a different solution... but then again, his power is hope, right? we have to believe that he can leave with us when he is de-summoned! So maybe it is okay to sign the contract regardless.

I mean, we were able to bring him in here when he was stored inside the ring, so it should work if he is stored close to our soul.

The only other thing I can think of to talk about is Maximillian, and Liminal, and the estate fire but... I feel we should talk about that with him when Willamina is with us tonight after or during the time we deal with Cannie.

So, our power of hope works based off of how much we believe in something no matter how impossible something may seem. We should believe we can save this world then.

I think we should get that contract signed soon before he accidentally leaves or something, and call Cannie and Willamina in.
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No. 999980 ID: 9c48ac

>>999970
So doing the contract isn't gonna like, force you to obey our orders or something? We really don't want more slaves...
(I mean, we'll totally still make the contract because OUR BROTHER BACK TO LIFE, but we'd definitely be more comfortable without a slavery aspect.)

... also i don't know if it's a bad idea to say this but it's a reasonable guess Callan was saying your ability came from a demon. Quite possibly that one with the training dungeon, come to think of it.
>>
No. 999983 ID: 9a2966

>Kin talk to themselves all the time
Sorry Rex, that... might not actually be as true as they think based on their experiences. Although an UNUSUAL amount of people of late HAVE BEEN, now that you think about it.

>Restricted information
Mmm. No worries, you've got some ideas. Maybe they're wrong, maybe they're not. You've figured your whole situation is a lot more complicated than you initially assumed, at least.

>Contract
If he wants it, you want it. So sign it! The contract not forcing your bro into some absolute state of slavery would be good, though, even if he'd be willing.

>HOPE POWERS
That's really awesome. Smile and say that it's good it works that way you've got a pretty STRONG BELIEF in Callan right now and if he believes in you, who believes in him... wink, laugh and say you're not trying to cheese the system. It's just.

Becoming a Hero worthy of aspiration and emulation? No problem, he did it between taking classes. Even Max, whatever his status, had nothing but good things to say about his efforts. Saving your life? Goddess, did he ever - you were one of the few people to make it out of your block. And THEN helping you transition and have a shot at college despite BEING DEAD? No sweat, just the care needed to write a will. AND THEN coming back from the dead?! Like it wasn't even a problem! Just ready and raring to go, already taking things in stride and trying to help out.

Look, he's the best bro a bro could ever HOPE to have and you want him to know that. Whatever comes, you have no doubt that he'll be able to DO THINGS NO OTHER SPIRIT CAN. GREAT things.

>Shocker
Well, good news, he'll get to see him again at least. They're coming over on MONDAY (in two days) with Nipha. Hopefully they're okay still, but it can't have been easy given the things going on in the city. You're still not sure if you're gonna take the chance and trust anyone from Donjon, but if you WERE gonna trust someone, Shocker would be one of your surer picks. You're even more impressed he's managed to keep his whole VIGILANTE schtick going with what you know now.

>Spirit powers, limits and restrictions
Okay, that clarifies a lot of things, actually. Notably there's two others spirit-users you've encountered after becoming able to see them through the Demon Eye Amulet. A DEMONIC FIRE SPIRIT and a SPIRIT OF JUSTICE - and their users are Isabella and Maximillian, respectively. And... and... hoo boy. He might have to beat those spirits up or give them a stern lecture and lesson in manners or SOMETHING, because you're not sure things will end well here.

Take a very deep breath.

>Isabella and Max
This is a situation where in you could use some ADVICE. EXPLAIN everything you know about the Hadlee fire, Isabella's apparent obsessive infatuation with Max, the Lyst pyro events where animals got burned (maybe because of a conflict with the nature-power user probably living out there??), Max being such a die-hard fan of the Heroes' League he ignored his grandfather's advice (Might've given him a surfeit of HOPE there, bro!), Max NOT being dead but pretending to be a beast-kin named LIMINAL AXAM HIRO, Max being kind to you today and then kind of a dick by recording you and getting his spirit to trick you into revealing you could see it, etc.

It's a SECRETS, LIES and TRUST-based MESS is what it is, and you're not sure how to best untangle it.

Your PLAN is to tell Will (and Cannie) about their sister and Max SOON-ish. Although you'd like to emphasize that Isabella may need the benefit of doubt concerning what actually went down or whether she was manipulated or just being a stupid kid during a complicated situation - though she definitely still comes across as unstable and maybe in need of a MENTALIST or something. And Max... well, shit's COMPLICATED there and you know even less about it than what's going on with Isabella. You don't think you'll tell on them today, however.

For one, you might discover more with a little more judicious INVESTIGATION or, uh, SPYING AND PRYING, however rude that is.

For two, it'd all be A LOT TO TAKE IN AT ONCE, particularly for Will. As for Cannie - and all the people going to be BROUGHT INTO THIS SITUATION - you want to lead with the BIG DEAL that is the demons and angels and the secret takeover of the Heroes' League. Not to mention the Dungeon that Will's grandpa set up which you're now planning to explore to get stronger, y'know, so you can't as easily get KILLED out of nowhere.

Seriously, you've barely been holding on as-is and you're not even deeply and personally invested in the Isa/Max situation.

>Spy thought
Maybe Callan could provide COVER for Rex's spying in the future, so the poor guy doesn't have to sacrifice more bodies? Isabella's demonic flame spirit DID discover and fry his main body. He'd have straight up died if he hadn't had a spare body nearby and you're not prepared to ask that of him again without a better backup plan.

Actually, CAN Callan spot that there's anything special about Rex? You're still uncertain how Isabella's spirit detected him.

>Your cover
Also! You've established what you think is a pretty solid cover for your Awakening power by claiming it's touch and sensory-based and lets you see the simple fact if others HAVE Awakened. You've also recently claimed to have UPGRADED it into being able to read what Artifacts CAN DO by touching them, though that really is a function of the Demon Eye Amulet which you won at a demon auction. Either way, you very much want to keep your powers secret to the public at large - you don't want some great conflict brewing over you, after all! Or having to live with assassins constantly after your ass, like Will's grandpa. Maybe that'll come in time and you'll feel ready for it, but for now you desperately want to stay low-key.

In a way it's REALLY GOOD you scanned him and discovered that this would REVEAL INFORMATION to SPIRITS, since you now know better than to SCAN THEM, or similar creatures with SYSTEM / KARMIC senses. Huh. Maybe THAT was what Toni was warning you about?

>More Achievement Options
Oh shit! Max/Liminal mentioned we'd get more self-upgrade options once we got past 150 AP - there was even a notification back when we scanned him. We're way past that now and we haven't even checked yet! AND we've got like 45 achievement points to spend!

Aaaalssssoo didn't you already spend 6 ENERGY today on AWAKENING Mint? HAD we upgraded our total power to 11? I thought it was at 3/9, so how'd we get the 5 ENERGY to summon Callan?

... eh. Fuck it. Make a mental note to look at your status later. There's just too much going on and you're not going to look a gift horse in the mouth - Horsekin say it's really rude and harkens back to the bad old days when slavery was legal. And you don't want the universe to realize it may have done you one too many a solid.

>Callan's Hope
Oh, and check what happened to the Ring. Did it turn into a different Artifact or did it break?

>Will and Cannie arriving
Any time during all of this - yes, even during the explanation about Isabella and Max, and boy wouldn't that be an awkward cut-off.
>>
No. 999991 ID: e51896

>>999983

It isn't Shocker that is coming over with Nipha on Monday, it is actually her tinker boyfriend, Rudy.
>>
No. 999992 ID: 9a2966

>>999991
Gorndarnit. Where'd I get the impression Shocker was coming? Oh well.
>>
No. 1000029 ID: b1b4f3

Maybe we should try contacting Shocker though? Does Callan know his number?
>>
No. 1000042 ID: 4639f1

Sign the contract!

Ask Callan where he got the ring in the first place. Was it at a demon auction? You were in one, mentioned you asked because you noticed he said we had a few years left together and he could have found out that from an auction (just to see his reaction). What other items did he get that we should look out for if so? Actually, ask if there is any place he kept all his artifacts hidden before he died that we can pick up.

Save the estate fire, max and Isabella conversation for when we have Willamina in here, in fact, lets call cannie and Will in right nown cant keep em waiting
>>
No. 1000125 ID: 031458

D?
Demon?
That would explain why they were so cool to me at the auction.

Anyway.

Fuck yeah lets make this contract!
There's lots more to talk about but there's a couple more things I need to do today. But Now we'll have plenty of time!

Break out the lightning skill book. It's time to interview Cannie.
>>
No. 1000136 ID: 094652

"Hey Callan? I spent the past eight years wondering: how are you impossibly awesome?"

Plan out a surprise our-brothers-aren't-dead party for Willamina; you get a party blower while Callan holds up a giant ghost sign saying "Max is alive".
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No. 1000141 ID: afe7de
File 162098026074.png - (74.84KB , 500x500 , C2_210.png )
1000141

> Is Callan still Callan, is he a slave now?
You: So, are you still you, are you a slave now?

Callan: To the latter, I'm not a slave. Even if we sign the contract you can't really order me around unless I let you. I don't get magically compelled to do it or something. But it is in my best interests to guide you and work with you. If I can get you to improve I can improve too, something like that.

Callan: To the former, I’ll ask you the same question. Are you the same person from before you awakened? Are you the same person from before you transitioned? I’ve phsysically become a new being. To answer your question, No. I’m not the same person, I’m BETTER. And I still care as deeply about you as I did in the past and I still want to help you.

You think about it, he’s kind of right, even if he was a little harsh, it was probably just him being pragmatic like he used to be. You decide it’s time to just sign the contract already. You ask Callan how to do it and a little screen pops up.

[FORM A SPIRITUAL CONTRACT WITH THE SPIRIT OF HOPE “CALLAN”?] - [y]/[n]

You accept and Callan is sucked directly into your stomach. You feel a warming sensation and after a moment it’s stopped. You are greeted by a new notification and you pull up your Status window again.

Achievement: “Formed a contract with a spirit” Has been unlocked. +50 AP.
Achievement point total is now 75/220

Catherine Alexander
Age: 25
ENERGY: 0/11 (resets daily)
Powers:
ARCANE CATALYST [2]
Can spend energy to AWAKEN a target
Can spend Energy to increase a power’s level by 1 to a maximum of 10
Upgrading a power may be used on yourself on powers OTHER than arcane catalyst
Targets can only be awakened once
Power can be used at range of up to 1m
Artifacts you’ve touched within 24 hours that are used to awaken others count as you having awakened them

SPIRIT OF HOPE [1] - upgrade? [10]
Grants the contracted the ability to see and understand other spirits
Grants the passive HOPE buff, providing a VERY MINOR boost to general activities the contracted BELIEVES or HOPES they can accomplish.
Once per day the contracted can channel the energy of HOPE boost a single action by a MODERATE amount.
>>
No. 1000142 ID: afe7de
File 162098028655.png - (40.88KB , 500x500 , C2_211.png )
1000142

You immediately summon Callan and he appears on the couch next to you.

Callan: See, pretty painless.

> Achievement Store Updates?
You take a moment to take stock of the situation and changes. You increased your ENERGY TOTAL by 2 points, taking away 20 AP, just so you could get Callan’s contract done now. You could have waited, but with everything going on, you were IMPATIENT and stressed. It’s a good thing you ended up getting some AP out of scanning him and forming the contract, and having 11 Energy will probably be useful in the future. You also think about the update to ARCANE CATALYST. When you reached that milestone it leveled up, the power level limit got boosted to 10 and you even gained the ability to upgrade any other powers you had. You were kind of stressed about it because you didn’t have another power, but Callan counts so there’s a use in it after all. You decide to take stock of the Achievements store again and see the other changes.

ACHIEVEMENT STORE
Point Bank 75/220

Some of these purchases costs have been reduced due to the Milestone.

Energy Total +1 = COST 10pts
Can awaken targets 1 more time = COST 900pts
Can awaken a target for 24 hours instead at 1/2 the cost = 90 pts
Force a power mutation at 1/2 the total cost of the power = 70 pts
Revoke an Awakened’s power that you gave them, you will be refunded half the total investment, this can go past your cap = 110 pts
Check History of target’s power use = 50 pts

-NEW-
Gain “CATALYZER’S RIGHTS” Letting you designate 5 targets that gain a 20% increase in growth rate = 50 pts
- Increases targets you can give CATALYZER’S RIGHTS to by 1 (0/5) = 10 pts
- Increases the growth rate by 10% = 20 pts
Gain “ARCANE RIGHTS” Letting you designate 5 targets that gain a 20% increase in comprehension rate = 50 pts
- Increases targets you can give ARCANE RIGHTS to by 1 (0/5) = 10 pts
- Increases the comprehension rate by 10% = 20 pts
Can Catalyze non artifact Items by spending 15 energy, quality increases based on materials used = 100 pts
Targets you awakened cannot directly attack you = 85 pts

You almost jumped onto the idea of getting the ARCANE RIGHTS ability immediately when you saw it, but held back because you were unsure what would happen. You wonder if every time you reach a milestone more abilities will unlock. Plus now you have options on how you want to grow. You planned on THINKING IT OVER UNTIL TOMORROW before picking an upgrade. Maybe discussing it with everyone. Or if your mind UNANIMOUSLY decides you should get an upgrade you’ll get it now.
>>
No. 1000143 ID: afe7de
File 162098029519.png - (13.62KB , 500x500 , C2_212.png )
1000143

> The Journal
You briefly think about the journal, in it were Saba’s Family Research Notes and his Dungeon Research notes. You skimmed over the family notes, it had their general power levels and observations on growth and mentality. One thing to note is that PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE in Willamina’s family awakened. Willamina’s Grandma had ICE powers and that got passed down hereditarily apparently. The only ones who hadn’t awakened were Willamina herself and her dad. You didn’t read too deep because it felt kind of personal, but it might be a good idea for Willamina to read it since it goes into details about how her ice power was used in the past, maybe it could give her some IDEAS for TECHNIQUES she could develop going forward.

The Dungeon Research notes were something more like a travel-log of Saba’s adventures in the various dungeons he went through, there are maps of about 50 of the dungeons from wherever he explored, he got around. It also details general observations and commonalities between the dungeons, he had some theories about certain dungeons being linked or plans being shared between demons but it got kind of technobabbley and you skimmed those parts. He also went into details about how dungeons functioned, mana densities, etc. If a SCOUT or ROGUE were to read this, they’d get a better idea on how to DETECT TRAPS, MONSTERS, and how to FIND THE BOSS of a floor much quicker.

You were about to check your new ring that moment when you hear a knock on the Winnebago, after a few seconds Cannie and Isabella walk in.

Willamina: Hey Cat, you OKAY? You look like you’ve been crying?

Callan: Oh shit, is that Willamina?

Cat: Yeah. Um. I’ll explain that later. No, not to you two, uh. Shit this is a little complicated. So are we doing this now? Or maybe Explaining stuff? I’ve got news that I’d rather not share unless she’s all in, you know?

Cannie: Oh boy, this is gonna be a whole thing, isnt it? You two aren’t eloping right?

Callan just busts out laughing and you look between him and the two ladies and shake your head.

Willamina: NAH, nothing like that. More like a group of us are eloping really, but that’s only if you stretch the DEFINITION. I say we tell her the plan and if she’s in, use the book, maybe stress what we know about that one guild just in case?

Cannie: Ugh you guys are being just like Iraphena right now, I hate this stupid politics shit, why can’t we just solve our problems by punching or some shit.

What do you tell her, and do you get any Achievement store upgrades?
>>
No. 1000145 ID: 031458

Cannie, you are one of the most straight forward people I've met. I trust that I can take you at your word, so I'll get to the point.

I have a mountain of secrets, and if you're coming with us you need to know all of them.
However, some of them are dangerous both to me and everyone that knows them and some may put us at odds with your old guild, Nunitus.

So I come to you with an offer: Join us and swear here and now that you will never work for nor towards the interests of Nunitus again.
In exchange, not only will we tell you everything, but I'll give you this:
*Pull out the Lightning God book*
This is a legendary skill book. If properly cultivated, the Lightning powers it awakens within you will be the most powerful in the world.

What do you say?
>>
No. 1000146 ID: de9524

>>1000145
Can we not do this, this comes across as pretty damn skeevy. Or at least don't phrase it this way.
>>
No. 1000149 ID: e51896

First, give her a cigarette, she smokes and can have one for waiting, and tell her to sit down on the table... Willamina too, she needs to hear part of this too as it was part of one of the things you've been meaning to tell her.

remember, you now have the power of HOPE. You have to believe that Cannie will be persuaded to join you and will keep things she will learn a secret. Remember that Willamina is with you to help you convince Cannie and keep your powers a secret, and Callan is here too for moral support and give you guidance on persuading Cannie.

First, and foremost, if we want her trust, we should consider revealing that Isabella has a power. Let Willamina know that this is one of the things you've been meaning to reveal to her, and let Cannie know that since because Isabella spied on you during work with one of her powers and looked at what you were writing on your notebook, you did not appreciate that and as a result, you'll tell Cannie that Isabella does indeed have a power... two powers actually. You've been keeping it from Cannie because you feared that if you told anyone and they start telling anybody else, or confronted Isabella about it, Isabella would reveal to everyone in town what part of our power is (emphasize on "part" of our power), and Isabella would get scary angry if she found out her secret was revealed. Reiterate to Cannie to please not confront Isabella or tell anyone what you told her.

Tell her if she promises not to tell Isabella or anybody else, you'll give her the lightning book, which will give her a very powerful awakened power. At that time, she can awaken.

Afterwards if she awakens, or if she is skeptical, reveal to her what your real power is, with scanning people for powers being a extension to that. Tell her that you used it to awaken Willamina which got her ice powers, and wind powers. You can't give Cannie powers yourself right now until tomorrow because you're out of energy, but she can use the lightning book today since you know she said she would love lightning powers. Tell her to definitely NOT reveal your true power to anyone as if the wrong people found out, you can get kidnapped.

Next, if she accepts the book and gains the power, we reveal what we learned from Willamina's inheritance, mainly about the apocalypse, and how Willamina, Mint and you are planning on starting an alliance to either put a stop to it with Willamina as the leader, or at least fight to lessen collateral damage when the apocalypse happens, and it would be very helpful if Cannie can join Willamina's alliance. Though it will involve dungeon diving.

Tell her you know that she would want to go back to Nunitus, but maybe she can consider waiting until after the vacation in our Winnebago before she decides to join Willamina's alliance and be one of the founding members, or go back to Nunitus. Let her know we already have plans on having other people like Gena and Gruk join too.

Do NOT tell her to not join Nunitus, we want to give her that choice so we do not let her think we are forcing her into this, instead, we tell her to wait until after the vacation to decide whether she wants to go back to Nunitus, or join Willamina. Let her know that she can use the time to practice her lightning abilities during the vacation before she makes the decision to rejoin with Nunitus or join Willamina.
>>
No. 1000158 ID: e51896

(Also ask of you can join her tomorrow night before poker on one of her night jobs. We'd do it tonight but... Willamina wants to spend time with us, and with the very emotional day Cat had, he'd probably want to spend time with her too)
>>
No. 1000159 ID: f8fa51

No cigarette inside. It's not your vehicle and, at any rate, you never get the smell out of the furniture.

Fill Cannie in on the most important details: The apocalypse is coming, and you want to prepare with a Willamina and some of her friends (including yourself). Tell her you lied about your powers earlier because if the wrong people found out they would kidnap you for them. If she promises not to share our secret, tell her we have the power to awaken people, but we don't know what power they'll get. Then show her the book and tell her it'll probably give her lightning powers. Then you can start filling her in on what you know about the Heroes Guild and Nunitus. Then you can move on to stuff that's news to Willamina, starting with Callan and the ring you got. And then finally, tell Willamina that you've got some important stuff you have to tell her, but it's going to hit hard and she might want to kick us all (and Cat especially) out of the Winnebago after she hears it so she might want to make sure there's nothing else more pressing first.
>>
No. 1000160 ID: 094652

>Can Catalyze non artifact Items by spending 15 energy, quality increases based on materials used = 100 pts
>Targets you awakened cannot directly attack you = 85 pts
OH MAN. This is how you build an army. You need to save up for this. Prioritize increasing your energy and finding ways to temporarily boost your energy maximum. If you can find someone who can transfer energy from Willamina to you, you can build artifacts until you finally make one that can restore your energy.
With an army of expendable resurrecting undead soldiers at your beck and call, you can brute force the dungeons and have a real shot at saving the world.

Tell Cannie that her sister is possessed by a demon. Apparently, the Haydee clan was experimenting on it and it escaped during the fire, and that's why she has this deep grudge against Willamina. Your spies tell you they're close friends and the demon has been stabbing all of Willamina's phones.

Explain that the apocalypse is coming in 3 years or less, and that you've discovered your 'scanning' powers have a greater purpose than you thought. See, Haydee's family learned that the uncleared dungeons are going to spill out demons while a bunch of undiscovered dungeons in the sky (or something) are going to spill out angels, and after the fighting is done both sides are going to take slaves. Saba Haydee had this long-term plan to save the world by clearing all earthly dungeons with the Heroes' Guild and forming a crack team of hyper-augmented adventurers to take on the sky dungeons, but the villains managed to infiltrate guilds everywhere, including Nunitus, until everything got stalled and the Heroes' Guild had a supervillain in charge. Haydee's inheritance was all the things Saba thought would be the most important to saving the world, which includes an artifact that, well you can't spill the beans just yet, but in time it could turn your specific 'scan for power usage' power into a 'reality warp the history of your target ever since they awakened' power, so, pretty big deal there. Your objective is to awaken to this true power, march straight into the Heroes' Guild, and give the bastard who corrupted it a complete backstory makeover.
>>
No. 1000164 ID: 9a2966

>Why can't we just solve our problems by punching or some shit.
You do have some 'punching-shit' problems she could help with. She knows how that one continent went down?

The stuff you and Will's stumbled over kinda makes that PALE IN COMPARISON. So here's the deal. You'll tell her stuff. That stuff will scale in levels of OH SHIT. If, at any point, she starts to feel like she wants to BACK OFF, she'd better be quick to say so, because some of this knowledge WILL PUT HER LIFE IN DANGER if it is known that she knows. And revealing ANY of it will ASSUREDLY bring danger to you and Will.

So. She ready?

... oh, by the way. Could she strip first? (Nunitus stuff like her armband might have scrying effects on it!)

>TRUTH TIER ONE
World's kinda fucked. The System appears to be part of an elaborate game played by higher forces, and the demons, faeries and dungeons already around are just the tip of the iceberg. In a few years - exact date unknown - it'll all come to a head and an invasion will begin to determine the selection of a new Demon King and some other shit and this world's gonna become a battleground - a place to pillage and fight over. Because the demons like a challenge they've given the mortals some toys to play with. A lot of people will be killed, some will be enslaved. People can fight back and might even last a while, maybe rebuild, if they keep it together and fight off the big threats.

How do you know this? Cuz' the CURRENT Demon King told you so when you got summoned to this DEMON AUCTION in a dream. You have the items from that auction to prove it. Hell, you got a SLAVE to prove it. Her name is Mint, and as far as this world is concerned, she's an old college buddy of yours, but the truth is she's an offworlder, and she has described how HER world fell to all this bull.

Saba Hadlee's will to Willamina also corroborated this is how this stuff goes, he even had statistics and shit, had spoken with Seers and psychics and more on the odds of things. You and Will have decided to pool your new-found resources to DO SOMETHING, because...

>TRUTH TIER TWO
You don't know who else really will. According to Saba's will the Heroes' League he helped found has been infiltrated and corrupted. No shit you might say, but the big surprise isn't that it has, but by WHO. According to Saba a guild called NUNITUS made up of an infiltration force of ANGELS replaced the un-awakened Walpoles running the guild with angel clones and ambushed him, Mina and Marth, killing the latter two and driving the former into self-imposed exile, even turning some of his remaining family against him. Max may have been suckered in, somehow.

Angels, according to both Saba and Mint, are not really GOOD GUYS as such. They USUALLY kill any Awakened who are not LIGHT-ASPECTED and also ANYONE ASSOCIATING WITH THEM. Normally they arrive only when the INVASION starts proper though, with a fixed invasion force, however this time they snuck in early somehow and ruined Saba's budding League, possibly because...

>TRUTH TIER THREE
... a demon had specifically set up Donjon's Dungeon to help the people of this world grow strong enough to be able to smash dungeons and fight off the upcoming invasion. She explained the general state of things to Saba and the other early heroes and helped them form the League with some hands-off aid. Then the Angels of Nunitus mucked it all up by doing the takeover, murdering the old heroes and turning Donjon into an increasingly corrupt shithole city run by greed and elitistic arrogance. They're also PROBABLY behind the death of Willamina's family and they were PROBABLY behind the DUNGEON BREAK as well. Saba certainly mentioned any number of assassins having been sent after him over the years and he expected it was just a matter of time until he got killed.

If the angels knew Will knew all of this, they might try to kill her, especially given that she's a Hadlee and Saba's inheritor. They might suspect she knows SOMETHING already from this inheritance, but as long as she comes across as WEAK and not moving in OPPOSITION to them she probably won't be considered a threat and they might be happy to wait for reinforcement in a few years, not suspecting she could grow strong enough to challenge them in such a short time.

>TRUTH TIER FOUR
Because Saba wasn't idle. The heroes of old had conquered one of the big Dungeons back in the day in secret and gotten their hands on a DUNGEON CORE. With his remaining time he used this CORE to construct ANOTHER DUNGEON TRAINING GROUND in the mold of the Donjon Dungeon - one that WASN'T under the control of the angels. This dungeon will accommodate 6-8 people, even award Artifacts like a normal dungeon. Your current PLAN is to grab people from Lyst you think you CAN TRUST, pretend to GO ON A VACATION and use the dungeon to train an ELITE TEAM who can grow strong enough to upset the angels' apple cart, smush more dungeons before they go all DUNGEON BREAK-y and kick both angels and demons in the tush when they arrive.

It's better than doing nothing, and you've got some hope it'll be possible because...

>TRUTH TIER FIVE
You, Catherine Alexander, have the power to Awaken people - and upgrade their powers.

You can AWAKEN Cannie to her natural power as early as tomorrow, if she wants.

Or she can have this skill book that lets an unawakened individual learn the ability to manipulate and cultivate lightning. You won it in the demon auction. If she wants a public excuse for Awakening, saying her power came from an Artifact that was GIVEN TO HER from WILLAMINA is probably the SAFEST BET. But keeping it ENTIRELY on the DOWN-LOW until you head off to explore SABA'S DUNGEON may be even better.

So... is she willing to accompany you and Will - and others - on some RECKLESS, DANGEROUS QUEST to become STRONG ENOUGH to MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

>Achievement Store Purchases
Purchase Catalyzers' Rights and immediately target yourself (if able), Will, Cannie and Rex. Mint gets it the moment she comes back, unless she protests that it'd be best put on someone else. Might swap it around regardless, particularly targeting the unawakened who are more likely to benefit from it faster.

It's honestly the best thing on offer there - going through a Growth sounds like it will make you harder to kill, make you more able and aware, strengthens your powers, might give you an INNATE POWER and all that jazz. Arcane Rights is REAL GOOD as well and helps in a similar way, but Growth will be more... inclusive to all your party members, it sounds like.

That said, you should try to get both ASAP, so save the remaining AP for the purpose of saving up for Arcane Rights.

>>1000158
>(Also ask of you can join her tomorrow night before poker on one of her night jobs)
Tomorrow evening is Andrea-date, don't forget. I doubt Cat will be able to, uh, do much of anything other than cling on for dear life.
>>
No. 1000166 ID: 9a2966

>>1000164
>(Nunitus stuff like her armband might have scrying effects on it!)
On second thought, could probably just check for this with the Demon Eye Amulet. Granted, stripping would still be a way to discover any hidden devices, like that tape recorder Max had.
>>
No. 1000174 ID: e51896

>>1000164
Andrea-date is at noon, not in the evening stated here >>997233 We should be able to have our date at noon, and work with Cannie in the evening, and poker night with Willamina. (Unless andrea has us from Noon to midnight, but I doubt that)

Really, I think after the very emotional day Willamina and Cat had, they should spend the rest of the night together instead of hanging out with Cannie tonight and do Cannie's job tomorrow. plus Willamina wanted to screw Cat before the night is over and before Andrea does
>>
No. 1000188 ID: b1b4f3

>>1000143
Cannie, do you want to punch your way through a dungeon with us, in a mad dash for power to save the world from Angels? The condition is you break ties with Nunitus forever, because they're part of the problem. Iraphena seems to know this, by the way, she's distanced herself already. Isabella has not.
>>
No. 1000189 ID: b1b4f3

Cat already scanned the armband, it's mundane. I suppose we could look at her other belongings though.
>>
No. 1000200 ID: 9f917d

Oh! Idea!
Lets show her some of our artifacts to sweeten the deal!

Show her the hop-kick boots, let her know that she has really powerful kicks during that fight she had with you, and these boots can help her jump really high and put more force towards her beanz, uh, you mean more force towards her kicks

And then the tension suit. Maybe let her wear it real quick and activate it.

Maybe we can also give her the boots as well before she leaves, just make sure to tell her they're lethal so dont wear them at fight club

To help keep her away from Nunitus, maybe tell her that Willamina saw it's symbol before she burned during the fire? Probably knew that already though. As well as telling her Iraphena cutting ties with them for the most part,

But i dont know if we should be telling her straight up that Nunitus is evil, she has respect for them, and only left because she made a mistake and felt guilty over it. We should consider that not everyone in Nunitus is evil and there are some good people in there. Maybe instead of telling her it is evil, tell her it got corrupted.

And hey, tell her if she joins you, your team will not punish her or make her feel guilty for mistakes made. Accidents happen. You grow from them. You and Willamina will support her no matter what.
>>
No. 1000211 ID: afa6f6

>>1000143
We should give Cannie the Lightning book first regardless, and should mention we've been holding on to it for her since she mentioned that she wanted a lightning power.
Her using that to awaken will be the first time that counts as us awakening someone through an item, and will likely get us the 10 Achievement points we need to get the "Targets you awakened cannot directly attack you = 85 pts" power if we need it, and will probably get us more so we can get something else if we dont need it.

Also, the less We dangle stuff in front of Cannie like bait the better, probably. She and her mother find Cat a little suspicious already and thats probably not helping. Maybe start by revealing that Cat's power can see how many and what powers people have, since Iraphena thinks that our appraisal ability is a result of upgrading said ability, and that would fit. Then ask if if shes ready for DANGEROUS and DISTURBING knowledge, and if shes down, start by revealing stuff(with Will's permission) about the Fire and Hero League, that we can confirm through the journal and the recorded message. Start revealing other stuff that she'll need to take our word on after that.
>>
No. 1000213 ID: afa6f6

Also, just want to point out, in
>>1000142
The achivement upgrades:
"Can Catalyze non artifact Items by spending 15 energy, quality increases based on materials used = 100 pts"
And
"Targets you awakened cannot directly attack you = 85 pts"
Are almost certainly a super combo if we want to use creating artifacts as a way of ingratiating ourselves t an organization so we can infiltrate them. Notice the second part says "Targets" that we awakened, not people, s it will likely work on items we awaken too.
>>
No. 1000295 ID: afe7de
File 162106645003.png - (7.77KB , 500x500 , C2_213.png )
1000295

> Split decision on Power Purchase
You think about the purchases but dont come to a conclusion that’s satisfying. But a few synergies come to mind, namely that for 225 points you could learn how to awaken items into artifacts AND they and anyone you awakened can’t directly attack you. Though it doesent say anything about HARMING you, like through side effects or use. You also contemplate getting the CATALYZER’S RIGHTS as that could just be a great group buff when crawling, maybe you’d reach beyond what Saba had planned. Either way, its something to consider. You’ll make a proper decision on saving points vs spending them TOMORROW or MONDAY. Maybe talking with Nipha or Rudy will give you some ideas. You want to invite Nipha to join you on the dungeoncrawl if at all possible, she’s STRONG and SKILLFUL and would be useful.

> Be straightforward with Cannie.
You think about her personality and decide to not dangle stuff in front of Cannie like bait. She probably wouldn’t appreciate that, especially since you barely know eachother. You decide to tell her things on a sliding scale of “OH SHIT” instead.

You: Okay, so uh, like. There’s a lot to unpack, we’ll give you the short version, and if you’re not interested or want out at any moment I wont hold a grudge or anything.

Cannie: Uh, huh, this ought be good.

> The Apocalypse
You elaborate on your knowledge of the incoming apocalypse, that in between 1-3 years the demons and monsters will leave the dungeons and an all out war between the demons will occur. People will fight back, some might survive and rebuild, but it’ll be bad. Though at the same time another threat will come too.

Cannie: Thats um, hmm. Nunitus seemed convinced that that was just a baseless rumor, and they’re an information guild, do you have any evidence for that kind of claim?

You and Willamina explain the Auction and Saba’s will, and that the original purpose of the Heroes League was to prevent this apocalypse from destroying the world, or from happening at all. Cannie looks skeptical, but asks you to continue.
>>
No. 1000296 ID: afe7de
File 162106646907.png - (11.12KB , 500x500 , C2_214.png )
1000296

> Angels and corruption
You explain the corruption in the Heroes League, which gets a resounding “Naw shit they’re corrupt money grubbers,” which is followed by pointed silence when you tell her that Angels have covertly replaced non awakened individuals and placed themselves in seats of power to push these agendas for years.

Cannie: Nunitus taught us that angels might appear one day to guide us, but not that they’d replace everyone. That’s stupid, they’re angels, mythology says they’re usually here to guide and help us.

Willamina: Mythology is just that though, MYTHS, sometimes even PROPOGANDA, and uh, this next part is going to be hard to hear.

You think about explaining that NUNITUS is an organization of Angels, but you’re positive she WONT BE RECEPTIVE of it. Your mind is working on overdrive right now to come up with a solution and your best bet is to come up with a way to convince her by the time this conversation is over.

You: We’ll hold off on that part, depending on what happens next we’d like you to request you wait until after the vacation to decide If you want to go back to Nunitus or join us permanently. You’ll have time to practice and grow during this time, and you’ll probably want to go back anyway.

Cannie: Hrmmm, I dont like the sounds of what you’re implying, but for Willamina’s sake I’ll listen this once.

> The Demon Set
Next Willamina takes the helm, explaining the details behind Set the dungeon lord, her aid to Saba, and the role that Angels had in corrupting everything. You also briefly mention the assasins and that if you don’t get stronger it’s highly likely Willamina will get targeted. You already had a pretty SHAKY interaction with Liminal, and can only expect worse. Her having this information puts her at risk.

Cannie: Hmm. Okay. So Will kind of implied we’d be going into a dungeon, but not Set’s, so. Which one? We going to Wano or something?

You: Not exactly, no.
>>
No. 1000297 ID: afe7de
File 162106650066.png - (12.58KB , 500x500 , C2_215.png )
1000297

> Saba’s Dungeon
You explain that Saba designed a dungeon to train the Hadlees, but died before it could get used, so now it’s a perfect training ground, should work for 6/8 kin and people, and that their “Vacation” is to go there, train, and be strong enough to defend yourselves against assassins, angels, and maybe even demons.

Cannie: Alright, noble goals truly, but the big old problem is that even if you did collect the awakened in town, most of them have pretty shit combat abilities. Gruk is a healer, but not a very good one, he’s the kind that takes TIME to heal, and cant fix permanent damage. We’ve got Mr Detector over here, The stamina crazy bunny, Ice girl, Iraphena’s the only true FIGHTER and that’s about it. We’d be going into a gunfight with toothpicks, it’s not impossible per-se, but we’ll suffer CASUALTIES. Like I guess there’s some people in the FIGHT CLUB, but they’re amateurs, this is like, bloodshed and death.

You go into details about the artifacts you have, even chiming in with the new ones so that Willamina can catch up, you avoid mentioning your brother for now and look over to him, he seems to be deep in thought and muttering to himself, but you can’t quite hear what he’s saying. While Cannie now seems more assured, she still seems extremely skeptical, especially with your lack of firepower, so you drop the bombshell.

> Awakening artifacts and you
You: I lied about my power. I can Awaken people and upgrade them. The reason we’re convincing you like this is to ask, do you want to awaken, will you help us? We also have two artifacts that can be used to awaken others and they’re pretty high quality. One is even a lightning cultivation book which we were thinking about giving to you if you were interested.

You: Really, what I’m saying is, Can you keep this on the down low, and would you be willing to accompany us and others on a DANGEROUS QUEST.

Willamina: To become STRONG ENOUGH to MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Maybe even SAVE THE WORLD?

There’s a pause. You really HOPE that she’s interested, and can feel a warm sensation suffusing your body, almost like the world is accomodating for your request. It’s an instantaneous feeling that’s gone in a moment, but maybe this is the HOPE ENERGY Callan mentioned.

Cannie: I’m not interested in saving the world. But I’ll join, I have one condition first.

Willamina: Name it and we’ll see WHAT we can do.

Cannie: Awaken Mom. Let her be strong enough to hold the fort while we’re gone. I don’t care if you need to use that lightning artifact on her instead of me, just... If we’re doing this and I or we all die, I want her to have a way to defend herself now that we know this is happening. I’d say awaken Isabella, but you’re both on bad terms with her and quite frankly I think she’s awakened and you’re both lying to me about it for my sake.
>>
No. 1000299 ID: f8fa51

Deal. That's certainly something we can do, and if that's your condition we'll do it in the morning. I really need to stress that you please not tell Isabella especially about our power.
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No. 1000302 ID: e51896

We'll awaken Nicky. Mention how there is a party for Willamina's awakening on Monday. We can invite Nicky to the party and awaken her there.

As for using the lightning book on Cannie or Nicky, I think I'm leaning towards giving it to Nicky and using our ability to awaken Cannie instead as we don't know Nicky too well to trust her about knowing our power or not, especially since she says she has many connections. But I'm not opposed to giving it to Cannie. Maybe we can figure out a way to give her a power in secret. Like maybe hand her over a item and bullshit our way saying it is a "artifact of the great awakener" (so that the "great awakener" notification doesn't confuse her). We tell her if she uses the item, it gives her a random power, and when she tries to use it, we can use our power to awaken her.

but... hmmm... one thing Cannie mentioned was she said we're both on bad terms with Isabella, not just Willamina. How did she know that Cat wasn't on good terms with her? I don't think we did or say anything around her that implied that we were on bad terms with her unless us asking her if Isabella was psychotic or not made her think that or if Willamina told her, but we did tell her to not take that the wrong way when we asked that. Did Isabella tell her?

(if any other suggestors know how Cannie knew, please let me know in case I'm missing something.)

Maybe we should ask how Cannie knew we were on bad terms with Isabella. Let her know you kind of are on bad terms, but you don't think you said or did anything that implied you were on bad terms with Isabella.

But yeah, this is probably a good segue to reveal to Willamina and Cannie about Isabella's power(s) and Maximilian being still alive. We should let her know since now that she is joining us, there shouldn't be any reason to lie to one other. And since Cannie is here, and she is Willamina's sister, she is the best person to calm Willamina down when you drop the bombshell about Isabella, and her power.

If Willamina starts accusing Isabella for starting the estate fire, let them know that you're not 100% sure Isabella is responsible, but you think she is hiding something, along with Max.

and of course, ask Cannie to not confront Isabella about her power or tell anyone. Not only did you keep it a secret for her sake, but you were keeping it a secret for our own sake, since Isabella would probably try to get back at us like reveal our fake power of scanning to everyone, or worse.

If anything, you want to try to build bridges instead of burning them so to speak if there is any way to get Isabella back to her old self again somehow before she got into her deteriorated mental state, You'd rather want to do that...
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No. 1000309 ID: 9a2966

It makes sense Cannie would be a BIT SKEPTICAL of all that, especially the Nunitus stuff. She did after all work with them. Bit surprised at how NON-gungho she is about all of this, though. Perhaps she got really traumatized by the power level of Donjon's Dungeon?

... ask her how many floors in she ever went, if she's got this much of an impression of the dangers of dungeon delving. Was it past three? Because, according to Saba, the first three floors of the DonDung is specifically designed to discourage people from even trying. The demon lord wanted people with enough skill and willpower to power through to be the ones to first receive its training potential.

If that's not it, though... yeah, maybe we should work a little harder on convincing her, at least on the importance of staying tight-lipped. You brother seems a bit thoughtful. Eye him and nod towards Cannie to see if he has any INPUT on HER.

>Don't want to save the world
Uh. You get that. You really do. But then you think about the DUNGEON BREAK and you don't want that - or worse - to happen to anyone else. Sucks if Cannie doesn't want to form a team afterwards, though that's fair enough as she's willing to HELP OUT with the DUNGEON and TRUSTS you enough to NOT REVEAL THIS to those who might try to HURT you and Will or ABUSE your Awakening power - which are fair concerns, yeah?

Even if she doesn't buy the angel angle, any rich and powerful elitist assholes in Donjon who heard about ANY of this would be SURE to try to TAKE ADVANTAGE.

>Skeptical of fighting strength and skill
Literally every day is gonna make some people stronger as long as they're around you. She should be assured while you're feeling some pressure, you're NOT leaping into this half-cocked. Heck, getting more people to participate in FIGHT CLUB could be good PRE-DUNGEON TRAINING here, right? She could even hold, like, a seminar on the dangers of dungeon delving since she's got some experience.

Also, out of everyone she shouldn't undervalue Andrea's power. Just being able to keep on trucking day and night has some serious utility and guard implications for dungeon expeditions, don't it?

There might be a few people from Donjon you could pull in too. There's a vigilante, Shocker, who knew your brother back in the day - but he might be hard to get in touch with, you're not sure. There's your ex, Nipha - sister to Kazu, actually - who's a bit of a FIGHTER, and also another Tinker - Rudy - who's coming to visit on MONDAY, you'll be seeing if they're receptive.

And there's Mint, your auction SLAVE (attempted freed), who you Awakened into a Tinker and knows ADVANCED TECH FROM ANOTHER WORLD. So... yeah. You'll keep piling on the advantages. People still might die, for sure, and you'll never sugarcoat that. But if you can get to the stage where you can prevent dungeon breaks or worse things from happening, you would be happy to take calculated risks.

>On Nunitus
It's fine to be SKEPTICAL or think that there's more to this. You yourself have a hard time believing the ENTIRE organization is 100% bad or you would never have approached Cannie in the first place - even Mint let on that there was like a 10% CHANCE an angel WOULDN'T ATTACK (though that's still really low). From the sound of things they're definitely coaching their people to think angels are good, and while you'd like to believe not all are aggressive the FACT that they're keeping a lid on the upcoming INVASION and letting Donjon slide into a messy decline while using the Heroes' League as a 'look at these greedo mofos' foil should be a WORRYING SIGN if she's willing to entertain the notion of what you're telling her here.

Besides, it's not like every religion ever can be RIGHT, right? And if the angels' protection comes at the cost of TAKING OUT Awakened that just don't fit their rigorous ELEMENTAL STANDARD (not to mention THOSE CLOSE TO THEM) then that's kind of a PROBLEM! Maybe they're applying an uncompromising 'the greater good justifies all' kind of thinking, you can see them seeing KILLING PEOPLE as a NECESSARY EVIL in order to shuffle people's SOULS off to somewhere else so DEMONS can't ENSLAVE them, but it definitely feels off to you that all you can expect for your trouble fighting dungeons and demons to keep people safe is a righteous smite in the back.

And if they're already here, opposed to the Demons, WHY HAVEN'T THEY BEEN HELPING? No, there's more to this.

So in order to convince her of the seriousness here, whatever her beliefs, you've got more to share.

>Factor one - Iraphena & Her Secrets
Iraphena KNOWS about the demon auctions. In fact, she's probably staying in town here so she can participate in them, since AUCTION SITES are A THING and you yourself saw her at the auction - AND she texted you immediately the morning after, the text of which you can SHOW TO CANNIE AS PROOF.

When you confronted Iraphena about the demon invasion thing, she muttered cryptically that the DEMONS' WEREN'T EVEN CAT'S BIGGEST WORRY. At the time you found that really disturbing, but it meshed up well with what Saba's will revealed. You also asked her about Nunitus during the artifact trade today, and she confided she LEFT the ORGANIZATION due to a DISAGREEMENT. You don't actually think she's fully left, but you think she's cut ties as much as she's able, that she knows what's coming, and that she knows it's gonna be bad because of her PRECOGNITION and Saba's will revealed that all the psychics and seers he spoke to were pretty uniform in their belief the world was gonna get turbofuck'd by the INVASION and its aftermath.

Your SUSPICION is that Iraphena is playing the best hand of cards she can according to her visions. And that you're complicating it, because you just became the wildcard she can't predict. In order to make her NOT decide to remove you from the equation, you've been playing your own hand nice and helped her identify a lot of the spare Artifacts that she gathered today.

Like. A LOT of spare artifacts. Iraphena is taking serious precautions in getting STUFF that'll help DEFEND her and give her things to trade, presumably for OTHER ARTIFACTS, WEALTH and INFLUENCE. You think she's DOOM PREPPING as best she's able - fuck, one of the artifacts she had could LEVEL THIS TOWN. Sadly, you think Iraphena's also still in too deep with Nunitus to be able to risk trusting her with what you know - as a junior who left on her own Cannie was MORE APPROACHABLE. Leshanna also said she had A FRIEND in the guild still, and... well, that FRIEND is probably who they'll be telling about YOUR FAKE POWER, which on its own is enough to make you sweat given what you know so far, but at least you've THOROUGHLY convinced Iraphena your power is DETECTION-BASED.

>Factor two - Rex & Nunitus' Spy Operation
Introduce Rex. Rex is from the ROACH KINGDOM and the first PERSON you Awakened. Yes, that was a sentence. Their story is a bit of a doozy.

He can tell it himself, but to summarize: Rex was part of this spy initiative in Donjon. Trained, intelligent roaches, enslaved and ordered to sneak around observing people's homes, reporting back signs of newly Awakened to some "Overmind" every week. You had no idea at the time, you just picked up a roach and tried to Awaken it to see if that would work as a test case. And it did! And Rex gained their freedom and a telepathy power, which meant they could tell you about being a slave under the Overmind's control. Your Awakening actually freed them from that bondage and now they're set on helping you out.

Anyway, you only got this impression earlier while Cannie and Isabella were chatting, but the Overmind is someone connected to Nunitus, aren't they? Nunitus being an information guild might explain this sort of surveillance experiment, but a) you gotta say it's WRONG to enslave a bunch of INTELLIGENT INSECT-PEOPLE and b) it's WORRYING that they've set up a way to spy on EVERYONE and specifically report on NEW Awakenings. And has Nunitus RECRUITED a lot of people? It's a relatively SMALL guild, isn't it? So what does she THINK they ACTUALLY DO with ADVANCE WARNING about NEWLY AWAKENED?

You don't know yourself, but the implications kinda disturb you. You'd want to check how Donjon's lethal crime and accident statistic - or disappearance statistic - meshes with the average rate of Awakenings compared to other places, since NEW Awakened tend to be at their WEAKEST. Or who's actually picking up all the newly-discovered recruits and WHAT they're doing with them.

>Awaken Mom
She'd be putting her mother on the front line, especially if the angels DO IN FACT murder the eff out of Awakened without the Light elemental affinity (unless she has that). You kind of want to be SELECTIVE in who you Awaken for this reason. You'd be painting bullseyes on people's backs and that means you want to be able to TRUST THEM enough to TELL THE TRUTH so that they know what they're GETTING INTO. Then again, eventually the INVASION will happen and being able to DEFEND YOURSELF then would be useful for pretty much EVERYONE...

Yeah, alright, you'll Awaken their mom. Might take her up on the offer to do it with the book item though, so Cannie and Will can say it's part of Willamina's INHERITANCE. The less people actually know about YOUR REAL POWER the better you feel. You've got a good thing going now with everyone else in the know presuming you just have a DETECTION-based touch power.

Is Cannie so sure she wants to give the book up, mind? It IS, like, precisely what she said she wanted, and if they say they trust their mother's discretion you'd be willing to risk it.

>MINT-MADE TOWN ENERGY SHIELD SUGGESTION - an alternate offer to Awakening Mom / additional assurance
... oh! If what Cannie - and Will - REALLY wants is a way to PROTECT THEIR MOM AND THEIR TOWN, maybe THAT could be what you'll spend the CRYSTAL on for Mint's project? Mint did mention the LAST BASTION of her world was kept safe thanks to an ENERGY SHIELD that held up until, like, an actual ARMY of FALLEN ANGELS attacked long after the invasion stage, so even a WEAKER version of that sounds like SOME SERIOUS DEFENSIVE BEEF. She probably knows some of the specs and can collaborate with the other Tinkers on setting it up.

If it is made and the control device given to Nicky the town would have a really good DEFENSE in case of outside danger, like from monsters being spawned by a DUNGEON BREAK or an angry bunch of heroes, or demons or angels or whatever. It'd give people time to organize, to call for help, maybe for you to return from your dungeon explorations and make a difference.

>Awaken Isabella - Truth & Topic Avoidance
Awakening Isabella... is another topic - okay okay, shit, less annoyingly vague, uh. Here's the thing. What you said during that dinner conversation was this: She doesn't have a SINGLE power. Now take into account Miss Iraphena approved of that statement. Leshanna Iraphena, the mistress of being cryptic, had a little laugh at it.

...

Yeah, no shit Isabella's Awakened. POWERS, PLURAL. The nature of which you're not gonna get into right now since they're still sorta private. No shit Iraphena knows either - you're 100 % certain they worked together to pressure you into revealing your power (well, the fake one you made up on the spot) and put you in Iraphena's debt, because you got Rex to follow them and he overheard them SAY SO.

Your assumption is Isabella is straight up working for Nunitus, since she has those connections, much like you think Iraphena hasn't quite cut her ties. She's probably also connected to the Heroes' League, since she had that big and very personal encounter with the HL rep who came in to verify Will's Awakening. Which makes SENSE if your presumption is they're sorta under the same organizational thumb, right?

And... you're sorry for all the secrets. You're sure people think they're keeping them for good reasons, but that probably doesn't hurt or annoy her less and you actually wish you weren't the one dropping all of these deets. But it's part and parcel of what you've come across, of wanting to stay up front about everything. You're still aware of some other stuff that could lead to DRAMA, but you don't want to RUIN RELATIONSHIPS, especially not in ways that COULD DO HARM OR RISK EVERYTHING BASED ON AN INCOMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SITUATION, so you'll hold off on that for now.

Summed up: shit's complicated, but we should all try to keep our cool and work together to find a way to come out of this mess intact, our loved ones protected. Agreed?

... does she need a pillow to PUNCH? Get her a pillow to PUNCH.

(Isabella's powers being FIRE BASED, the actual findings from Rex's SPYING and MAX being ALIVE sound like too much to get into tonight.)
>>
No. 1000319 ID: ded2a7

I'd say since we already have Cannie on board, we can save the stuff about Nunitus for later for during our vacation when we get more respect from her and she trusts us more, and she grows to like training in the dungeons with us. Though we have to make sure to keep her spirits high during the vacation.

Yeah, now's good a time as any to talk about what we know about Isabella and Max with Cannie and Willamina. The longer we keep things about Isabella and Max from Willamina, the more difficult it'll be for her to hear it from us. And it is a good way to build trust with Cannie for when we tell her about Nunitus later
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No. 1000326 ID: 031458

I feel like this Book was meant for you but sure, I'll awaken her. Bring her by here tomorrow. I might have to see her a few times to bring her to full power, depending on what kind of power awakens in her. Some take more energy to deal with than others.

As for Isabella...
Willamina's not lying to you. She doesn't know.
That was all me. Isabella didn't entrust me with her secrets; I Stole them. Add to the fact that she's dangerous... I've been trying to stay quiet for my own safety.
The implications of these secrets are severe, but you both deserve to know, So here goes.

Isabella is indeed awakened. She has two powers. One gives her control over a Fire Demon. I don't know if she awakened with this power or if she contracted with it later. I have seen it though thanks to this *gesture to the Demons Eye*. And yes Willamina that IS what's been burning your phones out.

Her other power... Is unique. "Incarnation of Flame". I don't know exactly what it does, and it's not well developed. But it sounds much more powerful than standard pyrokinesis.

There's more.
I sent Rex to spy on her. And HOOO BOY.
She built a hate shrine of you in her room, Willamina.
Apparently she spends most of the day talking to herself or laughing despite being alone. Although I can personally attest that since you've Awakened she's been doing nothing but bawl her eyes out.
Most shocking of all though... She still believes Max is alive, and she is desperately trying to keep him from you.
Stranger still, she was seen on a phone call with someone asking about your awakening status, and she constantly referred to this person as "My Love" and "Senpai".

Between that and the recording earlier mentioning that Max had a spirit...
This last parts just a theory but.
That Liminal Axam guy? In addition to his name being an anagram of Maxamillian... He had spirit too. It's likeness was uncanny...
I think Max might actually be alive.
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No. 1000328 ID: 9a2966

>>1000319
IMO, convincing Cannie the Nunitus concerns are valid seems more important. Cat won't have to punch through all in one go, of course, but he should give her enough to start her on re-examining what she thinks she knows.

The Isabella and Max stuff might work better if we ever have a way to PROVE THINGS. All we've got right now is ISABELLA ACTING WEIRD (big whoop) and REX'S SPY TESTIMONY and neither of those would be enough as slam dunk convincers.

Will's trust in Cat is very much enhanced from him Awakening her so I can see her maybe taking Cat at his word on this, but Cannie already expresses some skepticism to all of this, which is fair, but complicates what we should reveal. She says she's been disgusted with her sister's actions of late, sure, but that's a far shot from being able to believe that Isabella might actually have been involved in the lethal mansion fire somehow and also kept the survival of Max hidden from all of them for years.

So. Let's just suck it in and hold on to those facts for now, and not ruin the progress we appear to have made with her.
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No. 1000330 ID: 9a2966

>>1000326
>I STOLE her secrets
This sounds like a bad way to go about saying it. It's certainly fairer to say Cat stumbled across those secrets when it became clear she and Iraphena had an interest in Cat and he - out of self-preservation purposes - took an interest in them in turn. Turnabout spying, essentially.

>she built a hate shrine of you Will
Actually, it was a love shrine dedicated to Max, and a photo on the wall of Will with darts stuck to it.

>I think Max might actually be alive
Weeelll... less decisive a claim than 'I definitely know he's alive', and eases them into the possibility. Or lets them think someone from the Heroes League is manipulating Isabella by pretending to be Max, which... I don't know if that's BETTER or WORSE at this point? Still, if you have to strongly hint at the truth but not outright say it, this might be the best way to do it. But it does mean you're lying. You KNOW Max is alive.
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No. 1000332 ID: b1b4f3

>>1000297
Alright but you're out of energy today, you'll have to do it tomorrow. Your energy recharges every 24 hours.
Why doesn't she want to save the world?

As for Nunitus I guess we're gonna have to wait before telling her about the inside information we have.
Isabella... well, yeah we can't tell her about that yet either, Willamina needs to be told first. Maybe we can tell them at the same time? I feel like we should tell Willamina about Max before telling her Isabella has fire powers. Good news before bad news. Then we can easily lead into the conclusion that they were working together for some reason to destroy the estate, because they sure as hell were working together afterwards despite Max knowing full well Isabella must have done it. WHY it was done is a mystery, however. Hopefully the orbs Willamina saw were evidence of the rest of the family being preserved somehow and this was a way of keeping the Hadlees away from the Angels.

>>1000309
could you make shorter suggestions please
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No. 1000336 ID: dfbac0

>>1000330
I agree with all of these points except the last one, if we say we THINK that max is alive, we aren't lying. I mean we did see him with your own eyes but it seems like there's an aura of mind-fucker with him and you never can be 100% sure unless you made him take a DNA test. So, why we believe it is him, there's still a possibility it isn't, also, uncertain wording is not lying, it's just being uncertain. And the wording of us thinking it might be him rather than being sure is better because we are waiting for the right moment to tell willamina that she was literally face to face with her brother.
>>1000302
I don't think we can say for certain that Isabella was directly responsible but it seemed like her spirit was the one who burned down the house and she either made her spirit do it or stayed complacent and felt good about it in the end, so even if she wasn't DIRECTLY responsible, she's still a horrible person in my books.
I also think that we should not say directly that the angels are the ones who made nunitus but that nunitus IS a part of the corruption, and is corrupted from the inside-out. Nunitus is supposed to be independent of the heroes guild but it was nunitus who turned the guild to corruption and killed good heroes. We should stress this, and the fact that her staying with nunitus could end up bad, and that we wouldn't be able to trust her.

>Awaken Mom
God, I wish we had the ability to awaken people without a big popup about THE GREAT AWAKENER, then we could make her think it was natural. We might just have to use the book, as much as it pains me, it would be more discreet and help a lot more than a level one power.

>Power Upgrades
If we awaken Cannie then we should get the upgrade so people we awaken can't harm us as Cannie has doubts about us and is pretty much in Nunitus' pocket, making it REALLY damn hard to trust her.

I also think that as of right now we shouldn't really talk about Max or Isabella because that is a lot to unpack and we should wait until we have a calm moment alone with Willamina to unpack it all.
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No. 1000337 ID: 9a2966

>>1000332
>could you make shorter suggestions please
I'll try to concise up, though going long and on tangents is a regular ol' flaw of mine and the wealth of stuff to address makes it even harder. Nobody is obliged to read my reams of text though, and my engagement with the quest is not intended to be disruptive.

(On that note: if a post of mine is ever a chore, just skim or ignore, Edmango. Sanity-preserving measures on part of vote/feedback processing are always fair game.)
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No. 1000341 ID: 031458

>>1000330
Bruh we Scanned her under false pretenses and then SENT A FUCKING SPY.
We STOLE THE SHIT out of those secrets.

Granted, we felt justified. If we explain ourselves properly to Cannie, she'll likely take our side.

My issue is that Cannie is -Understandably- suspicious of us and justified or not, we did some sketchy shit. If we approach this in a way that seems to IMMEDIATLY DOWNPLAY what happened, I worry we'll come off as weasely (And therefore even MORE SUSPICIOUS).

This use of strong, self accusatory language suggests that what we did is not the norm, and is not something we would otherwise be comfortable with. It grants weight to our justifications, making them feel like explanations instead of excuses.

>>1000336
I can see your point about Max, that's some heavy shit.
Isabella though... I can't help but think this is ultimately what makes or breaks the Cannie situation. Sure we can omit the Love Dungeon part since that ties to Max if you want, but if we can't trust Cannie with Isabella's power situation at this point, I don't think she'll ever really trust us in turn.
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No. 1000342 ID: 9a2966

>>1000341
>scanned her under false pretenses
False only because revealing his true powers would have been dangerous - and don't forget Cannie herself insisted. This wasn't something Cat pushed for - he did in fact offer Isabella the chance to back off until Cannie told her not to puss out. It's not like Cat has acted like some evil mastermind here, 's all I'm saying.

And when he knew she had a FIRE POWERS and there had recently been a PYRO event... yeah, sending Rex after them may not have been NICE, but it was a CAUTIOUS and SMART move that PAID OFF... in more unknowns and worries, and the chilling knowledge that Iraphena and Isabella had AGENDAS that NEEDED TO BE WORRIED ABOUT or INVESTIGATED.
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No. 1000346 ID: 333375

Lets see...

Introduce rex to Cannie

We'll give the book to Nicky, and let Cannie know that tomorrow evening after you spend time with Andrea in the afternoon, you'll awaken her in the evening when you work with her and Random at her night job since you have no energy... unless she wants it now, in which case you'll upgrade yourself to to get more points at the achievement shop.

Lets leave Nunitus for later when on vacation when we spend more time with Cannie and know her more.

Talk about Isabella's powers, what they are, and Maximilian probably being still alive as Liminal.
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No. 1000349 ID: b1b4f3

IMO we need to talk to Nicky before we give the lightning god book to anyone. We should also get a better idea of Cannie's motivations since apparently we misread her. We can only give her the book if there's a high chance she's STAYING with the group.

The lightning god book is an incredibly strong item, we need to be sure the person we give it to will remain loyal to us afterwards and will also diligently practice with it to get the most out of the power. Giving it to Nicky might be a waste since she's not going to go grind dungeons.
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No. 1000354 ID: afa6f6

Could we ask Will if she'd consider using the dagger for Nicky? We could always awaken Gena with Cat, and somehow that seems like an easier pitch. Also, she might appreciate it more, Coming from Will.

I still think Cannie should go ahead and use the book now, If only because the ability the book gives seems like its for a fighter, and if she wants to keep her mom safe, she might be better of with somethign less fight-y, so she doesnt feel compelled to be on the front lines. also, thouse kinds of abilities probably tend to get achievements via using them in combat, so shed probably get stronger slower then Cannie.

So, if Will isnt into the dagger plan, why doesnt Cannie take the book and use it now, and then stick close to her mom for a day or two? That way she can protect her, and also ease her into things, so its not a bolt out of the blue when Cat awakens her? Cannie of course knows her way better then Cat.
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No. 1000363 ID: b1b4f3

Wasn't the dagger pretty much tailor made for Gena? We need to talk to Nicky to find out what kind of power she's suited to.
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No. 1000367 ID: 333375

I'd say gena for the dagger ability, as it will suit nicely with the phantom dagger.
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No. 1000386 ID: afa6f6

Not disagreeing with you or anything, but what does one have to do with the other?
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No. 1000390 ID: ef3f45

The awakened ability gives complete mastery of short bladed weapons, blending with shadows, detection both natural and mystical, lockpicking, and other general skills needed by a master rogue. With the phantom dagger that can also make a master rogue phase through objects, and is a short bladed weapon, the two would fit perfectly together.
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No. 1000399 ID: afa6f6

No, I get that the weapon and the ability fit together, I dont understand the Gena part. It'd work the same if we gave to two thing to anyone.
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No. 1000406 ID: afe7de
File 162115337978.png - (28.94KB , 500x500 , C2_216.png )
1000406

> Hold back on Nunitus reveals
Cannie seems pretty attached to them and you’re CONFIDENT she’d ask for proof of this from the way she’s talking, so you can only really hold back on this for now.

> Agree to awaken Nicky
You: I can do that, but not until tomorrow, I’m out of ENERGY. But uh, the more people we let know about my power, the more likely someone’s going to find out and then things might get really um, bad for me?

Cannie: Yeah I get that. It doesent have to be now, it can be before we leave to go “Vacationing.” Just uh, don’t want to leave her on her own here if there’s a way to at least let her defend herself.

> Bad terms with Isabella?
Willamina: I get why Isabella would be aggro on me, but why Cat? What’d he do.

Cannie: I know it’s stupid, but she’s mad you two have been spending time with each-other. She was fine with it the last few days but something changed recently and then she just broke down crying and ended up at Iraphena’s place, it’s probably safe to assume she won’t be as kind to you anymore. But maybe she will be, she can be CAPRICIOUS at times.

You: Yeah, I’m already not a big fan of her considering how pressing the three of you were during the whole “Hey let’s forcibly reveal Cat’s power” thing. I already laid out my grievances with Miss Iraphena, but haven’t talked to Isabella since that day.

> Reveal Isabella’s Secret
You: Either way, it’s probably time to rip off the Isabella Band-Aid I’ve been keeping. She’s awakened, but with TWO powers. And, well, this was one of the things I was wanting to tell you Willamina that would piss you off. It’s fire related abilities and a spirit, meaning all your COMM troubles are 1000% caused by her. And before you jump to conclusions, I don’t have ANY SOLID EVIDENCE that she caused the estate fire.

The two look at each other in silence. You hear an “Ah” from Max off to the side and you look at him.

Callan: Quick side note. I was an investigator on the Hadlee Estate Fire Case. Someone scrambled the mana on the site, so we couldn’t tell specifics, but there was at least 2 external visitors to the site, one that crashed through the ceiling, and another that probably came in through a window or something. Though I find it hard to believe a 15 year old girl could cause this disaster on her own. Carry on. I’m just gathering ideas with the new info you’re presenting.

It’s still silent as Cannie and Isabella look at eachother. You can tell that Isabella is doing her best to keep her COOL. She’s red faced and looks extremely angry. Whereas Cannie just looks depressed.
>>
No. 1000407 ID: afe7de
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1000407

Willamina: That… BITCH. Really needs to let go of fucking grudges. There’s no EVIDENCE so I wont jump to the conclusion that I want to, that she killed my family AND BROTHER, and BLAMES ME for it in some sick psycopathic mental leap. And do you KNOW how much money I spend on COMMS a year? LIKE REALLY!?! I spend at least 1500 BUX a year on comms. It’s FUCKING STUPID. Just. One sec, I’m gonna go scream for a sec.

Willamina heads to the bedroom and closes the door, you can’t hear anything, you guess the room is soundproofed. Cannie just has her head in her paws and is shaking it.

Cannie: I’m just disappointed that she didn’t think she could trust me. I mean, I’m obviously angry, but there’s no way she’d just outright kill Max and Will’s family. Maybe she kept it quiet because the powers would make her a suspect?

Willamina comes back, running her hands through her hair frustratingly. You feel like it’s time to come clean about the other thing.

> Max/Liminal
You: So uh, the next info’s also a doozy, but uh. I can sort of see things that people can’t which is why I could see the spirits too, but uhm. So I don’t KNOW if this is true, but I’ll just ask a question first. What was Max’s power before? Did either of you know?

Cannie: He could WARP shit right? Like distort, move things, etc.

You: Well, he could do a little bit more than that.

You pull out the Journal and flip to Max’s Section. It lists his powers out as studied by Saba Hadlee. He had SPIRIT, WARP, ICE, and REFLEX related powers. It also listed his magical aptitude as a 3.5/10.

Willamina: Okay, great, we know a LITTLE bit more about his POWERS, get to the point.

You: So uh, I met someone today who has this exact same powerset, is using a disguising artifact, and under that artifact looks Eerily similar to him.

You pull out the photo and show it to the two of them, pointing out that it’s your brother with him. Cannie starts rubbing her temples and taking deep breaths.

Callan: Well that explains a LOT. I didn’t realize that was him, though, I guess I’m just an idiot, they had really similar powersets other than the bound sword thing.

Willamina: Wait, Max is…. ALIVE? And he’s been under cover? That’s STUPID. Though, Liminal did have the same haircut as him. And had the same stupid attitude as him. But he didn’t react at all when I THREW and did shit to him, WOULDN’T he just DODGE that?

You: Your guess is as good as mine, also his name was an anagram for Maxamillian and I just think that’s incredibly dumb. He even made his last name Hiro. Like Hero?
>>
No. 1000408 ID: afe7de
File 162115340676.png - (36.23KB , 500x500 , C2_218.png )
1000408

Cannie finally gets up, she looks ticked, but she heads towards you, you’re startled when she grabs you by the neck and holds you in the air. She’s not gripping your neck so hard as you can’t breathe, but you’re definitely INTIMIDATED. Willamina notices and dashes up to stop her when she hold up a hand.

Cannie: Alright you little SHIT. You’ve come to our town, investigated shit, stirred the fucking pot, and now are giving us information that my dead friend is back, and my sister has been lying to us for years. WHY? You could easily just awaken a friend and go from there, but NO. You come to our town, Awaken Willamina, who just so happens to have an inheritance that could get you powerful allies, AND you’re investigating the estate fire and JUST SO HAPPEN to find info that would ingratiate yourself to us?

Cannie: I don’t think you’re GENUINE. I think you’re a manipulative piece of SHIT. You’re both BRIBING and THREATENING us with powers and with the threat of the apocalypse. I can buy Willamina finding out about this from her inheritance, sure. But next you’re going to be telling me NUNITUS is some sort of evil organization or some shit run by a cabal of Angels, It feels like all you really have to say is BAD AND FUCKED UP NEWS.

Cannie: So I’ll ask again, WHY? Why us? What’s your endgame huh?

She slams you on the ground and you’re powerless to resist, it hurts a bit. But Willamina moves to try to get in between the two of you but Cannie pushes her back.

Willamina: I had the same concern the other day Cannie, an-

Cannie: NO. We don’t even know if we can TRUST HIM? What if when he awakens people he MIND CONTROLS THEM? What if its not instantaneous? What if after he gets stronger he becomes a manipulative tyrant and we lose the ability to attack him and stop him?!? I want to hear it from him. CONVINCE ME, MOTHERFUCKER.

Cannie has her foot on your chest, keeping you pinned. You look to Callan and he seems a bit worried, but isnt sure what to do, he speaks up.

Callan: Uh yeah, hot blooded, has probably been jerked around a lot in her life, prefers honesty. Maybe uh, just be honest. If you can convince her, she’ll probably become an ally for life though, she seems like that kind of person, but I don’t know them personally. Maybe try HOPING that what you say will get through to her?

Do you channel your HOPE energy to BOOST your NEGOTIATION? And what do you say to convince her?
>>
No. 1000409 ID: f8fa51

Yeah, we're absolutely using our HOPE here. If we can't hope this'll work, she could straight-up kill us, or worse, by going straight to Isabella.

"First, I came here to get away from the city because I'm scared. I've been scared since I awakened, since before then even, and it hasn't fucking stopped. I keep thinking I'm in a tight spot and it finds some way to get worse. I don't have any friends here I could awaken that I didn't meet after I got here, or believe me I would have done it. I was worried about opening up to anyone. But Willamina here, we spent some time with each other, I decided I could help, and that I needed to trust someone or I'd just go insane. And I didn't know about the inheritance!

Of course I don't like Nunitus, and I really don't like their representatives in this town, who've been yanking on my chain literally since the day after I got here, who I heard from their own lips would have fucking killed me if I hadn't caved to their pressure. I didn't want to tell you they're fucking evil because you so clearly don't want to hear it. You'll want proof, and I don't have it.

I can't use my power to control people. It looks like maybe I could develop my powers in that direction but I haven't, and if I had, Willamina would already be under my control. Hey Willamina, drag her off me! See? No control."
>>
No. 1000413 ID: e51896

>>1000409

>Of course I don't like Nunitus, and I really don't like their representatives in this town, who've been yanking on my chain literally since the day after I got here, who I heard from their own lips would have fucking killed me if I hadn't caved to their pressure. I didn't want to tell you they're fucking evil because you so clearly don't want to hear it. You'll want proof, and I don't have it.

Actually, we do have proof! Call Rex over to explain what he found out Isabella and Iraphena was talking about. This is finally his time to shine, he's our proof, he can explain everthing he heard Iraphena and Isabella said about threatening you, about how Iraphena was on the phone with someone named "O", and how she masturb- nevermind. It would be funny if he explained that part to Cannie though
Explain you were really afraid that Iraphena, someone who you did not know too well that you were forced to entrust telling what part of you power is, was going to tell somebody that might hurt you or kidnap you if they found out about your power, and you sent Rex to find out who she was going to tell, and, well, you'll let Rex take it from here with what he found out about what Isabella and Iraphena from his own words what they said they'd do to you if you didn't reveal part of your power, and who they revealed it to.

telepathically let Rex know to explain what he found out about Isabella too, and how you saved him from being controlled by the overmind. Letting Cannie know that you've been using your powers for good like saving Rex from mind control might also help convince Cannie.

After he reveals that, let her know that with shit like being threatened like that, it would make sense for you to be secretive with some of your actions

Let her know that one of the powers you could upgrade your powers to is indeed one where targets you awakened cannot directly attack you, but you will promise to never get that upgrade. Because, honestly, you want to try to learn to trust others after living in the city for so long where people has done nothing but try to hurt you.

Let Cannie know that if you didn't trust her, and was manipulative, you would not have let her know about your secret power that could get you enslaved was in the first place.
>>
No. 1000414 ID: 28f029

Wait... Using hope here would nudge her mind in our favor a bit. That's EXACTLY what she's afraid of. That could end VERY badly. I don't think Cannie will kill us, but we may be forced to leave Lyst if we burn this bridge.
>>
No. 1000418 ID: ef3f45

>>1000414
Agreed with this. Using our hope powers could help, but it is manniplative, which is the main reason why she is angry with you in the first place. Lets not use hope powers.

Hmmm... I don't think we have anything that suggests we've been manniplative on our notebook, maybe we should let her read our secret Cat Book and the tasks we wrote in there, and the doodles of people with silly descriptions of our opinions of them. If she wants honesty, what better way than to allow her to see our secrets in our notebook. Tell her we have nothing in there that implies us trying to manipulate people... except if you count the page that got burnt a little, explain that was to trick Isabella into getting wrong information when she tried to spy on our notebook with her spirit, and you gave her false information to get back at her, and she burnt your book in response.

The only thing on there that might be a little bit sketchy is the task "investigate the estate fire", but that did not show up much later until after the task about the overmind, or finding someone we can trust to talk about our powers, and not before, implying it wasn't the main reason you came to Lyst. If you came to Lyst with the sole purpose of getting Will's inheritence, the task would have been one of the first things, before finding a more permanent place to stat, and instead was something we started doing later as a spur of the moment to help get to know a potential friend like Willamina more so you can have somebody to talk to without being alone and outcasted with no one to trust your secrets to.
>>
No. 1000420 ID: f8fa51

>>1000413
Unfortunately, Rex doesn't count as proof. He's clearly a biased witness.
>>
No. 1000421 ID: f8fa51

And I just realised another problem. We can tell the whole truth, that we didn't have any friends, but then Mint is going to come up. We're going to need to explain her too, and let's be honest, any story that includes owning a slave isn't going to look good.

At best, we can tell that story in the order of what we learned: These people are up for auction, we can maybe free them. Then we learn that we can't.
>>
No. 1000427 ID: 094652

"YOU THINK I HAVEN'T PLANNED MY OWN SUICIDE?!

In case you hadn't noticed, the reason I'm such a paranoid manipulative bastard is because everyone I loved died in a monster invasion and I couldn't do jack-shit about it, and a few years later I'm beaten up and almost murdered by a thug who stole the only thing of value I had left! I am a VERY broken man who has finally come into power and responsibility! You have every right to be afraid of what I'll become! But you should be afraid of those who have already decided how you, and everyone else on this planet, will be broken and enslaved three years in advance. And I will make those true monsters afraid of me.

And if you plan to kill me when I fall into Complete Monster territory? I already have you beat. One of my conspirators has a killswitch and access to my inner thoughts at all times. That's how serious I am about all this.

We're the Villain's Alliance, Cannie. We don't fight for ideals, just our personal interests. And my personal interest is to keep living in a world where I get to fuck my neighbors and take care of over two dozen bastard children. If I can't have that? If I'm so far off the deep end I can't even find happiness in thinking about having that?

I may as well just die."
>>
No. 1000428 ID: 6c85e8

What fucking friends? Your family and the people you most cared about in the city died in the incident, and the rest didn't seem to care that much about you because you were normal. You left as soon as you awakened because fuck all that, some asshole would probably try to keep you chained up if not kill you outright for being too potentially disruptive with that power.

You met Will and saw someone who was fuckin' awesome beneath her gruffness, and who you commiserated with. Neither of you had rad powers and your families both thought you would get them, both got destroyed in tragic accidents, and then both of you got shit on afterwards.

It was really simple at the start. You just wanted to live in a safer place and maybe find some cool people to give rad powers to, but then people started getting real creepy on you like what happened with isabella and iraphena, and you just clammed up and started getting real goddamn paranoid. And then it started to become clear the paranoia was RIGHT, which was the worst part. You found out how much pressure was on you, you realized that you couldn't just be chill aloof dude passing superpowers out, you had to actually try to stop the world from getting destroyed.

Yeah, you've definitely been snoopy. It's kind of part and parcel to making sure people aren't going to try to kill you. At first you wanted to learn about people so you could be sure they'd use their powers responsibly instead of pulling the heroes association corrupt bullshit, but at this point you genuinely are worried about conspiracies and it's showing itself as valid shit to think about.

You don't want to do the same shit that the other awakened have jerked people around for. Like that bullshit of giving only one wish to two sisters. You've thought about giving her powers for a while now after Will and don't really have another good candidate lined up right now anyway, so honestly you're going to awaken her if she's cool with it either way. Worst case scenario she'll stay and protect the town even if she doesn't want to deal with you anymore, and though it'd suck to not have her help, you've given her an out every step of the way, here. You WANT her to agree, you don't want to FORCE her to.

You told Cannie this because you TRUST her and want her HELP, not so you could give her a priceless gift as leverage to MAKE her do what you want. Your power is useless without other people to help... the only reason you're trying to take so much care here is because you're worried trusting the wrong person might get you killed.

But you know what? FUCK IT! You won the superpower lottery! You can give people superpowers! And this town's full of really awesome people that would kick ass with more powers! Despite how bleak this shit is, you have never been in a better position to save the world. It's insane, but it's kind of like you finally feel like you can try do what Callan was doing all those years, and actually help people.

Also tell her that you're REALLY not comfortable having that kind of control over other people. It's already been stressing you out to be able to have such a huge impact on someone's life just with your power. Another reason why you... might've been putting off awakening people longer than you should've given the circumstances.
>>
No. 1000429 ID: 6c85e8

>>1000427
Also thinking such negative thoughts is probably gonna make it rougher to do this whole hope boosting thing.

You don't gotta be fatalistic. You can do this, Cat. And you know you can make Cannie see that you're genuine.
>>
No. 1000433 ID: eb1c48

This might be a good time to hand over the demon amulet to prove you can see spirits, since one is right over there.
>>
No. 1000434 ID: 53560f

>>1000408
You want full disclosure? You can have it.
The answer to any question you have about my capabilities is the same: not yet. I can stop people I’ve awakened from attacking me but my power’s haven’t grown enough to do that yet, I can mind control a little bit but only to nudge you to consider what I’m saying and I only just gained that ability minutes before you walked in, that’s probably not even the limits of that power.

But I have not and never intended to use them on you or Willamina.

And if you’re so worried about me being manipulative and deceitful then don’t. I left the city to get away from all the under the table politics and manipulations but I can’t deny that I’ve gotten good at it and it certainly came in handy at the dinner table negotiations with Iraphena. Knowing things and controlling that information is how I’ve been alive so long and I’d be dead in a gutter a hundred times over if I wasn’t like this.
So please believe me when I say I’m not trying to manipulate or control you, if it seemed that way then I apologise for that.
I’m no tyrant and I don’t intend to be one.
You wanted honesty and there it is. I will awaken you and your mother regardless of whether you choose to join willamina and I, the only thing I want in return is to keep my secrets as just that: secret.

If all that isn’t enough for you then ask any questions you like and I will answer honestly.
>>
No. 1000440 ID: e51896

>>1000420
Even if Rex doesn't count as proof, we should at least still let him speak out about what he saw to at least be honest and come clean about what we've been doing with Rex.

Plus, I know Rex wanted to be involved in things, maybe this is the best way for him to do that by saving us. Also, we should at least have him speak out about how we saved him from the overmind to help show we are at least trying to use our powers for good.

As for hope powers or not, no we shouldn't use it. But we should be honest with Cannie about Callan and what he does, you only just reunited with him and thats why you were crying earlier, and you wanted to test and see how your brother can help you in the future, so you used his power only once during this conversation, and you're telling her now because it was very wrong of you and you're sorry, and you'll stop,

Tell her you told her this because after years of being in the city full of people trying to harm you, you want to try to learn to trust people again without having to rely on hope, and you need a friend like Cannie who can call you out on your misdeeds and keep you in place and help you not go down a dark path when you are going out to save the world together. You don't want this team to fall apart like how Saba's team fell apart in the past.

Really, tell her you are asking her to join the alliance not just to help you save the world, but you need her help to keep you responsible with using your powers for good, and not use them for bad like manipulating people.

And... tell her if she feels there's truly no hope for you and can't be redeemed, and doesn't want to help you be a better person then... maybe she should just reveal to the world what our true power is to get rid of us so she can make sure we don't use our powers to become a tyrant...
>>
No. 1000442 ID: b1b4f3

>>1000406
>two intruders at the fire
Ah, that would support the theory that Isabella saved Max from something else that happened there, and either caused the fire on accident during the fight or the intruder caused the fire somehow, or it was a failsafe in case the mansion got invaded. Willamina might be the only one who got burned...

>>1000408
Don't channel HOPE, that's the manipulation she's afraid of.
Tell her you don't like it either! You awakened to this massively important power and moved here to avoid getting caught up in the politics of the hero's guild or league and you wound up caught up in it anyway, it sucks! You just wanted to live your life in peace but instead you found out the world is going to end and you're one of the only people who has a chance of stopping it. So you have to try, and you have to get as much help as you can get. You were hoping to get her help because she's a good fighter but now you're regretting telling her anything.

You do have some good news though. You traded artifacts with Iraphena and she had your brother's ring... which had his spirit in it, and the ring's description proves reincarnation exists. You can actually prove that one with the demon eye amulet. You've already told Cassie enough that she can screw you over, may as well let her use the amulet to confirm the ring and see Callan. Oh and Callan just said there were two intruders at the estate so there's some indication Isabella may have been there to defend it, not attack it.
>>
No. 1000443 ID: cb1d7b

>>100040
Not sure if the hope boost is counting as some kind of manipulation, i get the feeling if she senses or suspects anything of the sort it just kills our argument dead. Tentatively against using it, just be honest.

You came to lyst to avoid exactly this kind of shit, even without angels and demons and conspiracies you are in danger of getting fucking disappeared by the heroes league to be their combination power detector and awakening monetizer.

There's already a bit of a class divide between the Awakened and not, if you could buy into powers and the levels thereof?
There'd be riots.

You wish you could just settle down into a chill life here with the cool people you've met.

But you can't, armageddon is on the way and theres nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. You can't ignore it, or in good conscience ignore the other weird shit going on.

You went looking for answers sure, but it isn't on you that the truth sucks. You might be why it's all coming to light now but you didn't make her friends and family situation the way it is.

You've been dropped into the deep end and you are doing your best dammit. You've got an incomplete picture and made some guesses but you haven't fabricated a damn thing.
>>
No. 1000445 ID: 031458

I... I feel trapped with this power. I can't ignore it. It's too much power to waste. By having it, I have a Duty use it. I NEED to awaken people. The more people awakened the better chance we all have.
...But I'm still a person. I don't want to end up some organizations slave. I don't want people to fight and die over me either.
If I stayed in DonJon, that's exactly what would happen. It was only a matter of time.
So I ran.
Ended up here. Furthest I could get on my limited funds without hitchhiking.
That much you know.

When I got here I had another problem though: I didn't know anyone.
So I took the job at the post office. Figured it was the easiest way to meet everyone in town.
Unsurprisingly, Willamina was the person I ended up getting to know the fastest. I did see her everyday after all, and given her condition I figured awakening her could really help.
...But a couple certain someones kept telling me she was selfish. Two-faced. Untrustworthy.
I don't have the luxery of gettin to know someone for months or years, so I vetted her.
I asked around, dug into her past. Found nothing suggesting she hurt anyone. I figured after that if there was anyone I could trust, it was her.
So I offered to awaken her and she accepted.

Honestly the inheritance part took me by surprise. I didn't know about it till she mentioned it after I floated her the offer. In truth? This has all been. Random chance. I'd call it fate but miss Iraphena didn't even see it coming.

That and Saba's last testimony also confirmed the apocalypse ask Willamina. I'm not trying to threaten you.
As for mind control... No? I can't do that. If I could I wouldn't have needed to leave the city, as I could at least prevent people I awakened from giving up my secret.

Look, Cannie... I know I showed up and just. Inserted myself into your life. I mean look at me, life has been moving... WAY too fast. I'm sorry.
So how about this.
Tell me to leave, and I will.
I can be gone from Lyst by tomorrow. You'll never see me again.
I'll even leave The Book and the fancy Combat Suit, so you can still go on that vacation with Willamina.
I only hope I'll be able to do as much good wherever I find myself afterword.
>>
No. 1000451 ID: 0fae41

> What if after he gets stronger he becomes a manipulative tyrant and we lose the ability to attack him and stop him?!?
While admitting you have and always will have the ability to take that upgrade might not be the best way to save face, point out that the lightning book is not dependent on your power, so no matter what Cannie will not be held under your sway.
>>
No. 1000452 ID: e51896

>>1000451
That is a very good point and I support. Though we'll have to let Cannie know that artifacts we’ve touched within 24 hours that are used to awaken others count as you having awakened them.

Unless Cat just dropped the lightning book in the backpack from summoning it from the coiling ring and didn't touch it, in which case we can ask Willamina to give it to Cannie so we won't touch it. Otherwise, we can let her know not to open the book until after 24 hours to awaken herself, and she can keep you in check to not go down a dark path, because really, you need her help to keep your morals straight, and this power... it scares you of the potential to manipulate you into doing really bad things.
>>
No. 1000456 ID: 9a2966

You don't have to HOPE that you can convince Cannie. You need to BELIEVE that YOU can keep your COOL and present yourself not as some manipulative Big City prick, but as Catherine Alexander - as WHO YOU ARE, because that's all you really NEED TO. It's certainly not mind control when you're giving YOURSELF a much-needed confidence boost to PREVENT a MELTDOWN. Besides, Callan's there. You can stay strong in front of your BIG BRO.

>WHY US?
The truth is...

Most of your friends and family died in the Dungeon Break.

You got flunked from your Tinker education due to awful elitist policies.

You've flipped from dead-end job to dead-end job for several years and got real ground down during that period.

Your girlfriend broke up with you a while back. It's fine now, but it extra stung at the time.

You have only a few surviving friends, and few you've kept up with of late.

So when you Awakened out of a sad drunk stupor you KNEW it was the EVENT YOU NEEDED to LEAVE DONJON and get a FRESH START.

Lyst was the first bus out of town. You just leapt on it.

The truth is, if she wants to DIG INTO YOUR ROOTS as much as you've DUG INTO HER FAMILY'S, you'll give her the fucking obituaries, the COMM numbers of your old teachers, your ex, any of your old crappy bosses or your remaining dear friends. Then she can - with your blessing, for what it's worth - do what you did. Snoop around, get an impression of who someone really is before deciding to trust them.

Anyway, she can go on to picture you, freshly empowered, joyful even, arriving in Lyst, after a nice chat with Isabella who you met on the bus. Fuck, Isabella's even the one to suggest - reluctantly - the post job as an opportunity. Picture you getting to meet new people, mostly friendly, hella unlike how things have been in Donjon for a while. Landing a decent job practically on your first day. Realizing that things're looking up, the FRESH START is working - despite all the complicated crap that comes trickling - or crashing - in after that first day.

That's it.

That's why them.

The two of them were some of the first people you met in town, some of the first you established contact with during your FRESH START. You had a nice fight match together with Cannie, even won, it was fun. You went out drinking with, and then dated Will, across two separate lovely evenings. It was sudden, but it was NICE. Trust came from that - both she and Will managed to come across as decent, stand-up kin, precisely the sort you might want to Awaken. You could SYMPATHIZE with Will - like A LOT - because SHE'D ALSO LOST HER FAMILY.

And you still recall being shocked at how VISCERALLY she reacted when you told her you could Awaken her. You thought you'd fucked up BAD for a moment, except it turned out to be WAY the opposite. You really had no idea about the inheritance - in fact, Aeglos had told you she was refused one entirely when you were looking into background details on the fire - which you got started on because of the animal burn during that first walk in the park.

Putting all this trust in the two of them, going for broke and sharing what you know now, even the heavy stuff... it's definitely partly a feeling of having to hurry things up due to the demons and angels and whatnot. But it's also that FRESH START, that you'd really like to be their FRIEND, to have SOMEONE ON YOUR SIDE and you don't want to feel hella conflicted and guilty you're sitting on secrets that very much involve their lives. Because if you JUST SAT ON THEM, you'd for sure investigate further or things would come to a head, and then at some point you'd have to EXPLAIN why THE FUCK you didn't say anything EARLIER.

She can doubt all she wants, but you didn't know ANY of this when you first came to town. It's just been one thing after another, good mixed with bad mixed with goodbad. You just wanted to get out from your less than stellar roach-ridden - no offense Rex - home and increasing series of crappy dead end jobs so you could SEIZE that FRESH START. Breaking the secrets bank as thoroughly as you have is mostly due to HAPPENSTANCE AND LUCK. Heck, Cannie herself was the cause of some of that. You didn't know about Isabella's powers and wasn't about to find out thanks to that ring of hers - not until Cannie insisted turnabout was fair play during that diner meeting.

And a LOT of the ensuing secrets-discovery involving Isabella came out of that one decision, a bit of paranoia and the sheer luck of having Rex on hand to look into things for you. And Rex almost died for that - lost their main body to Isabella's spirit burning them - which you DO feel guilty about.

For what it's worth, that whole diner encounter does prove Isabella was willing to share her secret with Cannie if push came to shove. Just extremely reluctant about it.

>MIND CONTROL! That is not instantaneous!
Not to undermine your own case here, but you think Achievement power-ups COULD get your power there mind-control wise, either sorta or eventually. You already have an option to buy a power upgrade that will make people you Awakened become unable to DIRECTLY attack you - and one to be able to retract powers you've granted, both of which would be pure nasty to hold over someone. You can see the System being douchenozzle enough to offer a pure Mind Control option if upgrades along those lines are developed.

But going in that direction is a CHOICE you have to INVEST in and unless someone you Awakened is doing BAD SHIT, you're not feeling particularly inclined to need to defend yourself against powers originating from you or to be able to retract powers. Honestly, you're hoping you can stick to Awakening people who won't end up, y'know, betraying you. Vain as that hope might be.

>What if after he gets stronger he becomes a manipulative tyrant and we lose the ability to attack him and stop him?!?
It's a fair worry. You don't plan to. Would she like to form the 'Make sure Catherine Alexander doesn't turn into an evil tyrant' club? Because you'd respect that, and work to empower her in ways NOT through your power as best able. There's a few ways you could think that'd be possible. Awakening items combined with use of Sage's Leap, for one, though that's rare as shit. Making sure she can complete her Achievements and upgrade through 'ordinary' means, for two.
>>
No. 1000459 ID: e51896

>>1000456
That is actually a very good way to use our hope power, not to use it to manipulate Cannie, but to hope we can still the same person we were before we awakened. just like Callan asked us if we were still the same person

Basically, believe in yourself!
>>
No. 1000482 ID: afa6f6

>>1000456
Im going to pretty much going second all of this, and also kudos for the thoroughness.

I would like to emphasize from it that shes threatening us for being manipulative, and for dangling power in front of them, and neither of which weve done. None of what we've told her about the situation is convenient enough or pleasant enough that it would make a good story just to manipulate them, except that we can give people powers, and thats both something we can prove through multiple people and Rex, its also incredibly dangerous to our personal safety, is not something we've EVER put out there as a means to control someone. In fact, the first person to manipulate anyone here was Cannie herself with Iraphena and Isabella back at the dinner. We've never bartered with our ability to Awaken people, We've only used it 4 times and two of those people are in this room, and the other is a wild badger. Not to mention, whats shes doing now is pretty much whats shes saying shes scared of us doing, Holding the threat of violence over us to get her way, and basically threatening us with a threat if we dont satisfy her. There were numerous other ways she could go about it if shes suspicious or curious about us after we've already spilled basically everything we know, And with the already on the table implication that if she doesnt like our answer shes going to hurt us personally, or worse going to tell other people about us so that we get killed or worse, its a shitty thing to do regardless of her reasons.
>>
No. 1000485 ID: 6c227a

If my goal was to get rich and powerful I'd have gone public with my powers. I came here to get away from this hero politics crap and hope for a fresh start and a normal life. My power is stupid valuable, but only for OTHER people. I'm just a regular person, and as you have just demonstrated, nobody needs powers to beat my ass.

I just met some cool people and wanted to see if I could maybe do some good for them without drawing attention to myself. I did NOT expect the iceberg to get this deep, and I am kind of freaking out about it, okay? I recognize that my showing up catalyzed some stuff that had been brewing for a while, but this isn't my show. We're acting on Willamina's info right now. You're here 'cause Will suggested it. If you don't trust me, trust her.
>>
No. 1000532 ID: afe7de
File 162123510517.png - (9.97KB , 500x500 , C2_219.png )
1000532

> Don't HOPE, BELIEVE
You're kind of panicking right now and are on the verge of an emotional breakdown. The only reason you're not crying right now is because you JUST got done crying over your bro. You take deep, shaky breaths, you don't want to HOPE that she believes you, that would be manipulating her and that goes against this conversation. Instead you try to BELIEVE in yourself. That maybe you can have the calm and understanding to convince her to not just blow your secret and cause your eventual death. You take another deep breath and try. You feel a warm energy in your chest slowly moving towards your neck, your voice comes out cracked, but its the best you can do for now.

[1 HOPE ENERGY USED]

You dont feel the energy going to Cannie, more like it feels like its supporting you, making you calm enough to make it through the moment.

> Backstory
You give her the bullet points version of your back-story, she looks impatient and you don't want to drag this out too much.

Your family died 8 years ago in the dungeon break. So did nearly all of your friends.
You flunked out of Tinker school because of elitism and not being awakened.
You went from dead end job to dead end job and got real ground down.
You have very few friends left and that you've kept up with.
You nearly died multiple times in muggings that stole the only thing you had left of your family.
Then you awakened and decided you needed a fresh start that wasn't at the source of your misery.
You came to Lyst on the first bus out of there, and met Will.
And for the first time in YEARS you weren't depressed and actually had fun.
SEVERAL people claimed she was SELFISH, TWO FACED, UNTRUSTWORTHY, so you snooped and found it to be BULLSHIT.
you built up trust, went on dates, sparred with, etc. it was nice and you could sympathize with will
So you trusted her and Awakened her, you only JUST found out about the inheritance and SHE was torn up about it

You: So Picture it, a freshly empowered, actually happy new arrival to Lyst. Who was suggested work by Isabella, albeit reluctantly. Getting to meet new new people and kin, realizing things were looking up, getting a FRESH START, despite all the complicated conspiracy shit? After the first day?
>>
No. 1000533 ID: afe7de
File 162123511617.png - (81.15KB , 500x500 , C2_220.png )
1000533

Cannie is silent, she's staring you down still, you're really not sure what to say at this point so you kind of start rambling.

You: You can doubt as much as you want, but I was scared even revealing anything to Will and thought I fucked up for a moment, I didnt know about the inheritance. I just happened across half the secrets I did, and AFTER you all coerced me into revealing my powers, WHICH TERRIFIED THE FUCK OUT OF ME, I find out that if I didnt act on it that Iraphena or Isabella would have had me MURDERED, why do you think I'm such a fucking panicked mess.

You: I don't know if one day my power will evolve to straight up mind control, I just upgraded my power for the first time and there's an option to start on that road, maybe the future could really lead to it, BUT THATS A CHOICE, one of MANY I'd have to do to become that kind of person. And unless someone I awakened starts doing BAD SHIT I wasnt considering it. I was just HOPING that that I could only awaken people that, you know, wouldn't betray me. Vain a hope as that might be?!?!

Cannie remains silent, her glare intensifying, maybe she's mad knowing you have the potential to become a problem, maybe you shouldn't have said that, no. You're going to BELIEVE in yourself and what you're saying. That warm sensation is still there.

Willamina: They WHAT? Uh CANNIE, maybe you-

Cannie: QUIET. Keep going Cat.

You: What do you even want Cannie? Do you want my fucking records, the obituaries, COMM numbers of the people I knew, character witnesses? Fucking go wild, investigate me, see what kind of person I am, I don't know what more I can even say. That Iraphena and I traded items and one of the items was my brother's stolen ring, that he's a spirit and I was crying because I got to talk to him for the first time in YEARS which was why I wanted alone time?!?

You're starting to panic, she's putting more pressure on your chest, its a bit hard to breathe, but you keep going anyway, you're starting to get ANGRY.
>>
No. 1000534 ID: afe7de
File 162123515994.png - (15.79KB , 500x500 , C2_221.png )
1000534

You: No, you know what, you're the one threatening me claiming I was being manipulative, for dangling power in front of you, neither of which are things I've even come close to fucking doing. Nothing here is that convenient or pleasant enough to make this a good story to get you in my pocket or some shit, except for my power, and it's not something I put out there as a means to control someone.

Cannie: That's enou-

You: No. FUCK YOU CANNIE. You don't get to tell me I'm done talking after MANIPULATING ME at the diner, I never bartered to Awaken anyone. I've only used my ability 4 times, one of which was on a FUCKING BADGER. And you right here, right now, are doing exactly what you're scared I was going to do. Holding the threat of violence over me to get your way, threatening me if I dont satisfy you.

You: You could have chosen LITERALLY ANY OTHER WAY of approaching this, but no, you chose this, and if you still dont want to trust me after I spilled basically everything I know, fine, whatever. But implicitly holding this over me, that if you dont like my answer you're going to hurt me or tell someone about me, which will get me killed or worse? That's a shitty thing to do, and I dont know if I can trust YOU.

Cannie lifts her leg off of you, but gives you a kick, which still hurts before backing off. Willamina comes to your side and helps you up. It's been a long time since you've been even close to this angry and betrayed. You sit back on the couch and Willamina is at your side. The warm sensation dissipates.

Cannie: Calm down, I just wanted to make sure you were legit. I believe you're genuine now. I wont tell anyone.

You and Willamina both blank at that response. Willamina just shakes her head, but you're just pissed that she brushed it off like that. In fact, you’re not so sure you can trust your back to this girl. Maybe she has a better reason for this than “making sure I am legit”. Callan’s shaking his head and taking deep, calming breaths. How do you respond?
>>
No. 1000536 ID: afa6f6

>>1000534
>> How do you respond?
"Convince me. "
>>
No. 1000537 ID: 094652

>>1000536
Seconded.
>>
No. 1000538 ID: 6c227a

Her turn I guess. After that display, why should you trust her? What kind of paranoia justifies physical violence?
>>
No. 1000539 ID: 6c85e8

Just keep it short and sweet.

"That's it?? Why are you being such an asshole, Cannie?"
>>
No. 1000544 ID: e51896

I personally think Cannie is legit.
But sadly, Cat has gone through so much emotional turmoil that he can't see that.

I think quietly telling "Convince me" is the only response to make. Don't make it an angry response. Just a cold quiet response

Nothing more, nothing less. Just those two words. Don't even have to make eye contact. She needs to know her manipulating you like that at dinner was wrong, so it is her turn to gain Cat's trust before the vacation.

If we say anything else, we can assure her we'll awaken Nicky, but other than that, just telling her "convince me" is the only thing that needs to be said.

If she tries to say anything thay doesn't involve convincing you like telling you to calm down, get Willamina to talk to her instead. You've said your peace.
>>
No. 1000550 ID: dfbac0

Of course, she's stubborn, which is horrible right now, because she's stubborn on the wrong side. We practically gave her Shellshock with the corruption and apocalypse with everything and she's dug her feet in through it all because if she budges she'd have to acknowledge that she's worked for evil people, that she's on the wrong side, she'd have to deal with that guilt so she'd rather delude herself that she's right.
It is understandable but..
It's absolutely INFURIATING! It makes you want to punch her out of stubborn but that would only make her more stubborn. Cat is understandably pissed at the whole damn situation. But in order for her to get our of that god damned trench she's dug and holding onto for her dear life, she has to get herself out. We've given her the information, now she needs to internalize it. Otherwise, things WILL get worse. She needs more than knowing she's on the wrong side, she needs to internalize it, this information can't just slide off of her, she needs to be able to understand it, to soak it in.
>>1000536
"Convince me."
A simple response, but it may be exactly what we need, as her having to convince us will lead to thinking over ours and her words. Convincing us that she isn't going to stab us in the back, and the fact that we need convincing will show her that she really is on the wrong side. It will also help us in ascertaining her intentions, as her trying to convince us would help with that and calming Cat down, but if she doesn't even try, we know she's a lost cause, and should be considered our enemy.
How we play this could either mean a big loss or a big gain, and there's more to the loss than the gain. She would let everyone know what we told her and could possibly be actively working against us. If we do get her on our side, then we have someone who's a strong fighter that could help us a lot as well as someone stubborn enough to not give up and stick by our side.
There's a lot rising on this conversation, let's not fuck it up.
>>
No. 1000560 ID: 98a0f5

Don’t escalate. At best offer another spar so you both can relieve some aggression and settle grudges. You don’t want bad blood to linger.

There’s many things that could’ve made her conflicted and angry about getting all of these deets dropped. That would’ve made her want to check if Cat was a threat and dig deeper, even with threats of violence.

Take a deep breath.

>convince me
Did she even quit Nunitus? You’d understand her reaction if she was still, like, working for them.

Are there people in Nunitus she really likes? You’d understand that too, and even forgive that last kick.

Did the things she got told while working for Nunitus resonate with her? Like, was she specifically warned against power-tripping Awakened? You feel like that’s something they might have tried to instill in their recruits.

And now for the biggie, can SHE prove she hasn’t been mind controlled in turn? She’s Unawakened, she’s close to Will. What sort of defense would she have if someone in a position of power wanted to put a spy near her sister?

Getting the third degree isn’t fun, Cannie. It’s frustrating and one can’t always provide or get answers that satisfy. You decided to put your trust in her, though. That MEANS something. You’re not just yanking her chain or fucking with her for the sake of it, or trying to take some kind of gross advantage of Will and her inheritance. You’re literally trusting her with your life. So she’s got to understand what she did right now was NOT PLEASANT.
>>
No. 1000587 ID: afa6f6

>>1000560
Yeah, I agree, we dont need to escalate, if only because Cat's had enough damn drama today.
All we really want is to know what the hell all this hostility was about. It wont make us square but it will help us understand. As it is now, we thought Cannie was cool, but recent behavior is proving otherwise. We need trust going forward, and we've put all our cards on the table, almost literally, she needs to convince us after this.

If she doesnt want to try, or just isn't convincing enough I think we should just...go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Maybe go see what Mint is up to. We havent checked out the brothel yet, I think, and at least that should be simpler then this.
>>
No. 1000588 ID: de9524

I mean, considering Cat's power it's pretty likely that if his power got out he'd get kidnapped and used as some kind of living tome/artifact rather than a person. Keeping things close to the chest just seems sensible in the face of that.
>>
No. 1000602 ID: e51896

>>1000587
Actually, I think after everything that happened, Cat will need a lot of emotional support from Willamina, his best friend right now, and should spend the rest of the night with her. Just as we need her emotional support after today, she needs ours.

We can go to the brothel with Andrea tomorrow anyway.
>>
No. 1000603 ID: 031458

Cannie seems... Unsatisfied. I think I know why.

She actually posed a REALLY good question that we haven't actually answered.
What's our endgame?
No seriously. What does our power mean to us, and what do we want to do with it?
What do we stand for?

Sure we plan on going along with Willamina's "Save the world" thing but that's literally just the first path that's opened up to us.
We've been so focused on survival that we've forgotten that we're a fucking awesome dude with fucking awesome power.
We are for better or worse, important. Important to the people around us. Important to the people of this world. Important to the Future.

We don't have the luxury of just being able to go with the flow anymore.

To someone looking in from outside like Cannie our lack of intent must be downright creepy.
We've shuffled her life around in a massive way, but from her point of view we are hiding our reasons for doing so.
She has every right to be frustrated and suspicious, and for someone like her who gets her way with her fists it makes sense that she would lash out at us, even if doing so isn't normally "ok".

We've already explained that life has been coming at us too fast for us to really plan anything already, but this question still needs to be answered, not only for her piece of mind, but for ours.
What do we care about, and what kind of future are we trying to build here?
>>
No. 1000606 ID: f5a24a

>>1000603
Cat is really caring, whether he intends to be or not. He saved a wild badger, helped improve Will's life, and despite not liking Isabella, and being scared of her, he still gave Max's photo to cheer her up.

He cares about others, he cares about friendship. The future he wants is to live a peacful normal life with his friends with no fears despite his powers.

Lets bring this up as well.
>>
No. 1000621 ID: 9a2966

>>1000603
This is relevant, but I think we need to turn it around in Cat's head, too.

>What did Cannie want? What was her play here?
She doesn't want to save the world, she claims, but she agreed to join you for now.

She wants her mom to be Awakened, so she can defend the town (and herself) in case worst comes to worst.

She got depressed by the revelation of Isabella's powers.

She got angry over you being the bearer of bad news concerning Nunitus.

What really tipped her over was the revelation Max was still around.

Your bro tells you she prefers honesty, but has probably gotten yanked around a lot.

>What kind of picture does that pain of her?
She's jaded and mad she's been lied to and kept out of the loop. Cat's been SHOT AS THE MESSENGER - but only partially, since I think Cannie's less of a meathead than her fighty, hotheaded nature might suggest.

She's got stuff that she treasures for sure, but she probably learned not to invest in causes, which you and Will have been offering her. She doesn't expect to get something for free - and you've been doing nothing but handing it out today, which might've been what gave such a hard rise out of her suspicions. She's got a tough attitude, doesn't give much of a shit for feelings, so if she had to metaphorically kick you in the balls to get a true rise out of you, get you to reveal your true nature, she'll do that. She did that.

I don't think Cat disappointed her as much as he disappointed her expectations. She was expecting Cat to crumble, to say something that broke the character she thought Cat was wearing. She might still be on the fence, but nothing Cat said pushed her over.

...also, Cat. For fairness' sake. Callan just told you about there being two external visitors to the Hadlee estate that day. That's still relevant information for these two and how they're to go forward treating Isabella.
>>
No. 1000622 ID: 96c896

>>1000534
Ok her turn now. She has to tell you why you can trust her, beyond just being Willamina's friend. This was supposed to be easier...
>>
No. 1000642 ID: 1a16a3

We refilled our water bottle before Liminal came in the post office, lets go ahead and drink some and calm your nerves, once you are a little calmer, consider this:

Yesterday, before their fight, cannie said this:

>she’s (Isabella) my friend, but like, sometimes she pisses me off, like at dinner. What the fuck was up with that, putting you on the spot like that, bribing you, and then nearly hiding Isabella’s power status. S’ like there’s some big ol’ conspiracy going on.

Apparently, Cannie probably was NOT interested in putting Cat on the spot on trying to get him to reveal his power at dinner, and was actually pissed at Isabella for doing that. She wasn't manipulating Cat then.

>>1000621
>>1000603
>>1000606

Support

it'd be so cool if Cannie after being told to convince Cat if she just silently removed her armband, and then walked away leaving Cat and Willamina to their thoughts
>>
No. 1000659 ID: f8fa51

Cannie forced us to metaphorically flay open our skin and bare ourselves, being made both physically and emotionally vulnerable to her by force. And now she's telling us to "calm down," as if that didn't happen? No, she doesn't get a free pass on that.

Cat needs at least some expressive outburst of anger here, if only to get it out of his system.
>>
No. 1000662 ID: 031458

>>1000621
>This is relevant, but I think we need to turn it around in Cat's head, too.

This is true, and it'll probably take time.
Luckily it's fairly normal for someone Cat's age to not have everything figured out, even if they didn't have sudden world altering super-powers.

At the very least Cat needs to recognize the question and express -if nothing else- that he does not have a cohesive plan for his powers, and does not yet know who or what he wants to be.
>>
No. 1000672 ID: 98a0f5

>>1000659
We already ended up accusing her of ulterior motives in the diner, which what we already know indicates isn’t true. If Cat really believed she was in on it, why even tell her all this? That’s just lashing out, trying to get a cheap hit in return.

There’s nothing righteous about blowing one’s lid and making wild accusations. If Cat wants to get proper even, suggest a second spar so he can kick her ass a bit (if he can). If Cat is of the opinion the third degree was the least cool thing, stake and justify that claim so Cannie maybe can get over her own issues and see she did him a wrong - or at least explain why she thought it was so dang necessary.
>>
No. 1000675 ID: f8fa51

I never made any claims about what happened at the diner. You must have me confused with someone else. This is all about Cat's treatment here and now.
>>
No. 1000682 ID: 98a0f5

>>1000675
Ah, the post wasn’t aimed at you that way. It was just a point to illustrate how lashing back angrily lead to an illogical accusation being made in the heat of the moment - one that probably hurt Cannie’s feelings in turn - and maybe continued railing at her isn’t Cat’s best or most productive bet, however angry he has the right to be.
>>
No. 1000720 ID: 53560f

We don’t technically have to be here for this.

“Will, you negotiate for me. I’m going to head out and consider who else I can awaken in case Cannie doesn’t work out.
Let me know about any deals or agreements you made when I get back, I trust you to carefully consider terms and to be reasonable on my behalf.”
>>
No. 1000724 ID: 76d0fc

>>1000642
You raise a very good point

But even if Cannie said that she was pissed at Isabella for forcing Cat to reveal his power, Cannie herself is still in the wrong for not even trying to do anything to stop Isabella and Iraphena from pressuring Cat, and her doing nothing having a bystander effect makes her at least just as guilty as well, even if she didn't know Cat that well.

She needs to know that even if she was pissed at Isabella for doing it, she is just as guilty for not even trying to stop them, not even a "hey, you think you should lay off a lil bit?" Would have given Cat a little bit of a positive view on Cannie. We can't have Cannie having that bystander effect if she is going to help fight to save the world

>>1000720

If we can help it, I think we should try to stay and reconcile things with Cannie and Cat right now and not run from our problems. If Cat has to go anywhere, lets just have him go to the soundproof bedroom to be alone for awhile with Callan, and wait for Willamina to talk to us. Can't leave her alone since she's been hit with a lot of emotional bombshells today too. They'll need each other.
>>
No. 1000734 ID: afe7de

Authors Note: No update today, its the last day of the tax season and im burnt out from work, BUT as a reward for your patience, feel free to suggest for Willamina's actions for this section too. Thanks for your patience, see you tomorrow. We're nearing the end of thread 2!
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No. 1000736 ID: 96c896

Willamina try to calm down Cat to salvage this, and uh-- have you ever seen Cannie get paranoid like this before? If not maybe you should ask her what that was about. You can have a private conversation if needed.
If so, do... whatever you usually do.

These two are both your friends, you should be able to work things out right?
>>
No. 1000749 ID: e51896

Willamina: get Cat his water bottle from his backpack/duffel bag immediatly. cool it up a bit for him with your ice powers and... give him a hug, and whisper that "everything will be okay, you're safe now". Tell him to go to the bedroom and you and he will talk privately together in a few minutes, and spend time together tonight, just the two of you, maybe have a bit of sex and then you and he can have some late night television watching in your house afterwards. A little escapism never hurts anyone. Assure him that this is just Cannie's weird way of getting a read on people. Really, It's tough love.

Afterwards, when Cat is in the bedroom, explain to Cannie privately that he has had a rough life... rougher than ours from what it looks like, I mean sure, we are scarred for life and lost most our family, but Cat lost so much more, friends, family, possessions, and he had to deal with thugs with almost nobody looking out for him except Shocker. Really, he's afraid. Ask Cannie that you need her help to show that he has nothing more to be afraid of, and show that he has friends now. help us show him that he is not alone anymore.

Then, Thank Cannie for trusting Cat and joining the alliance. Having her join will help give Cat that bit of tough love he needs now and then to toughen him up and keep him from getting complacent. Tell her that Cat will come around, and you will see about having him work with her and Random and then awaken her tomorrow evening.

Then hug Cannie as well.
>>
No. 1000753 ID: 76d0fc

Willamina should let Cannie know that right now, Cat needs to learn to trust others again, and see what it means to have true friends looking out for him again. He's been in a rough spot since the dungeon break with a lot of people in the city taking advantage or hurting him. And after he's got a power that can awaken others, shit, we'd imagine that he is even more terrified that lots more people will try to take advantage of him for his powers, and right now more than ever? He needs friends to support him emotionally, and help teach him to trust others again, otherwise he'll go down a dark path thinking everyone is out to get him. He's already made some couragous leaps in trusting others after revealing his powers to us, and even moreso with Cannie, so Cannie should try to help Cat continue his advancement in trusting others again by being his friend.
>>
No. 1000757 ID: 094652

Willamina: Ask what the hell he meant by his brother being a spirit. Ah well, the Dead really are walking (floating?) the World during the end times, including yours.

Give Cat a hug and tell Cannie to take a shower and think about what she did.
>>
No. 1000766 ID: 755b70

As Willamina, we need to have her as the mediator and not pick sides. They are both our friends, we need them both to work together. Understand they are both in the right in some aspects, and in the wrong in others

She needs to let Cat know that he has every right to be angry after how he's been treated, but he shouldn't burn bridges between himself and Cannie, let him know that Cannie is only doing this out of fear that she might lose her friends and family and wanted to make sure Cat was trustworthy, and she is satisfied with what she saw in Cat

Will should let Cannie know that while her heart was in the right place, her actions were a bit too extreme, considering Cat had been suffering all day today. Cat's actions were out of fear from potential threats, so it made sense for him to act the way they did.

Let them both know that they shouldn't be facing against each other, but instead, fear is what they actually should be facing against if we want them to both trust each other again.
>>
No. 1000804 ID: eb1fcc

>>1000456
Don't forget, we can even verify the burnt animals thing with a quick pop-in with our bunny cop pals if Will's testimony isn't enough there. I forget who specifically we reported that too, but we did, so that should be on record.
>>
No. 1000817 ID: 9a2966

>>1000734
Take care of yourself, the regular update schedule on this quest is pretty wild. Appreciatively so, but still, beware them burnouts!

>Willamina actions
While originally livid with Isabella and confused-mad about Max being alive, she's not very angry at anyone currently PRESENT so the quarrel is disturbing enough that her frustration and fury drops, leaving a mix of worry and resolve. She too wants to convince Cannie that Nunitus might be bad news - that's something she's fairly confident of thanks to Saba's will - but she knows her sister well enough to see she's angry about the implications there and wants to step lightly. She doubts her sister will betray them, so it's all just a matter of giving her the time to soak the details in. Cat just dropped too much on her and Cannie at once.

What Cannie did for sure wasn't nice, but Will would want to give her a shot at opening up as to why she's so aggressively skeptical and ready to believe Cat's a mind-controlling baddie - uh, even if it came out that he might actually be able to become one? Poor Cat seemed awful close to losing it there and he claimed some nasty - and surprising - stuff in return, so his well of secrets hadn't even run dry. Will's not sure how much of it is twisted by panic and anger and emotional cogs wearing out and how much is 100% truth, but she doubts most of it was spun from thin air.

So if the situation seems like it's escalating (or be about to) Will is ready to intervene by grabbing her mother's water-generating device and summoning a spray of mist to cool into a flurry of snowy particles and a chilly gust that she blows over Cannie and Cat - a COLD SNAP - to get them to literally cool down. Nothing harmful or lasting, just a quick shock to get their attention so she can say - with 'Mistress'-mode's chilling seriousness - that she's going to be VERY UPSET if either of them tries to make her choose between your friend or your sis.

She wants things STRAIGHTENED OUT before anyone leaves with their knickers in a twist and if she has to play the mediator, she will. But they're both adults, and they should be able to FUCKING PLEASE keep their COOL. There's enough FUCKED UP SHIT going on right now that you all FOR FUCKING SURE don't need any COCK-DAMNED FIGHTS BETWEEN YOURSELVES.

Will should go on to state she loves her sister, she's the very best, but Cat's really been nothing but a gentleman to you - a little disappointingly so - and none of his actions have come off as awful or come off in a way that won't come back to HAUNT HIS ASS if it turns out he's lying. She's not sure what she's gonna do if Cannie messes with him like that again WITHOUT WARRANT, but her sister can AT BEST expect some TIME OUT slush down her neck. Got that... HOTTIE-HEAD?

(she'd been saving that one for Isabella, but fuck if Cannie didn't just make herself deserving of it)

She should meet Cannie's eyes with determination 'till she blinks, then soften it up to give her a light pat on the shoulder and a quiet, confident 'we'll figure this shit out'.

To Cat she should state that she BELIEVES him, but he'd best be CERTAIN of the things he's telling her and her sister and EXPLAIN MORE CAREFULLY WHAT HE KNOWS - now or later - because if it turns out any of this is PURE NEUTRONIUM BULLSHIT, she's of course gonna take it out on his ASS, Great Awakener or not. Got that... PRICK?

Half-smile at the insult-turned-endearment and reach down to help him up (if he hasn't already gotten up) and give him a light hug and a quiet 'it's okay, she's not gonna tell on you'.
>>
No. 1000819 ID: 4c3192

Will should also let Cannie know that Cat has had a very emotional day getting bullied by the heroes rep, learning of what was in grandfather's will, and iraphena probably didn't help calm things either when he visited her.
Tell her that it was your fault really for pushing Cat into explaining things after all the shit he went through today, so the outbursts were excusable.

And yeah, apologize to Cat too for not considering how he was feeling before bringing Cannie here. You'll make it up to him tonight, for now, he must be so exhausted, let him sit and think in the bedroom.

And yeah, suggest Cannie and Cat schedule meeting tomorrow evening for Cannie's night job, might be best for them to know each other a little bit more then.
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No. 1000874 ID: 894419

Cannie, go fuck yourself.
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No. 1000885 ID: afe7de
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1000885

> Calm Down
> Don't get emotional
> Calm down
> Express your anger
> You need emotional support
The stress of the situation and your in flux emotions are getting to you. You feel STRAINED and STRESSED. You're not quite close to depression yet, but you feel a pretty strong desire to SMOKE. You'd really like to fuck, cry, or cuddle while watching some shitty TV or something. But you have to deal with this first. Today's been TOO LONG. You're close to snapping but you hold back with the little restraint you have left.

> Go with Cannie on her job tomorrow
No. You refuse this course of thought and action. Even if Cannie apologizes and everything’s fine you want time to yourself or something. You’ve been going very fast and doing a lot of things all this time and you haven’t had a BREAK. If you change your mind you can do something, but you feel like if you don't take some time to yourself you’re going to be MORE STRESSED.

> Don’t run away
> Convince Me
You’re ticked, you’re really mentally out of it right now, but you refuse to just run away and break down no matter how easy it might be. This is something you need to deal with now or it’ll be a bigger problem later, so you pick the most appropriate way to do it. You take a good long look at Cannie and say two words.

You: Con-vince Me.

Cannie scoffs and shrugs.

Cannie: Of what?

You don’t respond, you don’t even look at her. This is the best you can do in your stressed condition right now, Willamina notices this and decides to chime in. She grabs your hand for support.
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No. 1000886 ID: afe7de
File 162140889259.png - (7.69KB , 500x500 , C2_223.png )
1000886

Willamina: I care about both of you a decent bit, so I’m going to try to be IMPARTIAL here. So here, let me make this easier. How about, why give Cat the third degree at this level of INTENSITY? Or maybe think over Cat’s words, what do you think?

Cannie: I don’t see why I-

Willamina: TRY. For ME.

Cannie seems a little defeated at that and takes a moment before responding.

Cannie: First. You can’t just go into a dungeon and expect everything will go right with a positive attitude. Kin DIE. Sometimes the dungeons LITERALLY pit you against your friends, forcing you to kill a certain number before letting you leave. You have to have CONVICTION. Words? Whining? They mean JACK-SHIT. Saying you have a dungeon that can power level us to A or S rank is a bullshit pipe dream where if you go in with 8, only 2 will come out. MAYBE. And if it comes between my sister and you, I’ll pick her without a moment of thought.

Cannie: Then I hear you’re giving people who don’t know what they’re doing powers seemingly altruistically and it pisses me off. Kin don’t just give out artifacts to others. Everything’s about BUX and RESOURCES. And while I hate that about the HL, it’s been true for thousands of years. And hearing you don’t have an end goal in site, or something you want to do, just to get strong disappoints me.

Cannie: Frankly, I don’t care about the world. I care about my family and the kin that have been good to me. If I can find a way to get them to survive, then great, but you tell me that two people that I care extremely deeply for are one alive and two mystically powered and harassing Willamina, yeah I get pissed off.

Cannie: You are weak, Cat.

Cannie: And unless you can fix your timidness and approach, you’ll die. You can’t do anything yourself and are relying on others. You’ll become a parasite in no time, of that I’m positive. Sure, you can give kin powers, but so what? There are kin and people who are strong WITHOUT powers, but I don’t think you’ll ever be one.

Cannie tears off her Nunitus armband and tears it to shreds before tossing it on the ground.

Cannie: I’ll believe that Nunitus is bad and the world is going to shit, but the SECOND- and I mean SECOND- we find a way to get off this rock and out of the crossfire, I’m taking who I care about and I’m leaving. I like fighting, I like getting stronger, but I don’t want any part in fighting to save this planet, it’s just not worth saving in my eyes. That’s all.

And before either of you can say anything, she walks out, slamming the door.
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No. 1000887 ID: afe7de
File 162140890886.png - (9.42KB , 500x500 , C2_224.png )
1000887

It’s silent. You feel an indignant fury building in you, it mixes with a deep and boundless depression. You’re trying to internalize what was just said and comprehend it. She’s right that you don’t have a long-term goal. That you just want to get strong enough to survive. You just hopped on the save-the-world bandwagon because the first person you awoke wanted to. You probably were going to just float aimlessly after that.

But thinking again, that’s not true. When you were younger you wanted to be a hero like your brother, but that dream was thoroughly squashed when THE INCIDENT happened. Then you wanted to be a Tinker, go to college to make things to help not let things like that happen, but they killed that dream too. So you just took jobs and tried to form connections, but barely anyone wanted one of those too because you had nothing to offer. And now that you have this power, after years of losing your dreams, you don’t have anywhere you think you want to go. You briefly remember years ago, the dark room, th-. No. You’re not going back to that dark place. You’re better than this.

You didn’t notice but you’re crying, it’s a silent cry, your face thoroughly soaked. You’re laying on Willamina’s lap and she’s quietly consoling you.

You reflect some more. You’re weak, yes. But you’re actively seeking improvement. You were called a parasite, and there’s some truth to that, you were just accepting of Willamina’s kindness and now she’s covering your expenses, but you were also thinking of ways to give back to others. You almost didn’t when you were bargaining with Iraphena, but changed your mind and realized the necessity. Your mind’s a jumbled mess right now, you imagine that this level of stress will get pretty common in the future with the constant fights for your life and so on. You were too spoiled by your world. Callan takes the moment where your eyes are focusing again to speak up.

Callan: Hey man. We’re here for you. You tried being honest, but sometimes you can’t win over everyone, if you can even call what just happened as winning over someone.

Willamina, not knowing that Callan’s speaking, decides to pipe up as well.

Willamina: She’s always been THAT uh, BLUNT I guess. I didn’t realize...

She starts mumbling but it’s hard to focus on. How do you respond to all of this stress, is it Cannie that’s in the wrong? And do you have a GOAL you want to set for yourself? Setting a GOAL or DRIVE or ATTITUDE for how you handle this moment will slowly change how you interact with the world going forward.
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No. 1000888 ID: 094652

Don't let Cannie decide how you should move from here on. She's a bully, and she hasn't decided her own path either.

Why yes, you are indeed weak. And you will always be weak. Because you're not stupid. Cannie was afraid of your weakness. She knows that the bullied are molded into beasts and weapons that can truly hurt her, in ways that her usual stupid aggressiveness can't possibly overpower. That's a challenge you'll have to live with for the rest of your life; having true power constantly thrumming in your body without letting it go to your head. Price of being a true hero, you see.

And despite the realism and practicality of being cynical and provincial? Well, she can do her, but it's all shallow. Say you only protect your cozy little town and a handful of people while the world burns. Do you want to reinstall all the infrastructure and nip the sociopathic politics in the bud and repopulate the planet without going insane with too many children and not enough adults? You may as well let the world die if you can't save its soul. Cannie thinks her world is Donjon, the town, and her screwed up family. That's never how it works and there wouldn't be Dungeons and Dragons and Demons and Angels if it was.
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No. 1000891 ID: 96c896

>>1000887
Honestly it's fucking bullshit to expect so much of you when you've been beaten down for your entire life and Awakened less than a week ago. You haven't had time to think about long term goals.

What the fuck happened to the Cannie that was upset over getting someone hurt in a dungeon? What happened to her being pissed at her sister for walking all over her? It's like SHE got mind controlled. ...maybe that's the forest lady's power. Not just control over animals, but control over people as well, and she used it to set her against you, make it harder for you to recruit her and pose a threat, since she saw you and her sparring.
The world's not worth saving? Then change it. Become strong, gather strong people, use them to root out corruption and put systems in place to protect the weak. Maybe it won't last forever, but nothing ever does.
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No. 1000894 ID: 96c896

Also, fuck "Cat just grabbed onto the save the world goal because it was the first thing someone suggested". We obviously wanted to do that the instant we found out there was an apocalypse! ANYONE with any fucking brains at all would want to try to save the world in Cat's position.
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No. 1000900 ID: 96c896

what kind of goddamn moron would respond to "I wanna save the world" with "you have no long term goals" anyway? Christ. This is ridiculous. It's also ridiculous to tell someone like Cat, who has a power that does not benefit himself at all, that he's "weak". Or to tell someone that they're being timid after thoroughly intimidating them with your much greater strength, and then kicking them while they're down.
There is no excuse for Cannie's behavior at all. Any redeeming qualities she had were just thrown away when she partook in completely unnecessary physical and verbal violence. Like, okay, intimidating Cat a little would've been fine, then she crossed the line and kept going. She's a bully, and decided to beat up Cat physically and emotionally because he said something about her sister that she didn't like, despite complaining about not knowing the exact piece of information we gave her. No excuse whatsoever.

The BEGINNING of the apocalypse is 1-3 years away. That's when the demon-angel war is supposed to start. Stopping that AND what comes after is a long term goal; we don't even know when the fighting will stop! It is a terrible idea to plan past that point because we don't know what state the world is going to be in! Basically anything we come up with is going to be a "no duh" kind of thing, like "keep my friends safe" or "live a life of luxury".

I say we cut ties with Cannie completely. She doesn't get to be in the dungeon run, she doesn't get any help with jobs, she doesn't get any more sparring practice. We don't awaken her or her mom, and we make sure she knows that it was entirely her fault.
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No. 1000904 ID: 96c896

And another thing: of fucking course we're using Willamina's money. We're the only reason she GOT it. It hasn't even been 24 hours since we got access to it, that's WAY too early to start feeling like we're taking advantage of her.
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No. 1000906 ID: f8fa51

She says she hates how everything is always about looking out for number one, but then is disappointed you're not doing the same. She says the world isn't worth saving, but wants you to be exactly the same as everyone else?

She's not talking straight, and you don't need to take her words to heart. You can be idealistic without being weak. Unfortunately, a grand total of one thing she said about you is true: You can't fight on an awakened's level as you are, and you'll need to fight. Work on changing that.
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No. 1000915 ID: 30b9f6

>>1000900
>What kind of moron...
Burns bridges because someone had a point to make, but made it poorly? Gives up on someone because of a difference of opinion? Denies them a chance to grow, and them defense and protection, because of a single quarrel?

Let's not semi-mirror Cannie here.

And look, if Cat can - and should - give themselves a pass for not being PERFECT and READY for this, the same should apply to Cannie, yeah? It's a tough situation all around. Cannie's not having much fun right now either - she's likely leaving for PRIVACY and to VENT FRUSTRATION, because NEITHER HER SISTER NOR HER OLD FRIEND TRUSTED HER WITH THEIR SECRETS. Nor do we know what her situation with Nunitus was and how hard it hit her. She might never tell us if we just push her away after this.

And yeah, obviously there's plenty to disagree with about Cannie's assessment - how Cat's power leans hard into having to cooperate with others who will also specifically be new to Powers and that's not their fault, how not everyone can or has to be a POWERHOUSE in battle as long as they can STAY ALIVE TO OFFER SUPPORT, how wanting to MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THE WORLD (i.e. 'SAVE' it) isn't necessarily a BAD GOAL - but, critically, Cannie is not IN THE WRONG to HAVE A STRONG OPINION about all of this.

She's just not right about everything - and the best way to PROVE HER WRONG is for Cat to GROW. Whether they'll be a HERO, a SAVIOR, a BLOODY FOOL or A TYRANT, the path they're on isn't one for the WEAK and UNPREPARED. Cannie GOT THAT RIGHT.

>Attitude
So find that glimmer of DETERMINATION and stoke it, nurture it, BELIEVE in it. Cat NEEDS to be their own mental bulwark. They can't just CRUMBLE - or damn near to - because someone SMACKS THEM ABOUT and CALLS THEM A PARASITE out of worry for their sister. Worse things will come, especially if Cannie's assessment of what you're trying to do is anything to go by. Shit, being FORCED TO KILL YOUR FRIENDS by a DUNGEON sounds FUCKING AWFUL and is definitely something to AVOID if at all possible.

Wipe your tears. Get to your feet and stretch. Prod at your kick-bruise, and eye Callan and Will both.

"Urrrgh... dear today; suck less. Uh. Do you at least wanna see my bro, Will? He's cool."

Hand her the Demon Eye Amulet.

(Also, why are we not buying Catalyzer's Rights and applying it to ourselves and those around us - Callan included - right this second? The sooner a Growth happens the better, and helping other people around us grow will certainly alleviate the worry that they themselves will be weak enough to as easily die in a dungeon.)
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No. 1000925 ID: e51896

>And unless you can fix your timidness and approach, you’ll die. You can’t do anything yourself and are relying on others. You’ll become a parasite in no time, of that I’m positive. Sure, you can give kin powers, but so what? There are kin and people who are strong WITHOUT powers, but I don’t think you’ll ever be one.

Cannie raises a very good point. we need to get stronger, and stop being reliant of others. Otherwise, we will become what she fears, a tyrant that manipulates and controls others. We need to make sure we don't use our powers to manipulate others to get what we want and instead try to be more reliant of our own strengths to actually work to become strong enough to EARN our rewards, not leech off of others.

What she is wrong about, is that she believes we will never become strong enough, even without powers. That, we need to prove wrong to her.

>>1000900

>I say we cut ties with Cannie completely. She doesn't get to be in the dungeon run, she doesn't get any help with jobs, she doesn't get any more sparring practice. We don't awaken her or her mom, and we make sure she knows that it was entirely her fault.

I strongly disagree with this. I believe people can change, and we should always try to see the good in people. We should instead try to prove her wrong to earn her respect. She is just concerned over the safety of her loved ones, so it's reasonable she acted the way she did.

Plus, she is Willamina's sister, and one of her best friends. she cares about Willamina so it is understandable that she does not want her to get hurt, just like us. And not having her go on dungeon runs with us will only have her hate us more. Willamina probably wouldn't be too happy about us not bringing Cannie either. And we should at the very least awaken Nicky, if not for Cannie's sake, but for Willamina's. They need someone to protect the town after all.
Plus having her with us will help ensure that we don't go down a path of manipulation like she fears and keep us in check. Basically, if she doesn't believe in us, we need to PROVE to her that we are strong enough to earn her respect.

Don't forget, she just cut ties with Nunitus by removing her armband, which I believe was something very difficult for her to do. If she is able to change her views like that without using our hope powers to convince her, then I believe we can change her mind about us as well. Burning bridges will only cause more drama and make us more untrustworthy.

GOAL or DRIVE or ATTITUDE

ATTITUDE: you want to be SELFLESS, SYMPATHETIC, and EMPATHETIC. we want to help others with their problems. We helped Willamina with her awakening her and healing her wounds, and made her happier with her shitty life just by being with her despite her temperament, not just because we gave her powers. We told the truth about the artifacts to Iraphena despite how she treated us, we gave a photo of Max to Isabella even despite how she treated us. We were honest with Gena when we were put in a situation that could have lost us our job. We tried to break Mint's slave contract. Overall, Cat has been trying to do things to better people's lives. Basically, it feels good to help others and give the HOPE.

DRIVE: Our friends are what drives Cat to succeed, and we want our friends to succeed to. He values the trust and friendship of others. He believes in his friends.

GOAL: we want our friends to LIVE. Not survive, but LIVE. Whether it be from saving the world, or finding a way to get through the apocalypse. You just want everyone to LIVE life to it's fullest. It was the main reason we moved to Lyst in the first place.
We want to become Strong enough too, not rely on our powers to manipulate others to get what we want, but become strong enough to EARN the rewards we get.
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No. 1000927 ID: afa6f6

>>1000900
Pretty much this, Geez, what a hypocritical spiel that was. I know one thing, shes not being entirely honest about what she was angry about, if she even knows at all.

>>Cannie: Then I hear you’re giving people who don’t know what they’re doing powers seemingly altruistically and it pisses me off. Kin don’t just give out artifacts to others. Everything’s about BUX and RESOURCES. And while I hate that about the HL, it’s been true for thousands of years. And hearing you don’t have an end goal in site, or something you want to do, just to get strong disappoints me.

Bitch, We wanted to give people powers so so that they can have a chance to LEARN, And YOU specifically because you had experience! Do you think people just come out of the womb strong or weak, because thats some wild misunderstanding to the world in general. It takes Time, Effort and opportunity which are what were trying to create. And fuck what every else does, what WE do isnt dictated by money, We're giving power to who we think can use them and be trusted with them, or NEED them, and BUX as well as whats worked for years are going to be real irrelevant in 1-3 years anyway.
We're getting strong so we can survive, because we're already planning to put ourselves in dangerous situations, because the alternative is wait for the world and everyone around us to die. The dungeon runs and the acquisitions of power are not an end goal, and were never intended to be, just a means, and really power like that should only ever be a stepping stone.
Beating back or evading a horde of invading demons, and then angels is a good enough end goal for anyone.

Just because Cat is not a physical powerhouse now doesnt mean he cant do anything himself, he's already DOING stuff NOW, And N in this situation no feasible amount of power would be enough to do things alone anyway. And Cat's already working on getting more capable anyway, and has been for almost as long as this has been going on, thats what acquiring the spell books and artifacts was for. But honestly, if the goal is to create a structure, a way for more kin to survive and not just save himself like some kind of jaded, selfish asshole, then giving others the means to do more, to protect themselves and those around them, is far more useful and important than personal strength. Thats not being a parasite, thats being an asset, and ally. Parasites dont give anything back. We Can, Have, and WILL make others lives better, and its not something we should feel bad about, or worry about benefitting from.
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No. 1000929 ID: efa4b1

Cannie is thinking realistically, she has experience going into dungeons before and knows firsthand the dangers it poses. She is being harsh and telling us we're weak because she probably have met people with the same attitude we have fall victim to the dungeons they travel in, and wants us to get it to our heads that we need to get stronger and not just rely on others.

Cutting ties with her and not allowing her the chance to change her views on us is SELFISH of us. Just like how we changed how Willamina viewed us from where we first met us with her cold attitude to now valuing our friendship, we can also change Cannie's view towards us as someone who is weak to someone who is strong.

Lets prove her wrong that we are weak by showing her we can get stronger. Lets make it our goal to protect our friends.

Yeah, lets introduce our bro, screw around with Willamina, and watch some television. Let us RELAX
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No. 1000937 ID: 547819

Lets at least give Cannie the chance to change her views on us. I imagine that everything we told her like on Isabella and Max made her just as emotional and didnt make her think straight on certain things. At the very least, she trusted what we said enough to throw away her armband and convinced her Nunitus as evil. I believe that she isn't going to reveal our secret power to anyone either. Really, The only thing we need to do now is prove to Cannie that we are not weak.
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No. 1000939 ID: 9ae791

Like your brother said. She seems used to getting jerked around, probably being treated like an idiot muscle that should't be trusted with anything important, an afterthought with nothing useful to say, desperately clinging to anyone who seems to actually care about what she thinks. Her trust is hard earned, and hearing horrible things about two of the only few loyaltys she has is going to infuriate her and make her doubt the rest of them. Who even does she care about at this point? I bet she's asking herself that now.

I'm contemplating saying you should have roach tail her but at this point maybe demonstrate you trust her. Apologize gently. Explain that this whole experience feels like the worlds been thrust upon your shoulders when, you're also person that wants to do good for people they care about that was near universally panned as useless. And has been given the chance to change things for the better. To be a hero to someone. And you you want that chance for her, too.
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No. 1000943 ID: 3ed3c3

>>1000900
I agree with this, especially the part where we cut her off and never empower her.
I do not and will not accept that there is any capacity for change in someone like that. I have no idea why other posters are bawling for us to give her another chance, but FUCK THAT, say I.
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No. 1000944 ID: 547819

>>1000943
Just curious, Why do you believe it is impossible for us to change her mind about Cat? We did manage to get her to change her mind about Nunitus after all. Maybe her harshness was to scare us straight to take this dungeon crawling more serious. Shouldn't we try to prove to her that we have the capacity to be strong and have a goal for ourself?

Remember, our power is arcane catalyst

A catalyst is an event or a person thay causes a change.

Lets be that catalyst to make a change in Cannie's view of Cat, and her view on how she see's the world.
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No. 1000949 ID: 3ed3c3

>>1000944
Why do you want to change her mind so badly?
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No. 1000953 ID: 547819

>>1000949
Because I believe her heart is in the right place, it's just her anger is coming from her love of Willamina and her concern that she might get hurt in the dungeon and we are giving the impression that we aren't taking it seriously since dungeons are dangerous. And i believe she just needs someone who believes in her considering everyone else like Isabella kept lying to her

Plus do we really want to keep her from protecting her sister Willamina when we go dungeon diving? Pushing her away from Willamina and convicing Willamina Cannie is bad will just make Cannie hate us even more and bring out the potential for her to go back to nunitus, or have Isabella manipulate her into thinking Cat is evil and cause a possibility for Cannie to reveal everything she knows about Cat to Nunitus and Isabella.
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No. 1000969 ID: 9a2966

>no idea why others want to give her another chance
Awright, implicit challenge accepted.

>1
Because encouraging a change of heart in someone (if that's the road the story goes) is more uplifting and interesting than someone acting angry, petty or being all 'they must pay for this' vendetta-ish (at least to me).

>2
Because staying on bad term with Will's sister could endanger Cat's relationship with Will and that's a pairing I for one would like to continue to encourage (although it's fine if it doesn't work out). There's also, y'know, the danger of Cannie falling to the Dark Side (Light Side? Angel side?), which won't be ideal for our nascent heroes (however interesting it might be to see play out).

>3
Because we had previous positive interactions with Cannie and she hasn't come off as bad until now - and I'd question whether it's actually BAD to try to give someone a reality check, the real hurt and harm here lay in the undeserved violence and harsh language - and even what happened here can be understood for the possible reasons already outlined; frustration at the truths revealed, doubt IN the truths revealed and the person revealing them, feeling wounded by pillars of stability and trust crumbling, misplaced anger turning into shooting the messenger, wanting to shield her sister from abuse and risk, being jaded, etc.

To be clear, no poster is inherently unreasonable for wanting to take the tale in the direction of Cat cutting Cannie off - it's not an unlikely result from how this encounter went! But doing so makes Cat come across as incapable of empathy with Cannie's situation, and from a 'person I'm rooting for' and 'story beats I'd like to see' perspective that's not something I would like to encourage - so I'm not!
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No. 1000973 ID: 6c227a

Now just seems like the appropriate moment to get these thoughts crystalized. Cannie muttered something about saving the world. That hadn't really been your plan, because:

Recall, psychics and seers like Iraphena uniformly predict the circumstances surrounding the end of the world.

Consider, Iraphena cannot see you or predict your actions. This appears to extend to all divination methods encountered so far.

Ergo, nothing you do was included in those end of-the-world predictions.

Ergo, if you do ENOUGH, perhaps you CAN change the future.
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No. 1000974 ID: 6c227a

Anybody else think it's weird that she went on that whole Nunitus Is Evil journey by herself despite us repeatedly and intentionally not bringing it up? I wonder what she knows?
[or if the author internalized all our unused suggestions on the matter and acted like we HAD said some of them perhaps?]
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No. 1000977 ID: afe7de

>>1000974
I internalized them, yeah. Several suggestors said I mentioned nunitus, and I kinda forgot I didnt. Whoops! Just assume that somewhere along the line, unmentioned that nunitus being a bad was mentioned. Sorry!
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No. 1000978 ID: 031458

Cannie's position is... Understandable. She was rough and it seem's bleak but...
She's giving us a chance.
However. her final words were both a threat and a challenge.
> the SECOND... we find a way to get off this rock... I’m taking who I care about and leaving.
There will come a time when we must DEFEAT Cannie, or else she take Willamina and any other family and friends she has in our party away forever.
This can happen at any time and she will be far more powerful than she is today.
At that time our Resolve must be strong enough to prevent our comrades from taking her side willingly, and our Prowess must be great enough to at least win the battle. I suspect that if we can gain the UNIVERSAL TRUST of our comrades and defeat Cannie SOUNDLY she will relent and join our cause.

Alternatively we could just EARN CANNIE'S RESPECT the old fashioned way. Perhaps TRAIN WITH or RIVAL her, but it's a HIGH BAR. I imagine we'll get ONE SHOT at entering such a relationship.

One thing is for certain. It only get's harder from here. We will need to train body, mind, and power constantly if we are to have a chance against her, much less everything else.

.....

Respond to this stress with with some frustrated angry outbursts. It's not really directed at anyone. More yourself really because-
Cannie's right.
You ARE weak.
As you are now even with all these fancy artifacts, people will die if you challenge a dungeon, much less fucking angels.
Her self-serving attitude is Valid even if such broad disregard for her fellow Kin DISGUSTS you.
After today it should be easy to let her go. Hell, logically you should agree with her but...
NO. IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
YOU HAVE SEEN THE HORRORS FATE HAS IN STORE FOR THIS WORLD WITH YOUR OWN EYES.
YOU HAVE FELT THE BITTER ACHE OF LOSS IT BRINGS.
YOU AND WILIMINA BOTH OWE YOUR LIVES TO PEOPLE BOTH WILLING AND ABLE TO CHALLENGE FATE.
A ROAD HAS OPENED UP TO YOU, ONE WHOS PATH WILL LEAD YOU TO BECOMING ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.
WHO WOULD TAKE YOUR PLACE SHOULD YOU COWER?
WHO WOULD SAVE THOSE DESPERATE SOULS AT THE END?
Willamina wants to save the world?
ETCH IT INTO YOU HEART!
YOU WILL DEFEAT THESE INTERDIMENSIONAL INVADERS TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD!
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No. 1000981 ID: eb1fcc

>>1000887
If we're gonna do anything, we're gonna do the hard shit.

Big Goal:
Stop not just our apocalypse, but all future apocalypses. Stop the cycle entirely.

We goin' full Doom Slayer.
>>
No. 1000988 ID: 96c896

>>1000915
>>1000925

Her "point" was irrelevant. Cat is just starting out, of course he's weak. Her accusations of him not "timid" are false, because the only reason we didn't go harder on her is because she's Willamina's lifelong friend. Of fucking course Kin give eachother shit without expecting payment, those are called GIFTS. Friends give gifts to eachother! We were trying to be her friend because she's an exceptionally close friend of Willamina who I would say is a pretty good friend of Cat's by now. Also it's not like we weren't getting anything out of awakening her, she'd be helping us through the dungeon. Relying on other people makes complete strategic sense for a person who gives other people strength. Like, that's the entire fucking point of Cat's power, to grant and cultivate power in others, not himself.

NOTHING Cannie said was valid. She was full of shit and lashing out because... Cat was being nice. Because we were being nice, she decided to be an asshole. She didn't just look a gift horse in the mouth, she kicked it in the teeth. I do not want anything to do with that kind of person.

>>1000929
Realistically?! No, a realistic person would warn Cat that he is going to lose people unavoidably so he needs to bring more people that are expendable. Not heap abuse on him just because he was being nice. It's like she was dead set on the idea that only the three of them were going.

I'm honestly not sure if I want to bother following this quest if the dungeon is going to be that bad though. Character death should not be arbitrary, and it'd completely spoil the mood of the quest besides. All this excessive drama and rapidfire plot twisting is spoiling it already.
>>
No. 1000989 ID: dfbac0

Well, I guess that's all we can expect from Cannie, you could say she's Jaded, that she is being realistic in assuming that she can only save her family. But that is bullshit. Cannie is weak. She hears about the end of the world and immediately gives up on living, and instead focuses on surviving. She's a person of physical strength, but mentally she is one of the weakest, giving up so quickly.
You are STRONG. Not because you can punch a dude but because despite all this you have not lost HOPE. A normal person would have entered a downwards spiral after not only having all of their family die but being robbed and beaten multiple times afterwards. But you got back up. You got up and still looked for ways to help people, you never got rid of your dreams, you never ever let them get crushed. You have RESOLVE.
Your goal has never changed, it's just been reinforced, you need to help people, you need to ensure life can go on. Not in a literal sense, but in a figurative sense as well. You will have people do more than survive, you will have them LIVE, you will give them hope and you will let them keep their freedom, their sanity, their lives. The Demons enslave, The Angels massacre, but you will not allow either to ruin your home. You, for all intents and purposes, will be a BEACON OF HOPE.
You know that dungeons are dangerous, that anyone could die at any moment, but you won't let yourself become as downtrodden and pessimistic as Cannie, you have found an avenue to success, you're not turning it down because of the risk, if everyone were to do that humanity wouldn't exist. In fact, humanity's continued existence may rely upon you. You might not be some super powerful hero, but you are determined to make things right, and no one will ever take away your determination, your hope, your dream.
Cannie expects you to have an end goal, something specific. I say that's bullshit. You have a course of action for now, a way to improve, and you have an ideal, you aren't going to constrain yourself to some realistic goal as that would only detriment you, they saying goes: Shoot for the stars and you will land on the moon. Well, you are going to do just that, you're going to do your best in any situation, deciding what the next course of action is in the moment. Simply put: Keep an open mind, don't let yourself be bogged down by a specific goal, but instead strive for the best.
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No. 1000995 ID: 9a2966

>>1000988
>I'm honestly not sure if I want to bother following this quest if the dungeon is going to be that bad though.
There's several factors here which may be worth considering, chief of them this: What Cannie's perspective is.

Cannie cut her teeth on the Donjon Dungeon. The dungeon Saba stated had a notoriously high difficulty degree for the first few levels. I tried to get Cat to ask her about her experiences dungeon diving, but it likely didn't flow well into the sequence of events and got dropped. We may approach this topic later, assuming relations soften, and indeed we should, since she' an Unawakened with that experience and we may want to know what's going on in the Donjon Dungeon for later anyway.

She did this WHILE working for Nunitus though, the guild controlled by the angels. Who are not reportedly keen in letting people Awaken themselves and probably instills in their recruit a healthy amount of fear and respect of the dangers of dungeon diving to justify not doing it often and have fewer spoils to hand out - plus maybe use it to drive people AWAY from dungeon diving. It's speculation on my part, but it would fit their MO and motive. For all we know they could even have made the Donjon Dungeon even WORSE than it was in order to surreptitiously get rid of unaffiliated Awakened from 'Death by Dungeon'.

Both of these factors might help explain Cannie's rough attitude here - she'd literally be ready to believe Cat and Will are newbs about to throw themselves into the jaws of death and dear goddess why would she let them do that without a wake-up call?

Finally, there is definitely going to be an element of danger. Saba himself stated something along the line of that he built the dungeon to act as a high-risk, high-reward crash course for the next generation - but I THINK he included more safety elements than a nastier dungeon would have, what with the teleport option and all. I think it's fair to say Saba's dungeon will probably be a tutorial of sorts for us and the real dangerous ones will come later, assuming the quest stretches that far.

Still, if you're not willing to see any of these character risk their lives and possibly die due to bad calls or misfortune, you may indeed want to quit following this quest, as it has clearly opened up for that possibility - and such a Chekhov's Gun will lie in wait until a fitting moment.

I would also in general advice not taking anything that happens in a quest personally and lash out at quest authors for whatever perceived bullshit or slight on the part of fictional characters whose motivations haven't even been fully explored. Remember this is something people run for fun with their free time and get no pay for. Don't be an asshole about it if you don't like it, just drop it if it ain't your jam.
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No. 1001005 ID: 96c896

>>1000995
>Still, if you're not willing to see any of these character risk their lives and possibly die due to bad calls or misfortune
No. Read what I wrote. Make sure you see the word "arbitrary", and everything after that.

She wasn't even being "harsh" about the dungeon being tough. She was beating up Cat in every sense of the word, from every angle. Doubting his potential despite him performing well during their spar, saying he'll be a parasite despite his power literally being the OPPOSITE of that, going "you can't expect everything to go right with a positive attitude" when we were never doing that in the first place. It's just fucking bullshit. She had no valid points. NONE.
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No. 1001008 ID: e1aec4

Our goal: to create a new heroes league (Willamina calls the villains alliance) where heroes league no longer has any! Basically, become a hero just like our bro.

Cannie is wrong about a lot of things about us, it is alright to be mad with her,but cutting ties with her and not letting her join us is just going to make thing worse. Instead we should show her that she is wrong and that we can be stronger. If there is one thing she did right, she put things in perspective for us on the true nature of the dungeons, but saying we will never improve and be good enough is not a mindset she should be giving us, and it is alright to have hate for her over that. But we should at least give her room for redemption, and work to show we are not a parasite.
>>
No. 1001009 ID: 96c896

Here's my potential guild names:

Antiheroes Association
Guardians of Earth
The Kinship
>>
No. 1001012 ID: 9a2966

>>1001005
>Arbitrary
Then we are in agreement that getting distraught over a character death would be unnecessary if it came to pass with due justification and/or warning (although what that would be is probably up for debate, so I would argue not getting distraught AT ALL is one's best bet).

To address your grievance with Cannie a bit more - you'll note very few people excuse Cannie fully, or even agree with much of what she was saying. Many do offer reasonable explanations for why she might've lashed out, however, and sit on a willingness to forgive or at least let forgiveness be something worked towards. That you do not choose to forgive her for her attitude and words won't change that others will encourage such and if that's a letdown to you, sorry, but ain't that just the multiplayer interactive quest experience? Your opinions may still get taken into account, but there's no guarantee they'll take the lead.

That you interpreted Cannie's words to mean the author was suggesting dungeons would be for-sure deathtraps was wholly your take though - one to which (again) there may be reasonable explanations and you may have been a bit hasty in looking to pass judgement here, which is what got me on your case.

To wit: that you throw shade on the author's ability to run their quest - however indirectly - is your choice, but when someone goes 'I don't like the direction this is turning, don't do this or I might quit' the correct response tends to be 'ok, gonna do whatever, bye if you go', because phrasing it like that doesn't come off as constructive critique, it comes off as a demand that the quest conform to your preference, or else... and who's gonna listen to that?

Honestly, you sounded a little too personally invested and I wanted to try to defuse. Sorry if that wasn't the case or if I failed miserably, but we all have bad takes sometimes. Definitely gonna shut up about this now though, sorry for the derail y'all.

>>1001009
I do like the Antiheroes Association. The Kinship is pretty neat too if we're aiming for a nobler-sounding name, though I'm a bit foggy on the lore here - doesn't Kin exclude, like, Humans, who are their own thing? If it includes most available sentients, I'd say go for it, if it doesn't, perhaps workshop it a bit more.
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No. 1001017 ID: 20318f

>>1001005
Characters haven't even died yet, excluding those already dead. Give this wild ride a little more time before trying to hit the brakes on topics like this.

---------

Cannie has valid points that we should definitely consider, even if they were based on half-baked assumptions and missed their mark. Also do consider that we probably do look like some CIA spook to her, digging up secrets and making fast connections to people with $$$. Even with her asking about our endgame, she seems to think we've got some mega-mind plan years in the making when we've only really got most of the info just a day or two prior.

She's definitely got her head too far up the clouds to try and process what we're going through, and who we are. BUT, as it stands, she's sticking with us for now at minimal risk to us. We still definitely need all the hands we can get. The best move for now is to let this situation cool down and reapproach with sound logic, free of our current emotional context. Remember, she was cool with us before.

A lot of good counterpoints and dissections were made regarding Cannie's argument. We need her to realize that there is no grand plan and most likely never will be. We've all got to decide which way to go at every fork in the path all the while avoiding a boulder that's coming down behind us. There is precious little time to play "catch up" with every other big player here. Currently, the best play here for our greatest chance of survival is fight, not flight. Playing the late game of this war as just a small collection of family/friends running from place to place is a losers game. I'd believe Mint would have plenty of anecdotal evidence of such. Yes, we're not at any decent level of strength right now and are in desperate need of training and experience. That's why we have a "synthetic" dungeon tailored to training us up. There will always be a risk of death and injury in this and in everything we will be doing from this point on. But in this immediate part of the path, we have a very safe chance to begin evening the odds for later on.

As for the whole "Cat's a parasite" thing, I got tired of thinking so hard lol. Basically, we've been going nuts trying to gather info and items to improve our collective odds, taking into consideration numerable formations and uses for each item. Also to boot, it's not like Cat is gonna be on the sidelines. There is no Overlord play here, risk and gain is shared amongst the whole party.

Also, Cannie's got dungeon-diving experience we need, however minimal or tainted it may be with her only being a bag carrier for Nunitus.
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No. 1001051 ID: afa6f6

Yeah, No, I dont think Cat should be apologizing to Cannie for anything, at least not until she apologizes herself. And probably shouldn't give her the super powerful awakening book unless something changes.

Its not about being petty or vindictive. Cat Gave her some bad news and she got angry, thats understandable, and its fine to feel bad for her in that. Its how she chose to lash out, physically and verbally at Cat for it thats the problem.
And not giving her the book unless something changes isnt because of a grudge, its because now we have to worry about what she might DO with the powers after she gets them, both from her behavior, and because some of the views she exposed afterwards. Some of that was straight up dangerous and antithetical to what we're trying to accomplish here.
Maybe we'll still awaken Cannie, But im not for it unless she does something to change the situation, not us. Its open, but it might be further down the line. Maybe talking to her mom and awakening her might still be a good idea and might change her mind a little, she might have a better handle on her hang-ups.

One thing I think most of us agree on is that making it through the apocalypse with just ourselves and a small group of loved ones is not, and will never bee the goal. At best, it will be the highest fail state. As long as the possibility exists that we can save mor epeople, or let more people save themselves, we will work towards that, and we're not going to just let the Demons and Angels roll over us and ruin a world they have no right to.
Personally I'd like to be able to beat them back so hard when things hit the fan that theyre too crippled to try this shit again some other world, at least for a while, or just seriously reconsider it.
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No. 1001060 ID: 894419

>>1000887
In a way, Cannie is right. You don't owe the world shit, its done nothing but beat you down, but its because people aren't willing to let that go that the world is the way it is. You can do the right thing for once, and fight for something other than just "me and mine" for once. Embracing Cannie's philosophy means being part of the problem, and you're better than that. Your brother was better than that. And now you have the chance to help other people be better than that.

Here's the ATTITUDE/GOAL I think you should bring. You don't owe this world shit, but you'll save it anyway because its just the right thing to do.
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No. 1001065 ID: 094652

>>1001060
I'd be more along the lines of "you used to owe the world, but then it took most of what it gave, bullied you for sport, and is planning to take what you've built as if it's entitled to that. But you're going to save what you can, because there's parts of it worth saving and the rest of the world maintains the properties of those parts."
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No. 1001079 ID: afe7de
File 162149135137.png - (40.29KB , 500x500 , C2_225.png )
1001079

You sit up, the tears have stopped and you wipe your face. The room is silent as your two companions look at you. You reflect on all of the new thoughts that have poured into your mind and take a moment

You: She’s right about one thing, I’m weak. I can’t just break down. And I haven’t lost HOPE yet. Otherwise I wouldn’t be trying to do this. I’m upset because I haven’t had a moment to breathe and I guess we went too far in revealing everything too quick and I think… I think she was trying to give me a reality check?

You: It’s just… THERE’S NO TIME. I’m DISGUSTED by her disregard of kin and people. We owe our LIVES to people both WILLING and ABLE to challenge our fate. We can become one of those people. No one’s going to take our place if we don’t go. Who would save the DESPERATE SOULS AT THE END?

Willamina: We WILL, even if no one else does.

You: You know what all those psychics and precogs say about the apocalypse? Well, here’s a funny thing. I’m A BLANK SPOT to them. Iraphena at least proved as much. And that means that we can be the CATALYST for change. They can’t PREDICT what we’ll do. What if we awaken one person who was never meant to get a power and they end up being the straw that breaks their back. If we do ENOUGH, maybe we CAN change the future.

Callan: Ah, I like this reinvigorated you.

You: Today is going to suck less. The future, is going to suck less. I will get stronger, WE will get stronger. I care about my friendships and don’t want to lose them again. I can’t stay feeling down like this forever, weather or not she’s hurt me today.
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No. 1001080 ID: afe7de
File 162149136960.png - (7.12KB , 500x500 , C2_226.png )
1001080

Willamina: I think… I think she’s angry that she’s been treated LIKE an afterthought, and assaulted you because the only LOYALTIES she has to people are being tested, leaving her with not much. She needs time. TIME to reflect, time to brood, in her own way. I won’t force you to awaken her after what happened just now, but I’d APPRECIATE if you’d consider it still.

You: One day there will be a fight between us you know. Unless she changes her mind. She’ll try to take who she can and leave. I have to be STRONG enough, to have enough RESOLVE to have her soundly join our cause. I’m sorry but Cannie is the WEAK one. She’s not willing to even try to confront this reality. I haven’t given up, I still have RESOLVE in me.

Willamina: She’s still my sister. But I think calling you a parasite was going way too far.

You: She’ll have to redeem herself, or at least apologize. I’m not a parasite, I’ve been planning on being on the front lines since the beginning. I gathered info and items to improve our odds. We’re SHARING risk, I’m not pushing it on anyone. And you know what? Maybe she’s right about the world. I certainly don’t owe the world SHIT for how it’s treated me. But I’ll work to save it anyway because there are parts WORTH saving.

You have a new GOAL: Save what you can because it’s the right thing to do
You have a new DRIVE: Your Companions

Your RESOLVE has been EMBOLDENED by your GOAL and DRIVE. You are starting to truly BELIEVE in yourself. You feel HOPE surge through you and a change flows through your body.

You: You called us the Villain’s Alliance Will? Then we’ll become the villains of the world if we have to to, maybe even stop future apocalypses from happening. And our first step is meeting a new friend. Say hello to my brother. I’ll translate.

You bend over and remove the Demon Eye Amulet, tossing it to Willamina. She puts it on her wrist and jumps at the spirit in front of her.

Callan: Hey, read the update prompt Cat.

Confused, you notice there’s a notification in the corner of your eye, you open it.
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No. 1001081 ID: afe7de
File 162149138306.png - (42.46KB , 500x500 , C2_227.png )
1001081

[Due to your mental fortitude and resolve you have learned more about the forces of HOPE and BELIEF]

[SPIRIT OF HOPE has been improved]

SPIRIT OF HOPE [2] - upgrade? [15]
Grants the contracted the ability to see and understand other spirits
Grants the passive HOPE buff, providing MINOR boosts to general activities the contracted BELIEVES or HOPES they can accomplish.
You now have HOPE ENERGY equal to your level, one is gained every 8 hours. HOPE ENERGY can be spent in the following ways:
- The contracted may boost a single action of a target by a MODERATE amount
- The spirit can MANIFEST for 20 minutes a day, becoming CORPOREAL, able to be understood, seen, and felt by others

Achievement: “Enlightenment I” Has been unlocked. +30 AP.
Achievement point total is now 105/250

You feel the HOPE ENERGY drain from you as Callan manifests, it looks like he can chose to do that of his own will. You feel the world around you distort slightly as Callan becomes corporeal, there’s a slight… wiggle… in the air. He remains floating and touches his body a bit before holding out a hand which Willamina takes with hesitation.

Callan: Woah, that’s a strange sensation. Oh uh, hi Willamina. Nice to meet ya. Name’s Callan and I was the guy who trained your brother and former S ranked hero. I’m also this goober’s big bro!

Willamina: Uhm. HI. I think I saw a picture of you before at one point. Not today I mean. So uh like…

You introduce the two and have a good chat, talking about the events that just occured. Giving some history to the two of you, sharing what he knows about the estate fire, answering a few questions Willamina has. You’re feeling a LOT BETTER. Which is surprising considering how badly you were kicked down a bit ago. Like a mental block has been lifted. Part of you still hates Cannie for what just happened, but it inspired change in you because you actually reflected. It’s a minor change for now, but you’ll have to build upon this foundation, even if your goals change.

You agree to awaken Willamina’s Mom before you leave, and talk about the people you want to bring on the dungeon run briefly. It’s your job to convince Andrea and Willamina will convince Gena. You also bring up Nipha and Rudy, explaining that your ties with them still run pretty solid and you’d be interested in bringing Nipha along.

Callan has some input about the dungeons and verifies the validity of Cannie’s claims. There ARE dungeons that force you to kill your companions, but they ONLY appear when you enter in groups of 9 or more. And ONLY in certain dungeons. He offers to guide you all as it was his job before and he has TONS of experience. After a little bit he says goodbye and returns to your chest, opting to rest for the night. Willamina returns the DEA and you re affix it to your ankle.

It’s just you and Willamina now. Is there anything you want to do or talk about before you have sex and decompress. You desperately need it, even if you feel better.

This is your last chance to do anything before the thread ends. Thanks so much for the suggestions, theorizing, and ideas everyone! It’s my first time telling a story of this length and with so many moving parts so thanks for sharing the experience with me. The next thread will be a lot lighter and will be in a more experimental format, look forward to it!
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No. 1001082 ID: 96c896

>>1001081
Haha, Callan got the ability to go Corporeal (thus not needing the DEA for others to see him) right as we handed over the DEA. Awkward.

Ok, to avoid "kill your allies" bullshit just don't try to zerg rush big boy dungeons. Got it. I guess this means the dungeons that' *don't* do that can be zerg rushed? Is there a hard limit on the number of people you can throw into a dungeon? Well, regardless, there's a soft cap because there's only so many people you can fit into a room to fight monsters.

For a second I thought Cannie might've forced Cat into the GOALS and DRIVES thing on purpose but it sounds like it's a HOPE-specific power source so she wouldn't have any way of knowing. The explanation that Cat telling Cannie those secrets forced her to question her own loyalties makes a lot of sense though. I mean, I expected that, but I also expected her to approach the conflict of information with a bit more decorum. She lashed out like that because it was like Cat was taking important things from her at the same time as he offered things to her, and she wanted badly for it to be manipulation via lies, so she could keep what she had. The more convincing he was, the more upset she got. Also he was taking Willamina into a dungeon after she had shitty experiences doing dungeon runs so that's another thing he was taking away. In her eyes, Cat was ruining her life and she hated him for it, but begrudgingly agreed to go along with it to try to protect Willamina. Hopefully after a while she will figure out that it's the opposite- Cat is saving her from being attached to people who don't appreciate her. The truth hurts, but the truth will also set you free.

Anyway, I don't know of anything else to do, except maybe start looking into how much High Appraisal costs on average and think of how to advertise your services.
>>
No. 1001087 ID: e51896

Check our comm for messages. What did we miss?

Talk a bit about tomorrow. Tell Willamina that she'll take the Rogue’s inner monologue for awakening Gena and let her know about everything.

But overall besides that, tell her our plans for tomorrow is... have fun! let's have one day where we don't have to worry about anything for once, and just enjoy life. Seriously, this week has been so emotional and stressful for the both of you, so just having a day for fun can be just what we needed.

Also, ask Willamina about the RATIOLATRY GROUP MEETING tomorrow at 9am, you're thinking about going there in the morning before your date at noon with Andrea for a laugh, or at least have Rex go there. Also show her that picture you took on the community center club board which had that note hanging off to the side that just got a Date, Time, and Address for MONDAY at 1PM on the outskirts of town with gibberish. Ask Willamina what it is.

Tell Rex tomorrow he can have the day to do whatever he wants. feed him and his brood a jerky (scan the jerky too)

Afterwards... strip. Show Willamina the goods.
>>
No. 1001088 ID: e51896

Oh yeah, we set a GOAL and DRIVE, but we didn't set an ATTITUDE

For ATTITUDE as I said before: you want to be SELFLESS, SYMPATHETIC, and EMPATHETIC. we want to help others with their problems and see the good in people, even the ones that are perceived bad like Isabella. We helped Willamina with her awakening her and healing her wounds, and made her happier with her shitty life just by being with her despite her temperament, not just because we gave her powers. We told the truth about the artifacts to Iraphena despite how she treated us, we gave a photo of Max to Isabella even despite how she treated us. We were honest with Gena when we were put in a situation that could have lost us our job. We tried to break Mint's slave contract. Overall, Cat has been trying to do things to better people's lives. Basically, it feels good to help others and give the HOPE.
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No. 1001089 ID: f8fa51

Well, we did just tell Willamina some things she might want to spend some time processing, with respect to Max and Isabella. Other than that, I can't think of anything that needs to be discussed immediately.
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No. 1001099 ID: 10190d

Sex with Willamina!
Oh, be sure to wear your condom you got like a few days ago. Finally time to use that!
>>
No. 1001104 ID: 094652

"Hey Callan? How much sex do you want?"
You need to ask Callan if he's okay with sharing a body that's going to be inside multiple... partners. Of all kinds. Possibly all at once.

Well first up, you need to take a stance on what kind of Boss you want to be. A Commander won't put themselves in harm's way until they're the last thing standing; doesn't foster loyalty, but your minions will understand that this organization will crumble into an full evacuation if you die. A Squad Leader has all the risks of being killed in frontline crossfire, but fosters extreme loyalty as they are willing to put themselves at any risk before they force their minions in.

Recommend that you still set a hard-coded limit on the number of party members per mission. For instance, the Angels and/or Demons might have control over dungeon generation and could lower that maximum at their whim, especially if they know what you can do and want to piss you off. Rex would be an easy technicality if he brings too many bodies, while you and Callan technically count as two.

Make sure Rex is okay with sacrificing his spare bodies - actually, what kinds of souls do they have and what happens when he nabs a body? - to test out the dungeon's traps. You also need a buddy system; two partners have to take priority with saving each other, while the rest of the party takes on more immediate concerns for at least a few turns, like killing the monster that caused the crisis before it can continue to perpetuate crises.

Oh, and ask Willamina what she thinks about you siring a litter of bastard children.
>>
No. 1001107 ID: 10190d

Maybe we can also consider awakening the rest of Roaches brood tomorrow? One point for each of them. See what happens.
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No. 1001124 ID: 30b9f6

Check messages, send a lawlpic at Toni (still need to figure out what's up with him and who in town he was warning you away from) and otherwise try to respond to peeps. Chat up Rex a bit, poor guy did just get exposed to a lot of sudden drama. Will can give 'im some jerky to gnaw on!

Oh! Speaking of food, what about dinner? You and Will may want to order takeout - or just head out to the bar, grab some food and drink from there, inform Miss Walpole that you're leaving her room for now, then head back to the Elysian.
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No. 1001127 ID: afa6f6

>>1001081
Well, We have enough achievement points now to grab a few of the good power upgrades, Does anyone else want to get those?
I'd like to get the one that lets us awaken items so we could get more stuff, maybe awaken our Mana Pistol, but we wouldnt have enough energy to use it yet.
We could get BOTH Catalyzer and Arcane Rights, or get one and amp it up.
Or, we could get the one that lets us force a power to mutate, which could be useful for powering up, or changing a power to have less (or more) secondary functions, Which might let us, say, Change Andrea's Sleepless ability into something with an on/off switch, or better, Since it's not upgradeable. Depending on how it works, it could be useful for fighting other powered individuals too, and it'd leave us with some points left over for more energy.

Also, when we formed a contract with Callan, his ring should have become a new Artifact right? I think we've been too emotional and busy with other things to check it, can we do that?
Also, while Callan is MANIFESTED, he has a corporeal from right? Can we check if that means he is able to upgraded while manifested then?
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No. 1001129 ID: 10190d

>>1001127
I'd say lets wait until the next day to upgrade so we can get Mint and Callan's opinion (callan went to sleep, and Mint is spending the night at the brothel.)

But yeah, scan our ring
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No. 1001157 ID: 864e49

>>1001081
I think instead of calling ourselves villains we should be the Rogues Alliance/Guild.
Also rename Rex to Oroachi.
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No. 1001161 ID: 173ed8

I like villains alliance beause since the heroes league is full of corrupted bad people, it ironically falls to the villains to be the good guys. Plus Willamima named it. Shes the leader

Oh! Headpats for Willamina to get her started!
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No. 1001169 ID: 96c896

Rogue Alliance sounds great. Or Rogue Academy hehehe
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No. 1001190 ID: 96c896

Oh wait I was thinking of Jedi Academy and mixing it up with Rogue One.
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No. 1001191 ID: 031458

Might as well Spend some achievement points. I'm thinking the Item Awakening one, and some extra energy, as the sooner we get that the more we have to use every day- it really adds up.
I'm thinking we should keep getting max energy until we hit a limit. I'm thinking 20 for right now. thoughts?
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No. 1001208 ID: 76d753

Authors Note: So because I’m dumb and update late at night my ISP had an outage and that means I can only get half of an update done (since I can’t look up refs for porn poses) and I can’t even post it (it’s all written I just need to draw 3 more images)

I’ll post it tomorrow, it’s the last update of the thread, so stay tuned, sorry y’all :(

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No. 1001210 ID: f8fa51

CATALYZER'S RIGHTS is high priority. It's basically an XP booster, so if we assume we'll want it eventually (we will, we've already been informed that growths are significant and that we should be seeking them out), we should get it early to get the most use out of it.
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No. 1001246 ID: afe7de
File 162163465965.png - (30.58KB , 500x500 , C2_228.png )
1001246

> Dinner and chill
You give Roach some jerky and tell him to do whatever he wants tomorrow, you’ve had a long day and just want everyone to chill. He thanks you and asks about TV, if he could get one or something so he could have something to watch when he got bored outside. Will pops to her house and gets him a small tablet, showing him how to use it and putting it in an easily reachable spot. The tactile screen can detect his inputs so he messes around with the apps a bit and manages to find a TV one with a simple interface for switching channels. He thanks you and loads up random news programs whilst nibbling on the jerky. You and Willamina head back to her apartment after locking the Winnebago and order some food.

> Check your COMM
You take a moment while you’re on the toilet to pull out your COMM and scroll through your messages, you got a few earlier, so you go back through them.

Iraphena: Thank you for your business.
Iraphena: For the record, Appraisals usually cost monster cores, regular monster cores can go from 10K to 100K BUX in cost, with HQ ones costing in the millions. High quality appraisers usually bill in the tens of millions worth because they know they’re worth it.
Iraphena: We’ll speak again soon.

This tidbit of information is pretty useful, though you think it would be very hard to be able to appraise things without first building up your fighting force or personal defense capabilities, or you’ll run the same problem of becoming an Item Scanning factory instead of an Awakening creation factory. Next was an update from Andrea.

Andrea: Tmrw [Bunny emoji] [Eggplant emoji] [Sweat emoji]
Andrea: V Excite.
Andrea: Goin to Park, picnic planned.
Andrea: Real rlxing, saw you walkin stressed earlier.
Andrea: Dw it’ll be fun!
You: Thanks, that’ll probably be pretty nice, I need a break.
Andrea: Np, I gotchu fam. [thumbs up emoji]

You were kind of worried at first that it was just going to be sex sex sex with Andrea tomorrow, but if she has a nice picnic trip in the park planned that might be good, getting away from the city a little bit, just relaxing with nature. Next up was Gena.

Gena: Will have vids processed nxt week (*^▽^*)
Gena: I had fun. Make sure you give Will a good time, ya hear.
Gena: She’s been lookin forward to it! (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

You didn’t get any other texts and just spent your time browsing the web for random shit, you looked up a dumb meme and chuckled, but otherwise did nothing else productive. Eventually you decide to bother Callan, whose attention is easy to get.
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No. 1001247 ID: afe7de
File 162163467001.png - (11.78KB , 500x500 , C2_229.png )
1001247

Callan: Yo.

Cat: So like, I’m probably gonna have sex with a bunch of people down the line, will that bother you?

Callan: Not really? I can just turn off my sensing what you’re doing, or just leave to go somewhere else. I’m not really interested in watching you bone your friends.

Cat: Cool, cause me and Will are probably gonna.

Callan: I’ll just go exploring the town or something, gimme a hollar if you need anything.

Callan pops out of your chest, you focus a little and realize that same space he comes out of is the space where your HOPE ENERGY feels the densest, maybe they’re connected? Either way he waves at you and shoots through the roof, you hear an ecstatic “WHEEEEEEEEEE” as he leaves. Your mind starts wandering to specifics about leadership, teamwork, etc. Who will end up being the squad leader anyway? We have to have someone in charge. Will it be you because you have Callan and your intelligence. Just having that wont mean you can make good split second decisions. Maybe it’ll be Willamina, she seems like the take charge kind. You also think of formations, plans and procedures but shake the thoughts away. Those thoughts are better left for the pre-dungeon prep, you want to rest for now.

> Radiolatry meeting
You’ll probably pass on that. Maybe if you wake up early enough you might go, but with the level of STRESS and EXHAUSTION you have right now, you’ll probably want to stay in bed pretty late.

> Litter of bastard children
You ponder over this thought and get kind of confused by it. There probably won’t be anything like a state managed marriage in the future, so it’ll be more like you partnering with whoever you want to, within reason. Sure you’ll probably have kids somewhere down the line, it might even be quite a few. But bringing that up to Willamina now is a bit too soon and would probably be seen as creepy. Plus who wants to bring up a kid during an apocalypse.
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No. 1001248 ID: afe7de
File 162163468050.png - (4.13KB , 500x500 , C2_230.png )
1001248

> Upgrades
You want to talk to everyone about this later. Probably MONDAY, let it sit and marinate for a bit unless you get a true moment of INSPIRATION tomorrow. Either 5+ suggestors suggest a purchase on one update, or, when you are presented with the choice, the majority option will be selected.

> Check your ring
Oh right, you almost forgot about that. You look it over, it’s a MILKY WHITE ring now with spirals inlaid on it. You Scan it with the DEA.

Ring of the reversal - This ring can store an attack that has hit you, negating all damage from it. You can at any point in time after storing an attack release it back towards an opponent within 10 meters, it will seek and hit the opponent without fail. This ring will break after storing and ejecting attacks twice. This ring is currently deactivated, you must activate it with a mental command to cause it to store the next attack that hits you. [2/2 charges remaining]
(DEA - An extremely rare item, can even store attacks from cataclysm level monsters. You’d have to survive the encounter with them first though. Damage will be negated but you will still feel pain, possibly enough to faint, but not enough to kill you or permanantly disable your mind.)

This. This will be your trump card. You don’t know what a cataclysm level monster is, but if one appears, maybe you can delay it for even a moment, and that will be just the moment needed to change everything. Your hand forms a tight fist as you take a deep breath and get up, flushing, washing your hands and heading over to the burgers Willamina ordered. It’s a nice meal, the burgers have this sauce on it thats both tangy and sweet but fits the flavor palette nice. The onion rings are excellent and pair well with some ketchup. You laugh and joke about random things for a while, at one point Willamina got some ketchup on her cheek and you wipe it off, licking it off your finger. She gives you a little eyebrow wiggle with her one good eyebrow. And the meal is finished. So she wanders over and drags you to her room.
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No. 1001258 ID: afe7de
File 162163547763.png - (12.95KB , 500x500 , C2_231.png )
1001258

In a split second your clothes are already off, there’s some relaxing music playing in the background and you’re both ravishing each other, tasting each others bodies and embracing in a heated manner. You lose yourself in the sensation of holding another, there’s biting and sucking and aggressive panting as the two of you wrestle each other on the bed, fighting for dominance. You eventually turn the tables and flip Willamina around, diving face first into her muff with deep probing licks. But she’s not losing to you either as she starts thoroughly coating your cock in her saliva. You’ve been on a hair pin trigger since earlier, but do your best to hold back while you eat her out.

It’s an aggressive and bestial oral session, eventually Willamina manages to knock you down with her ass and sit firmly on your face, grinding against your nose and mouth. You take the challenge and continue to lick, suck, and prod. You can feel her quivering with pleasure. She’s furiously jerking you off at this point, sucking on your head, waiting for the first load and after a few minutes it comes pouring into her mouth, you can feel the high building, relaxing you, relieving the tension. Willamina sputters a bit before gulping down your full load.

Willamina: Damn, that was a lot. Hmm, I’m all warm and FUZZY now, it’s like being a bit DRUINK- *HIC* -DRUNK. Cmonnnnn, I want it inside me alreadyyyyyy.

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No. 1001259 ID: afe7de
File 162163549267.png - (11.19KB , 500x500 , C2_232.png )
1001259

You pull out your condom box and slap a rubber on, you’re not sure if Willamina has a dermal implant or not, and with your load size you don’t want to risk getting her pregnant. She takes the rubber from you and puts it on with one swift motion, she stands above you, towering, letting you get a good look at her body.

Willamina: Hey DINGUS, check this out.

Your cock is erect and pointed directly towards her, but what surprises you is that she jumps and your cock slides into her furiously wet pussy with one intense motion. It’s all you can do to hold yourself back from coming immediately. You have to admit, that maneuver was PRETTY COOL. She’s trembling, nearly seizing with pleasure. Her eyes roll back in her head as she moans uncontrollably, you even feel her wetting herself a bit, and her vaginal walls are just crazily coiling in and sucking your cock deeper inside. Deciding she won’t have all the fun you start grinding against her in a circular fashion. She collapses on top of you giving you a strong hug and biting your neck enough to draw blood. This hurts a bit, but you take it in stride and start pumping, first slowly, but then with the increasing tempo of the background music.

>>
No. 1001260 ID: afe7de
File 162163550277.png - (17.16KB , 500x500 , C2_233.png )
1001260

Everything is a blur of sexual motion as your bodies continue to entwine, you deeply kiss and embrace eachother. You feel all over eachothers bodies, Willamina takes extra time to touch your chest, while you get a feel for her scars, they’re rough, but soft, with a strange texture. You don’t know how many times you’ve cum by the end of it, just that you’ve gone through a few condoms and that the pleasure is immense. YOu end the bout with a deep kiss. You really fucking needed that. Eventually the two of you calm down, your condom filled you pop it out of Willamina and toss it in the nearby trash. The two of you cuddle for a while, still breathing roughly.

Willamina: Goddess Cat, I REALLY fucking needed that.

You: Same honestly, what a fucking day.

Willamina: What a FUCKING day indeed.

Willamina hits something on her bedside table and the TV turns on, the volume is low and it’s some random cooking show. The two of you snuggle in closer to each other and just relax for the rest of the night. The world can wait for a bit. You can be the CATALYST for change later, right now you just want to be CAT in the arms of your friend.

END OF THREAD 2

Authors Note: Wow, what a ride everyone. So glad to have you all join me on this. It got a little rough there, but I hope you enjoyed it. Things will become more like a traditional RPG in the coming threads after the intermission. You’ll get less time to spend on days as you prepare for your dungeon diving, collect allies, and train.

The next thread’s going to be a bit different, a break from the story so you can cool your heads, and more an exploration on the world of CATALYST. It’ll be about various TV shows, Movies, commercials, and news broadcasts throughout the world at large where you get to suggest what’s happening. A few will even be run by other questden regulars. And some of these characters and events you see might even show up later in the story! So have fun and enjoy, see you in a few days, gotta prep for the next thread. -Edmango

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No. 1001360 ID: a696c4

Loving this. Very intricate story. Veery engaging. Excited to see more.
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No. 1001369 ID: c7fbfe

>>1001246
>Picnic at the park with Andrea

Idea: play truth or dare with her at the picnic!
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