Succubusekai: The Demoness Just Wanted To Stay With Her Friends! [Original-Ish] [Quest]

Okay, Helen, it seems like Senaz here just took a moment to collect yourself, may as well do the same yourself.

You were a Captain in the Compact Fleet, Division of External Diplomacy, of the Transmission-V spacefaring vessel. A good ship and good crew who managed to do many good things around and beyond the space of the Interplanetary Compact.

You had, on panicked orders from upper brass, attempted to attack the Tralbeast, a ship-sized omnivorous thing that you'd had to work around a few times. You'd never tried to face it directly before, in keeping with the preservation of life mandate, but now it was potentially going to eat a capital station, so you needed to discourage it.

And then after your first couple ship-scale phaser blasts, it sniped you, a laser cutting through your ship's shields, the bridge's armor, and… Actually you're not sure what part of you it hit, but it was definitely enough to kill you instantly.

But then there was a misty room, and a voice speaking to you. The same one Senaz faced you suspect now, with the same offer: Get reincarnated for a divine quest, and get three wishes, so long as at least one was useful to the quest.

The first wish was immediately obvious: Stop the Tralbeast from killing your crew or the station. The goddess said she'd "permanently" resolve that situation, without any specifics beyond that the thing wasn't precisely sapient. Not great, but you'll take it.

The second wish… Well, you asked about the world, and when you heard about its tech level, realized there were things you'd want to introduce quickly. Like vaccination, and aluminum smelting, and - you asked for the knowledge resources for how to safely advance a world's technological level. The Compact had such knowledge.

The Compact's version of the knowledge is less humorously written and a bit more detailed than "How To Invent Everything, 145th Edition", but you'll take what you can get. It's still enough to bring civilizations up to Galactic Age tech, if slowly over a few thousand pages. Probably several lifetimes slow, honestly. Get enough people smarter than you in the correct ways, though, and you can make a lot of progress fast.

The third wish… Well, the goddess made clear your quest would need to be executed personally. And you realized that what you'd most benefit from was building a lot of skills, fast. So, you wished for hyperaccelerated learning, putting you closer to the likes of a Computer RPG protagonist than normal human pace.

After that came 'rolling' your new self - Helen Garland…

[X] (CLASS) Paladin of Solaria - The Goddess of Civilization - her church on Aridia isn't particularly massive, but she's huge on some other worlds, and her principles are pretty nice.
[X] (RACE) Human - You'd considered Vulpinae, but the tail seems a bit inconvenient honestly…
[X] (SPECIAL) Divine Wit - Your goddess prizes wit and cleverness, and you are genetically blessed with a boon there. You gain an additional +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma on top of the base Human bonuses.
[X] (ABILITY SCORES) - Strength 15 => 16, Dexterity 10 => 11, Constitution 8 => 9, Intelligence 12 => 14, Wisdom 13 => 15, Charisma 14 => 16. Nicely broadbased and functional.

Your Hyperaccelerated Learning is represented by two mechanics:

• Every odd-numbered character level, you gain a Feat
• Every even-numbered character level, you gain one Skill or Tool proficiency

[X] (HYPERACCELERATION FEAT) Lucky - You're well trained and everything, but it's almost like you're a bit of a special favorite of a god of luck, too… Or maybe protected from one? Huh.

So, that's you. Blessed with Solaria's own wit and a decent body other than the occasional sickness, you were a pretty good full package even before her Divine Blessing came in.

And now you've got your chainmail, your sun symbol, a good sword and shield - sure, inferior to your electric weaponry from the T5, but good nonetheless…

… And a Succubus in front of you that you could do with talking to a bit.

---

And then, the explanation from the Paladin begins. "In my past life, I was Captain Helen Garland of the Transmission-Five, one of the spacefaring inter-civilizational Compact's ships under the Division of External Diplomacy, traveling the galaxy to meet new civilizations, discover new worlds, and sometimes handle other needs of the various governments that comprise the Compact. A pride of the Fleet, even with only half of the sixteen Duo Frames it's supposed to have! … But I hope everyone else survived that encounter with the Tralbeast."

… Well, that's. Huh. You've got questions. She actually reincarnated into herself, for one??? Plus she was from a few tech levels above you, which makes you a bit jealous maybe. Damn the games that could be playable on those ships. Maybe.

"I'm… Wait, what's a Tralbeast?"

"As big as my ship, which was suited for a crew of a thousand plus several hundred civilians. Likes to eat things. Apparently has laser defenses capable of piercing my ship's shields and sniping me."

"... Oh."

"... You got divine wishes for the reincarnation, correct?"

"Yep. Um. Yeah."

"My first was making sure that as few of my crew or the innocents the beast was approaching as possible fell to its infamous hunger. The goddess wasn't too specific in how it was taken care of, but it was, I think. I don't know if she told the truth, but given she granted my other two wishes, I'm going to assume so?"

You nod a bit. "I mean… I know one's been granted, but I don't know how to try for the other two yet."

"What are the other two?"

"... A connection to my world's Internet, and my stuff and a place to keep it. If I can, I want to not screw over my raid group. Though given ten years have passed, maybe I didn't think that through…"

Helen pauses, as if she's thinking of something.

"Well, how might you check?"

"I…"

… It's like something goes into your brain at that point.

"Hang on," you say, looking to the wall of the alleyway you're in, and just kinda… Motioning to the wall. A door appears. Metal with slightly flaking green paint.

It's familiar. So's the brown metal door jamb.

You freeze. "A-are you seeing this?"

"Yeah. It looks like a four-century-old door circa American civilizations to me. Well, much newer than the doors here at least."

"... Oh, you're from Earth's future."

"I'm not sure if it's the same Earth. Solaria mentioned that as something to watch out for, which sounded really odd at the time I heard it, but makes more sense now."

… You blink. If the door's what you think… Then when you open it…

… No one's inside. No roommates. It's like they moved out, took their stuff except for bits they left, and it became just your place. Not that you could afford that - hopefully you don't owe the goddess rent or anything. (Would you need to pay that in US Dollars or local currencies???)

Still… It's enough to make you start to cry. You're not sure if the tears are happy or not, as you step in. You hear the rather loud steps of Helen following you, closing the door behind her.

Helen glances. "This was your home, wasn't it?"

"Is," you correct, moving toward your room. All the belongings are there. Your computer, the bed (not in great shape, admittedly)...

You add, "It is my home. The place I feel safest. Where…"

You look at your clothes hamper and closet. "... Where I could just be my depressed, anxious, apparently closeted as hell self."

Yup, nothing in there's fitting without some shapeshifting abuse anymore. At least the goddess was nice enough to drop the bloodied clothes you were wearing off in a corn - wait, ew.

Idly, you cast prestidigitation, officially one of the coolest of Bard spells you have now decided, to start working on cleaning them up. And the hamper. Helen chuckles a bit.

"If I may observe," Helen says. "If your wishes are both working, your computer should work just fine, right?" She hasn't seen this style of mouse and keyboard outside of museums, you're betting. They must have much cooler interfaces in the future.

Still, you go ahead and boot it up - the spell will get through the hamper on its own. Crap, there are probably going to be a few smells, isn't there, if this place has been abandoned for -

The computer's screen says August 18th, 2022, 3:30 PM.

That can't be right. You went out that day at 3:20, and ten years have passed, Helen can confirm you existed before you hit your head on that rock, so those memories are real. The computer's battery must've lost track or something.

Okay, log in, pop open HarmonyChat - yup, the connection's working as fast as usual…

You blink.

"Um. Okay. That's. Uh."

Helen looks at the screen, not bothering to ask. "... You've only got one message."

"Yeah. And it's FoxHandlesFloof, normal game invite. Do they…"

"If we assume this is real," Helen observes, "Which seems likely - then there's one obvious answer."

"I was sent back in time."

"By the right amount that you'd regain memories… What, ten minutes after you died on Earth?"

"I guess," you respond, before your next question pops into your mind - "Wait, what does that leave for you?"

"I can't be certain," Helen responds, "But it'd need to be nineteen years if she did the same."

"... Sure. I guess it. Gives me my wish as I intended. Other than realizing the problems with it."

Helen can't help but smirk. "Oh? The girl who wished to be a succubus' wishes weren't entirely thought through? Perish the thought."

"S-sh… No you're right." You sigh. "Okay, I've gotta work through the implications a good bit. Raid's in… Ninety minutes."

"Raid?"

"Group play in Another World Online, my main online game. This group's… The primary reason I made that wish, so I definitely should make it. Which means logging in in like thirty, which gives me about that long to - shower."

"Wait, do you need to shower?"

"No, but I do want to check if it works."

… A quick lap tells you a few things.

First, what's in your fridge and freezer are fine for now. Not too long, though. But they work. So does the sink, the shower - everything. Your roommates' rooms are empty entirely. You guess if you need to work with the Paladin, she might benefit from one? Maybe. Ask that later.

The back windows look out to a grassy field, one you could find all over America probably. But when you go out to the patio, there's a wall of glass between you and the field. So maybe it's not real.

… That's a breeze. Definitely not real. But comforting, maybe. Looks better than the back alley above a bar it opened up to… Ten minutes ago, apparently, fuck that's confusing.

The front window looks out to the alley you came in through. Odd, you didn't see the window from outside.

And… A note on the counter.

"Enjoy your divine gift, Senaz. Yes, I know your new name. Honestly, I think that this is far more useful to the quest I have granted you than fulfilling your quest for bazongas. Unfortunately, I do not have much of your local currency available for wish fulfillment. You'll need to figure out how to make money to keep bills paid and order stuff you want."

Wait, ordering stuff you - well, you'd need to replace computer parts, you didn't get that far. Okay, that's nice.

Bills.

There are only two things inevitable in life, and you only lucked out on one of them, it seems. Sigh.

You look towards Helen. "... So. Uh. I have to keep working my job. Good thing it's all remote. Hopefully I can find a way to sneak to Earth before they want me at an all-hands sometime in… At the current rate, six years."

"That long, huh? But it seems you will have more to… Wait."

"Huh?"

"No one's come into the alley after us. You'd think by now someone would have been curious."

"Maybe we got lucky?"

"... Maybe," Helen concedes. "I tend to be good at that sometimes."

"Yeah. Um. If I might ask, what did you wish for?"

Helen pulls a book out of her backpack. "This book, for how to advance a world's technology safely… And enhanced ability to learn and gain skills. I'm the youngest Paladin to graduate from my order's school ever as a result."

"... Huh. Okay, that's pretty practical. Faster than it took me to get used to bard skills, I guess."

"Oh, you actually know bardic magic?"

"Yes, I took time to learn that art. All-Succubus class, actually."

"I guess I'd just assumed you were faking it to infiltrate places."

"I mean, I learned it to infiltrate places, but doing it properly seemed advantageous, so I took the courses."

"And now you get to use those for another purpose than what your Queen probably wanted of you."

"... Yeah, that's another thing I'm worried about. When she finds out, if I'm lucky she only has conniptions. More likely, I become Public Enemy Number One."

"Hmm. Well, you've got one person who specializes in dealing with demons on your side, so long as you keep me on your side and don't let either of us fall to darkness," Helen says with a chuckle.

"... Which is a serious crimp in my range," You admit. "Can't go seducing cute girls to fulfill my ends all the time."

"Not with magic, no," Helen observes. "Some of it might be doable, but it will depend a lot on your intention with it."

"... Wait, you're saying my dark magics might be okay to use sometimes?"

"Maybe. But try to be ethical about it."

"Um. Sure?", you respond. "... Anyways. I've got one more immediate thing I need to decide, knowing what I now know."

"What's that?"

"... How much to explain to my raid group, and how."

[ ] (EXPLANATION) Tell them (an abridged version of) the whole truth, and use your webcam for proof. Might mean raid doesn't happen tonight, but it would be the most honest route.
[ ] (EXPLANATION) Tell them the story but don't prove it. Clearly you're just experiencing a Chuunibyou period, no one will think that's too weird after the I Will Summon Your Pants Incident two months ago!
[ ] (EXPLANATION) Make shit up and pretend you're on a voice changer to see if that helps with your long-standing gender dysphoria issues you've recently been clued into.
[ ] (EXPLANATION) Pretend you've had a normal outing and nothing's happened, shapeshift to your old look and voice. Try to pretend it's all normal and that you're perfectly okay.
[ ] (EXPLANATION) Write-In - there's several more tacks Senaz could take here, give the QM ideas.

Helen, you know that Senaz has a few options here. The question is, will she go for honesty when there's a Paladin right there? It'd be a good sign she definitely means to go good. On the other hand, people would probably look at her like she's insane.

More than she actually is. (Seriously, Succubus was her solution for that issue, what in the Nine Hells…)

***

This may be as important as Helen's origin, so vote will open at Noon PST and go for two days.

Please also note that I am still soliciting ideas for Senaz's appearance, particularly focused on her look beyond her outfit. Hair, face, et cetera. The only thing I know to be a hardlocked fact so far, is her boobs be rocking.