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

(TIE)
(Helen's Flirt response) Respond positively to the idea of a date - she's cute, she's not evil, she's in the same isekai'd boat as you, and you're likely going to spend a lot of time together, so dating is within the range of possibility.
(Helen's Flirt response) Gently turn down the date request, but accept the compliment and flirt back just a bit.

(Fluffy Tail?) Offer to charm her again! You were interested in that side of things earlier and can't say you're not now.

(Honest To Fox) Write-In - If we can't weaponize a combination of social anxiety and supernatural charisma to avoid answering awkward questions whose answers aren't actually as important as the asker thinks they are, until the question-asker has been distracted and maybe forgotten the topic, what kind of succubus even is Senaz?

"-Ahahahahah!", you laugh brightly to interrupt Eira before she gets too far down that question. "I mean, if you want to be charmed, dear, I can just do that again if you ask!"

That gets Eira blushing deep red - and you can tell Helen caught it before that too. This girl wanted to be under this influence. Which is very convenient if you don't want to talk about the isekai thing while also making sure Helen doesn't get blamed for the isekai thing! (You still think she tripped you, though.) Just get the foxxo nice and distracted and more focused on the Hot Succubus and preferably away from the door -

Wait, crap. That's a problem if you want to check the time… Thingy. The weirdness that's going on there. You gotta deal with that too. Damn it, you suddenly have way too many responsibilities all at once! But it's… Well, you're not sure. But you can handle. Maybe.

Right now, that means defusing the situation. It'd be nice if you could get a better read on Helen's response to your attempt at flirting, which kinda got interrupted by everything.

But you did slow Eira down, which is good. Enough that she turned towards you, stammering a "yesplease" which clearly highlighted the situation.

You turn towards Helen, smiling a bit but saying little.

Helen shrugs. "I mean, as long as you don't hurt her or break her heart."

You nod, looking towards Eira. "I should be clear this is basically going to be a one night stand sorta thing, then. I… super summarized, there's a thing I need to do, I need the Paladin's help to do it, and it's going to be probably far more dangerous than I'm hoping."

Eira pauses but nods. Helen's expression softens a bit, as the Vulpinae speaks up. "I get what you're saying, I guess. It's just… I don't know. I'm tired of this village, maybe."

"I get it," you respond. "I just… I'm not foolish enough to think I can keep people safe as I am now. Not yet."

"Then make sure this is a night I'll love to remember, okay?", Eira said with a chuckle. "I'll be back at the inn in two hours, with a room waiting~"

Okay. That leaves Helen. Who is smiling a bit. "... Even when you're trying to be a total hedonist, you can't help but be responsible," she observes, still without her full armor on. "To respond to your earlier question before we got distracted by concerns we both think more important and then by something entirely different… Let's go with 'not quite yet'? I think getting to know each other as allies is probably better. Though you are quite cute when you let yourself off the 'must be wicked' hook."

And then she's in your face at a rather impressive speed. "Not that I'm not interested, though. It's just that you've got too much to do and trying to date a Paladin is probably an additional stressor you don't need just yet."

… Damn it, why does the starship captain turned Paladin have to be right???

You resist the urge to pout, though, and look towards the door to your apartment. "... Sounds good. But speaking of larger concerns…"

Back into the apartment it is, but this time, you leave the door open. Helen steps back and forth across the threshold several times, as you go check - 4:24 PM. Very little time change. And…

"Okay, we'd need to do more detailed tests," you conclude. "But right now, it looks like time only flows full-speed on the side of the door I'm in - unless the door's open. That's…"

Helen blinks. "... That's potentially absurdly powerful. It'd be good to do more precise tests if time is stopped or slowed, but the scale of slowing is such that it may be almost a moot point."

"... Not that I asked for this much," You respond, "But it's potentially very good to have in terms of recovery time."

"From your quest, or your job back home?"

You can almost feel weight get added to your shoulders, as you realize this implication. If you're going to do the best you can on both fronts, then neither side is going to be all that relaxing, is it? Unless you drop the job and try to get US currency for bills and such by other means.

Which does leave you with chatting with HR, having spent less time from their perspective than planned, but convincing you to maybe try this?

---

And Senaz is back at her computer. You've seen computers like this in museums, of course; almost everything from your time is touch or straight-up buttons and switches in most of Compact space, with the in-between of the keyboard and mouse usually only showing up among historic gamers, an admittedly huge hobby. Even their designs are different than this 21st-century scheme.

Notably, however, she's not using the same computer for work as for play; she switches to a, well to be blunt, more boring-looking laptop from her multicolored-lights desktop, though it's connected to the same keyboard and monitors via a dock.

You've, of course, got a fair bit to think about, but you also figured it'd be good to listen in on Senaz's phone call with her HR representative - better to understand how it goes, while you think about… Well, for one, the fact that she can order 21st-century items to be delivered to this apartment.

That's only so good of a shortcut to advancing the technology of this world, but 'so good' is still, well, so good. From what you've seen, the technology of this world amongst large-scale civilizations - so not counting smaller tribes of both static and nomadic nature - is mostly in line with 14th to 15th-century Earth, with magics serving as a 'cheat' for some things. By comparison, you've got access to decent small-scale steelworks, 3D Printing, decent physics modeling, and a decent chunk of the sum of knowledge of the early 21st century - just to name a few examples off the top of your head.

Sure, you'll need to learn the specific technologies and their centuries-old idiosyncrasies, but that should be the easy part. The hard part is how to harness the resources to make large-scale successes without empowering forces of evil or creating chaos in the process. You want to improve the world, after all.

Of course, that also means facing down evil more directly. And also making sure you have allies who can help you do that. Which means pulling off what should be a more complex task than it sounds - keeping a Succubus on the straight and narrow.

This'd be a lot harder if the succubus' most immediate worry weren't her Human Resources representative in a 21st-century capitalist society she was an effectively infinite distance away from. Or, to put it more broadly, her stress level as the entire scope of what she's now dealing with dawns upon her. Her desire to remain connected to her past life turned into a chain keeping her connected to it… Ironic, perhaps, but with the right efforts, it can absolutely be a good thing - for her, you, and this world.

But for now, you're sitting on her bed - and, yeah, it's better than what you usually sleep on but probably needs to be replaced soonish - and it's time to watch Senaz handle a call.

---

This was not how Dianna Collins wanted her work day to end, that much is obvious on her face.

NoNam Security Group, your (Former? Maybe?) employer, was an odd duck of a company as-is. Kind of a shady firm, overall, but they paid well and you're pretty sure you were not doing anything illegal. And, thankfully, you'd gone to HR before going to your boss. Good call there.

She sighed a bit, face buried in her hands as she thought the situation through. "So, in short, you're dead, except you're also not. Let's just… skip all the 'other world quest' and 'time is fucky' side of things, other than that now there's a continuously-rolling risk that you do die for real, or completely, or whatever. It can't be that much higher a death risk than the Projects."

You're pretty sure it is, in fact, much higher, stereotypes aside, but decide to let her keep rolling, as she continues, "Like, there's all sorts of other questions I can and should be asking on top. Like, you're not some kind of weird AI duplicate of yourself, right?"

"Nope!", you respond with almost beaming confidence. Dressing in a simple T-shirt and skirt didn't hide that you were Rather Unsubtly feminine now, while sadly revealing that you're not Hatsune Miku. (... You could do that, but nah.)

"Okay, then… If I trim a few details and try to not think about the highly unprecedented legal situations this may introduce, it's entirely accurate to say something like… Sean Calvers has experienced extreme physical changes due to an accident. Recovery will involve being outside of the United States for an as-yet-to-be-determined duration. Calvers intends to continue existing work for NoNam Security Group, and will require no special disability accommodations. Separately, Sean Calvers is invoking the NNSG Alternative Gender Identities policy, requesting employees of NoNam Security Group use she/her pronouns, Miss as a titular identifier, and 'Senaz' as a casual name."

You blink a few times. "That sounds… close enough?"

Dianna nods. "All right. So that just leaves the fact that, while Senaz is talking to me right now, and clearly functional, a corpse belonging to Miss Calvers is probably at the town morgue. I will be arranging a solution for that."

Something about those words is terrifying.

"Now, independent of the body problem, which will be handled by independent contractors… You have experienced extreme traumatic circumstances, more or less. So, I should offer you the opportunity to take up to twelve weeks of leave under the Federal Medical Leave Act. Up to three would be paid under the NNSG Partial Assistance Policy. Would you like to accept this?"

[ ] (Job Front) "Honestly, getting a bit of normalcy going would be better, can I just report in tomorrow?"
[ ] (Job Front) "I'd like to take one week; That should be enough to get adjusted to my new status quo."
[ ] (Job Front) "Let's take all three paid weeks, that should be enough for me to handle the, um, 'personal trauma'. By which I mean the divine quest thing." (Yeah, right.)
[ ] (Job Front) "All three months, no hesitation. Too much going on over here." (It's good to note that Senaz probably does NOT have three months' expenses saved up, so some hasty moneymaking will be required…)
[ ] (Job Front) "Should I even be keeping this job, honestly? You've suddenly been dropping hints we're some kind of, um, something…" (This of course means finding OTHER ways to make US currency and losing NNSG's help with potential legal complications; also it will clash with Senaz's sense of responsibility, costing her a Fate Point.)

[ ] (The Other Thing) Ask about WTF is gonna happen to your body.
[ ] (The Other Thing) Don't, you don't wanna know.
[ ] (The Other Thing) Ask if the 'contractors' can deliver your body to your apartment. (Helen will be very concerned to say the least...)

[ ] (Unknown to Senaz) NNSG is extremely interested in this situation and how to potentially exploit it - legitimately or otherwise.
[ ] (Unknown to Senaz) NNSG is totally a criminal front but isn't (yet?) interested in the interdimensional situation.
[ ] (Unknown to Senaz) NNSG is mostly legitimate, Dianna is just calling in a favor; NNSG is going to try to steer clear of things as much as possible while still exploiting Senaz's labor.

***

The "Unknown to Senaz" is a potentially massive campaign influence, so this vote gets a third day for sure.