The Cathedral of Aurora, while not huge, is tall and stunning - a circular building with rectangular projections along the compass lines, with a great dome open to the sky designed to let the sun at zenith illuminate the central altar and it's lavishly painted, contrapposto marble statue of Aurora in all her glory, bearing her Four Gifts of the spear, the shield, the torch and the cornucopia. Stained glass windows depicting her and the other 13 gods during various acts of their mythic cycles and titanomachic war for creation dapple the white stone of the nave in pink and blue and gold.
It's beautiful, more so in person than it was even in VR.
You expect that's going to be a running theme of your stay here in Mundus.
As you enter through the atrium at the west front, you see the local bishop - an eithyr with flaming hair and dark skin, in his sun-topped miter marked with the solar cross - is in conference with Alesha, both speaking in hushed tones so as not to disturb the monks, nuns, scribes, and of course the Clerics, Summoners and Psychics here to pray, or train, or even - at the end of the aisle, near the door to the transept - eat and drink in peace. Alesha spots you, gesturing you over.
"Sorry this took so long," you say. "The walk was longer than I thought. What have we found out?"
The bishop held up a splayed hand - a benediction, a rising sun. "If your daughter is a seer of our order," he says to Alesha, "then we can divine her location, though not perfectly, not as a pin on a map. We are conducting the rites now."
Alesha's obvious relief is contagious. You're not sure how to react, and so let instinct pull you down into a bow. "Thank you... I, uh, don't know what titles to use, but thank you."
Amused, the bishop says, "Call me 'the Right Reverend Ximeno,' and in the course of doing good works, 'friend' as well."
"I hope I can, Reverend," you sigh.
"I will strive to leave this place better than I found it," Alesha confirms, to Ximeno's laugher.
One of the priests - no, one of the Psychics, they're removing a blindfold tied behind their pointed Pixie ears - approaches you, and bows, making that splayed-hand gesture and receiving it in turn. A moment late, you and Alesha return it too, though she's frowning.
The psychic says, "Reverend, Ser Knight - aspirant," to you, with a nod, before addressing the bishop again, "- I would report what I Saw."
"By all means, my child." The Bishop is a lot more relaxed, in saying it, than Alesha, who stands ramrod stiff.
"I stood facing the city," says the pixie seer, "and took flight. From the air, I was compelled to turn my head to my right, and was aware of moving at great speed over and down to a foreign land, heavy with fog and dense wood. Within this grove, I beheld a standing stone, carved with spiraling sigils and writings I could not decipher, and thought,
'here is my child, safe at home, for me to find.' And I heard a cry, and the voice of someone I did not know, saying,
'I hear you, I'll stay for you to find me or send for me, I miss you.' Then the vision ended."
Alesha took in a sharp breath. "Do you think - was that Ja-
Peachi, sending you a message?"
The seer nodded. "If she's a psychic, she almost certianly sensed me scrying for her and used the chance to kythe with me and tell me her message."
"I can't really make heads or tails of the vision, unfortunately," Alesha said, her shoulders dropping. "Any clue, Deedee?"
You shake your head. "Not a one..."
Alesha drops her head into one hand.
"...so I'm going to have to consult the Wiki," you continue, one hand reaching for the sendjewel.
"Beg pardon?" asked the Bishop.
"It would be hard to explain," you say, scratching the back of your head and wincing. "But I need to call a friend, if that's alright."
Puzzled, he nods his assent. You turn away and immediately call Hikaru.
"I will be brief; I'm in the library and don't wish to disturb the others," Hikaru begins.
"Understood, just want your input on finding Alesha's daughter. Peachi Effervesce." And you relay the vision.
After a moment to think, Hikaru returns the call.
"The seer was facing Viacruz from the land, in flight?" he asks.
"That's correct."
"To the West, then. As the dawning Sun - Aurora - travels. And then turned right - to the north."
"Uh." You think about it. "...Yeah, there's no other direction it could be. She's to the north."
"She's almost certainly in Caer Islywn - as is everyone else who started in the Caelibyrn zone," Hikaru says, confidently - even satisfied.
"I'll explain my reasoning when we meet in person."
"Caer Islywn in Caelibyrn?" you repeat for the benefit of the others, and Alesha's eyes light up. Bishop Ximeno seems impressed, the three fingers of his hand on his chin, as he thinks; the Seer curtseys and withdraws, her duty discharged.
"Where she... where she started her adventuring career, of course," Alesha says, turning to the Bishop. "Thank you and your oracle both. Bless and keep you."
The Bishop bowed. "May She come ever in your darkest hours, as She did now," he replies.
"So we'll have to gate over, as soon as possible, and find her," you say.
The bishop coughs. "That will be impossible, I'm afraid."
"Why?" Alesha asked,
barely managing to make it cordial. "If it's a question of expense I can raise the funds -"
The Bishop Ximeno holds up his hand. "The waygates went dark a week before your arrival," he says, quite seriously.
You have no intelligent answer to that - neither of you do.
He sighs and continues. "Some Adventurers have tried to use the portals between cities anyway. None have returned, and we presume they did not arrive, either. Without knowing why I would advise you not to sell your lives so cheaply in the attempt."
While you're still gaping at that, Alesha puts a reassuring hand on your shoulder. "We will take such counsel as seriously as your wisdom demands, Right Reverend Bishop," she says.
He wordlessly blesses us with the splayed fingers of his hand and a very slight nod of a troubled face, and you just nod and thank and tithe and leave together, your head spinning.
"Bet you drinks for a week that's almost exactly when we arrived," Sekhmet says, ears and tail straight up.
"No bet," Hikaru says, pressing glasses he's not wearing up the bridge of his nose. "What's the phrase? Twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action?"
You've gathered at an inn that Sekhmet found, technically
La Jarra del Dragon with it's Koboldt innkeeper but the whole playerbase calls it
The Dragon's Flagon - the same one you used to patronize when this was just a game, still the cheapest decent taverna in the square and packed wall to wall with a tense and frightened mixture of players and locals, collectively at a roughly a 'metal concert' volume level - ironically, you think, allowing you some privacy in a sea of bodies.
Sekhmet, sitting at the table with you, is fidgeting with a copper coin or a
sheaf, with the bundle of wheat stamped on the back and the stern face of a Yberian queen on the front. Ace, absentmindedly, kicks a ball in place with one knee while rubbing the other, turned aside. Alesha sits with her back to the wall, struggling to keep the tension out of her limbs with only slightly more success now with a sign her daughter is safe.
And you sit between Alesha and Hikaru, leaning on the table with a hand over your palm, thinking. As hard as you can, about what everything implies.
"An EMP on the surface would knock our Neurohelms offline while we're using them, but it would glitch out the orbital servers - totally glitch them out, not
only glitch out the fast travel," you say.
"Agreed," Hikaru says. "It
can't be a war on Earth. We'd get glitches nowhere or everywhere, not just with the Waygate system
specifically."
"Cold comfort for Bacon, I think," Alesha says. "But it's comfort nonetheless, and we should loop her in and keep her close. She has very
specific insights about neurohelms and I'd love to know why."
"Her FC - the Rainbow Connection - were a serious progression guild," Hikaru says. "I seriously doubt anyone here has the
usual spurious objections to a close relationship with them, and I think an alliance - to share information, if nothing else - will likely save us both a lot of grief."
"And she's already promised free brain pills to people who need them," you say, nodding. "Helping her out got us on the good side of the Temple of Flamma, and one good turn deserves another, right?"
Sekhmet considers her coin. "Who the hell profits from fucking up the fast travel and trapping us in the game? Kind of a specific pair of glitches to happen at once, yeah?" she asks. "That's what gets me. What does anyone
get out of it?"
"Their own personal colony with slaves to work their plantations," Alesha says, voice very dry. "At least that's what that one PC Erandite priestess was working for, anyway."
"Lil' extreme to put your IRL body into a coma for it - if Bacon's right, and I don't doubt em - and it's not like you couldn't try that in the game as is anyway," Sekhmet counters. "Every country in the game and Delvar besides would immediately make you a high priority sidequest if you got caught, but it's not
impossible."
"We're missing something," you say, sighing.
It's about this point that a waitress arrives with a family-style dinner of pilaf, sausage, and salad along with drinks, which each of you accept. Sekhmet raises her mug of beer in response with a smile, and drops some change on her platter; she curtseys and smiles back at your feline friend before wheeling, skirts spinning, to the next table with her tray.
"I noticed you tipped generously," Hikaru says, voice neutral, barely smiling.
"If
we gotta pinch pennies, imagine how much worse it is for her," Sekhmet says, sotto voce. "You can't tip, you can't afford to eat out, full stop."
"Yeah, no shit," Ace says, the first time she's spoken since you all sat down. She puts her ball aside and starts to fill her plate.
As do you all. The rice has, like paella, been braised along with lamb - no, it's much richer than that, with mature mutton - scant amounts of pepper and fish sauce and generous amounts of herbs, vegetables, and seafood. Rather than saffron - which would push this two-guilder family meal into a 10 guilder personal pan at least - it's flavored and tinted with turmeric and cardamom, and you can taste how a little of it went a long way. Where it's touched the pan on the bottom, the rice is crispy, like in a good bibimbap; and the garden salad, fresh bread and butter, pecorino-like cheese and quince and ginger jelly served alongside takes it from satisfying to one of the greatest comforts you've had since you arrived. Little wonder, then, that your party was silenced for a good minute or ten just eating.
Finally, you turn to Ace. "You're pretty good with that ball," you say.
"Huh? This?" Ace turns to you, a bit distracted. "Yeah, uh, it's a proper soccer ball that some kids kicked at me. I tried to give it back but I'm one of those terrifying fucking supersoldiers outside the gate,
apparently, and they ran away before I could return it."
You're a little taken aback by that response. "I'm, I'm sorry you had to deal with it."
"It's fine," she lies. "Few of the locals saw and gave me dirty looks, too, like it was my fault. Heard them, uh, talking about the situation."
Alesha sighs. "As bad as the Contessa said, huh?"
"They're calling it the Siege of Viacruz, Le- I mean, Alesha." Ace winces, edging slightly away from her.
Hikaru pinches the bridge of his nose, again. "And hoping they're joking," he says.
"For the record, I hope so too," Ace says. "Cause, like... I get it. We shouldn't be here. We should be, uh, at home, feeding our cats right now."
Alesha raises her glass, a goblet of red wine. "I'll drink to that," she says, and clinks Ace's cider mug. "To going home to pet our cats and dogs, and may God - and His angels - hear our words."
"To finding a way home," Hikaru agrees, clinking his beer stein.
Sekhmet, wordlessly, clinks her own glass - mouth pursed tight. Your eyes flick to them, and you raise your own cider glass, and...
You can't bring yourself to dedicate this toast to going home. There's not much there. Few friends. A dead end job.
But you don't know nearly enough about what's going on. You don't know if you like life here, even - stories of interdimensional transplants going native filled your head when you were growing up, but it's not like that at all. Besides, you want to be nothing like the would-be kingmakers and womanizers from those stories, anyway.
You look at the faces of scared players in armor and robes and jewelry, and then at the faces of scared peasants and merchants in nothing but cloth.
Nothing at all like that, no.
"I dedicate this drink to finding our way," you say, finally, "and... and may the wind carry this to Sylphan's ears, and the ground to Flamma's, and from them to the Lord."
You tip your glass, just a little, and let a tiny pour slosh out of it and into the earthen floor below. It's a pretty weaksauce vow, but it can't hurt, can it?
You take a deep breath, clink your glasses, and drink; and feel a cool breeze from the window sweep the sweat from your brow, and the warmth and light of the candles the barmaid lights as it starts to get dark.
In the end, you and Hikaru do agree to share a room.
"Sorry," Alesha says, shrugging, having taken you aside to discuss it. "Sekhmet would have been willing to room with you instead - I just thought it might be more comfortable for Ace."
You nod. It's not like you told her - and it's not like you're
sure, either - about what you and Ace have already talked about. And besides...
"...No, I get it," you say, trying to keep your jaw from clenching. "She shouldn't have to worry about Hikaru, and 15 gold a night is too much for three rooms. 10 gold a night is too much for two, as it is."
"It is what it is," she says, shaking her head. "It'll be just like our time at Fanime last year."
You sigh. "Not just," you say. "But we'll find the fourth guest in the girl's room soon enough, at Caer Ilswyn."
She hugs you, for the third time today, and the first thought that goes through your head is
I could get used to this.
If it doesn't get awkward once she knows what you're going through, anyway.
You break away. "Good night, Leesh," you say, starting for your room on the second floor.
"Good night, Jake," she says, and you manage to wince only after she turns for her room on the first.
Sighing, you ascend the steps and knock on the door.
It opens, and you see Hikaru in a small, cream-colored underrobe.
"Come in," he says. "And I'll step out while you dress for the night."
"It's... not like this is my actual body," you say, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Bullshit," he says, soothingly. "I need something warm to drink before I sleep anyway. Just leave the door unlocked, I'll knock."
You don't care to argue. There's not much you have
to wear as pajamas, and you like sleeping naked anyway... which just got awkward as hell. Right.
For now, you just take off the outer robes and the prayer beads - and after some debate, your belt, shoes, and socks, as well. That just leaves the blue underskirt and a loincloth, which you can take off under the sheets.
Where Hikaru can't see.
The lights here are low oil lamps - it's dim as hell in here. You do manage to put everything into the chest at the foot of the bed, and glimpse yourself in the reflection of the window leading outside.
And you're beautiful.
You hadn't actually seen yourself since you came here, you think, running a hand over your own soft cheek. It shouldn't surprise you that you look good - you've got, as Hikaru said to you earlier, proper art direction, now - but it does surprise you that your first thought isn't
I look hot or even
I look good but
I'm beautiful.
There's a knock at the door, pulling you out of that thought. "I'm decent," you shout at the closed door.
"Alright, then," Hikaru says, opening it.
He takes one step in, closes the door with his foot - as he's carrying two mugs of something that steams - looks up, and
stops, for just a second.
"Yeah, I had that reaction too," you say, grateful that the lights are low here and your blush is hard to see. "Art team did a good job."
"You wear it well," Hikaru says, nodding, as he presses the cup - just a shade under too hot to hold - into your fingertips. "A lot better, I should say, than the t-shirts and shorts you had back home."
"And the rolls of fat," you add, voice flat.
He paused, before nodding. "You know, I spent a good deal of my childhood out of shape," he said. "My parents, bless them, let the internet and the television babysit me with... mixed results, though it did actually help with my grades. I wasn't very invested in inhabiting my body, you see."
"I
thought that might be the punchline," you murmur, blowing on your... is that coffee? It smells like coffee. "But once you realized you wanted a to be a boy -"
"- and a heroic one at that," he said, and you could hear the smile in his voice. "I wanted to be a Kikaiser, as a child, and it wasn't until I was 12 that I saw a story about a woman who wore the belt. Which was about when I started to realize it wasn't, ah, belt envy driving my 'I wish I was a boy' sentiments."
"Nano, right?" you said, and sipped. Cafe au lait with a touch of chocolate, and chicory, lightly sweetened. Odd drink before sleeping. "Masamiko Akane, the brilliant chemist who'd always find the proper solution. I remember that one. That one fucking slapped, sandwiched between two of the worst in Heisei."
"Still my favorite," Hikaru agreed. "...the point being that I
frequently saw what a Kaiser looked like shirtless, what with the show also being marketed towards my mother. And once I determined that the
raw masculinity of a toku stuntman was my goal -"
You laugh, along with him.
"- although I did have more, ah, data points than
just tokusatsu shows in my in-depth research into gender studies, that was the spark," he says, solemnly. "Kikaiser saved my life. A maudlin, embarrassing, terminally online... factual and true... statement. I would like to pay that debt forward, if I can."
As he says that, you notice through the gloom that he's looking right at you, right in your eyes - no, just above your eyes. Listening, intently, to your reaction to a story you don't think he's told anybody else in the company.
"You thought I was an egg since I patched you up, huh," you say. It's... easier to say it, now.
"I had my suspicions," he says, nodding. "I'm not a fan of the term. 'Egg,' I mean. For one thing, it's a joke that assumes transfemininity -"
"Does it?" you ask, shifting on the bed to get more comfortable.
"Well, when an egg hatches, it's a chick that comes out, isn't it?"
There's a long moment of silence before you facepalm. "How did I never get that pun," you groan.
"You're not the first person surprised to learn it," Hikaru assures you. "...but also, much like a real egg, it's not a term to be thrown around carelessly. Nor would assumptions about any other form of queerness, really."
"Imagine if they got back to bullies, or coworkers, or parents," you murmur. "Egg on your face."
"Or parents, yes," Hikaru says, flatly, as he adjusts his collar.
That's definitely a subject for, if not later, than not now. You sip your coffee, allow him to change it.
"I didn't want to make assumptions, or... push you into it if I was wrong," he said. "But if it were true, I didn't want you to have to suffer alone. Not like me," he says, voice distant, for a moment.
"So you came out to me instead."
"It seemed safe enough," he said. "Given the way you doted on Jasmine at the convention."
You nod. "You weren't wrong," you say. "On either point."
He finished his drink, set it aside, and lay down. Then, frowning, lay on his side.
"Wings getting in the way?" you ask.
"Yes," he says, clipped. "Sensitive, apparently, and fragile even when folded. I'm not well pleased about looking like a fifteen year old boy."
"You do not," you insist. "You look like an adult Pixie, your face is plenty mature."
He takes in a deep breath, before letting it out again.
"I appreciate the vote of confidence," he says. "I would appreciate it more if it weren't a minority opinion.
Every Mundane I met in the library who wasn't a Pixie enquired after my parents."
You wince and hiss in a breath. "Fantasy racism is alive and well, I guess," you say. "At least no one's hassled
me for -"
But you don't look Korean, now. You look like a vulpecian. A white or even Irish one, at that.
"A fair number of Adventurers, as well," he says, shaking his head as he pulls the covers up. "Some of
them playing Pixies... usually in childish clothing. Attempts at gothic lolita," he snarls. "Or anything 'lolita,' really."
"Being treated like a kid would drive me up the wall," you agree, lying down yourself, setting aside your coffee on the bedside table - largely undrunk.
"The worst," he gripes, "are the players who
flirted with me,
and did the cutesy Pixie routine. Do the math on that one."
"I refuse to, and will only comment that anime was a mistake."
He chuckles. "As the late, great, lamented Miyazaki was fond of being misquoted as saying."
It takes you a second to parse his response. "I guess I can't argue with that," you say.
"It's a shame, really," Hikaru says, sighing. "Some of the adventurers I met were rather charming... until I realized they were hitting on me in the same breath as they were treating me like a teenager."
You grunt assent, staring up at the ceiling for a moment.
"Well," you say, "I want it on the record that you're probably the most mature member of this queer clusterfuck of a party, and anyone with a lick of common sense will see that instead of your being four foot whatever. So, not as many as you'd like, but..."
"But enough," he says. "I do appreciate it. Thank you."
There is a moment of silence and understanding that passes between you.
Then you reach out your hand, fingers on the knob of the oil lamp.
"Can I turn this off?" you ask.
"And mine as well," Hikaru says, reaching over - then sighing, mumbling into his palm, and pointing that palm at the lamp.
A trail of sparkling blue lights settled around the lamp's knob and twisted down, before fading. The sight is - you're not sure why it's breathtaking, this casual use of magic, but it is.
"Wow," you say.
"Good night, Deedee," Hikaru says, turning away from you.
"Good night, Heeks," you murmur, turning your lamp off.
Reposting the ballot, and adding new things, besides. Voting will remain open until noon, Wednesday.
What do we do before we leave for our quest? Pick any three.
[] Get new weapons and armor.
[] Purchase potions from the Flammite temple.
[] Consult local merchants about equipment and trade.
[] Go talk to the refugee camp and find the rest of the guild.
[] Meet the father of the girl you rescued.
[] Meet with the priesthood and pray to, if no others, Sylphan and Aurora.
[] Spend some time with...
-[] Ace.
-[] Alesha.
-[] Hikaru.
-[] Sekhmet.
Mundus... (Pick all that apply.)
[] Has been kind to me so far.
[] Is an amazingly beautiful place.
[] Has helped me 'hatch,' and I'm grateful for that.
[] Is uncanny - every time I think Earth's history applies, it's slightly wrong.
[] Is part of a game system as much as a real place, and it's not wise to forget that.
[] Is a minefield of politics we need to understand to survive.
[] Is no place like home.
[] Doesn't need us fucking it up for the locals.
[] Is a prison, even if it's beautiful.
Do we have feelings for Hikaru? (Approval voting applies. This will not lock out other romances.)
[] I think I'm starting to, yeah.
[] Maybe? He's a good friend and confidant, anyway.
[] I mean, I'm not going to make the first move, but I wouldn't turn him down...
[] I dunno, but maybe flirting with him would be fun?
[] He's a friend and a teammate, and I don't want to ruin that.
[] He's a friend and a teammate, and that's
all.
CHARGE CHANCE!
I'm going to start adding explicit and implicit ways to gain Tension through being clever or committed, as is the norm in Valor. Since we can't do proper Stunt Bonuses as per the rules, instead I'll post
charge chance opportunities to build Tension.
Fanart or fanfiction is
always a charge chance.
In addition, an explicit opportunity here:
[] [CHARGE CHANCE]: We know the reason that Jasmine/Peachi is in Caelibyrn - she chose that starter area instead of Yberia - but how did Hikaru know that's what the symbolism of that vision meant? Puzzle out a coherent explanation for a Tension award. The correct explanation will get 1 Tension, as will the best explanation that doesn't come close.
Thank you for your patience.
