Tess struggled with her pants, trying to put them on in a way that both wouldn’t cover the yellow-blond wolf tail she currently had and would cover the rest of her sufficiently. It…wasn’t going well, and she was glad she had anticipated something like this happening and made Ellie leave her room.
Eventually, she took one of her old pairs of pants and put it on backwards, unzipping the zipper just enough to let her tail out. Then, she got one of her belts and fastened it as tight as it would go, preventing the pants from falling off so long as she didn’t move too much and was cautious when she did.
Finally, she opened the door and let Ellie in.
“No. Way.” Ellie whispered, “It’s even more adorable than I ever would have thought.”
Tess fidgeted uncomfortably. “Really? It seems like the kind of thing that wouldn’t be as nice in reality as it is in pictures.”
Ellie hesitated for a long moment before replying. “Well, it probably a personal thing, then, because I disagree.” She looked to the side embarrassedly, “Um, can I…touch them?”
“Um…sure, I guess. Just be gentle.”
Tess flinched as Ellie began to gently stroke her tail.
“Are you OK? Does it feel bad?” Ellie asked, withdrawing her hand.
“No, it was just…unexpected. It felt different than anything I’ve felt before, I can’t really describe it aside from that. Not bad, though.”
Ellie hesitantly returned to stroking the tail.
Sooooo, we got a bit of time, how are we going to break the news to Ellie and your Gramps? |
“What?” Tess said, taken aback enough by the sudden question window that she spoke aloud.
“Huh?” Ellie asked, stopping. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask. You’ve been getting all spaced out suddenly all day. Is there something going on?”
Alright, guess now’s a good time. Just tell her, we’ll tell Gramps later. We can deal with The Rumors when it becomes a problem. |
Tess wasn’t sure that was the best policy when it came to potentially world-shakingly important topics, but she wasn’t going to question it too much now. “So, um, one thing sort of led to another and now Fortune’s job is kind of to just watch me all day? I was probably reading a message from her if I was spaced out.”
Please tell her I say hi and also that I’m rooting for her! |
“Uh, she says hi. And that she’s rooting for you, whatever that means. She told me that earlier too, so…take that as you will?” Tess turned her head to get a better look at Ellie but was only fast enough to catch a hint of red on Ellie’s face as she turned away, resuming her petting.
“Don’t worry about it. Tell her I say hi too, I guess?”
Tell her I can hear her just fine |
“Can’t you just tell her yourself?” Tess asked, exasperated, “You’re a god, you don’t need me to pass your notes for you.”
You’ve heard of prophets, right? There’s a reason for that. We can’t just willy-nilly talk to anyone whenever we want, think of it like…I dunno, an international calling fee or something. I’ve gone ahead and paid a bunch up front so I can talk to you as much as I want but I have to pay each time I talk to Ellie |
“Paid what, to who?! How does that even work?”
It’s called Worship, and it’s kind of like Mana or Stamina but for gods. But I really shouldn’t be telling you more yet, so don’t ask. Just tell Ellie I can hear her |
Tess rolled her eyes. “Fortune says that she can hear you fine, but apparently her god-phone plan doesn’t cover talking to you so she’s passing messages through me like I’m some kind of prophet or something.”
…You are. That’s what a prophet is |
“That’s what a prophet is, doofus.” Ellie replied.
Tell her I said jinx and that she owes me a soda |
Tess groaned, but didn’t pass on the message.
“What?” Ellie asked curiously, “What did she say?”
“Something dumb.”
That’s rude :(. I want to participate in this conversation too! Do you have any idea what it’s like only ever being able to interact with the same 20 people for your entire life? I’m lonely, OK? |
Didn’t you want to keep your sociability a secret? Tess asked privately.
Ellie doesn’t count, she’s gonna be with you enough to find out one way or the other. Please just say the thing, I’m begging you. I will literally write out dog noises if you make me |
Tess groaned again. “Fine. Ellie, Fortune says jinx and that you owe her a soda.”
Ellie stopped again, before bursting out laughing. “I really am going to have to convert. Where do I sign up?”
It’s fine if you just believe in me however you want, it comes back to me just the same |
“She says to just do whatever, it’ll make its way to her.”
“Well, she’s got herself a follower in me.” Ellie chuckled, stopping her ministrations on the tail and moving to Tess’s fluffy ears, “I would love to be put on that god-phone plan, though.”
Sorry, I can’t shell out that much right now. Not on someone I haven’t invested anything into |
“She says she’s too broke to do that right now, sorry.”
I…guess that works. Um, fair warning, Gramps is on his- |
The door opened, and Gramps poked his head in. “Is everything alright in here? I’ve caught bits and pieces of the conversation and I was getting a little concerned that someone else was in the house or something.”
Ellie froze mid-pet, and a knowing grin spread across Gramps’s face. “Should I just leave you two to it then?”
“No, it’s fine!” Tess said hurriedly, “Um, might as well tell you now, if that’s fine.”
Gramps raised an eyebrow, walking into the room and shutting the door behind him. “Sure, that’s fine.”
Yeah that works, try to make me sound as good as possible though, don’t mention it’s a result of me messing up. I don’t want the boss yelling at me about PR stuff again |
“Well, um, after what happened this morning, Fortune’s decided to keep a closer eye on me. She can only really contact me freely because of the blessing and stuff, so we were talking to her through me. So, uh, yeah.” Tess explained lamely. “It’s kind of a secret, though. Only the three of us are supposed to know.”
Gramps sighed. “I suppose that’s just another one for the list. Anything else?”
Huh, I was kind of expecting more of a reaction, to be honest. Oh well, guess he’s been around the block enough times and you’re enough of an exception that he’s stopped being surprised or something. |
“Um, no.” Tess said, “That’s all.”
Gramps’s knowing grin returned, and he gave them a wink. “Alright, you two have fun, then.” And, before either of them could recover from their embarrassment to say anything, he slipped out of the door, leaving the two beet-red teenagers alone.
“Ummmm…” Ellie began uncertainly. “Now that I think about it, this is kind of…”
“Weird?” Tess finished for her. “Yeah, but, honestly, when it comes to things you do, I stopped worrying about what was weird a long time ago. So…just get it out of your system, it’s not like things can get more embarrassing.”
Ellie shot Tess a grateful look. “Thanks for putting up with me.” And with that, she resumed her ministrations.
Jin watched his party carefully as they prepared for their meeting. He had called it due to the rather tumultuous couple of days they had had and the building friction he was sensing between Ker and Alice, and he could already tell it wasn’t going to be a comfortable meeting for any of them.
Alice was pacing back and forth restlessly, a conflicted expression on her face. In contrast, Ker was sitting on his favorite chair, studiously going through a couple of documents on his phone. After another couple of minutes, he finally looked up. “I’m ready now, sorry.”
“Finally!” Alice burst out, “Jin, why call us here for this? I thought we had the situation handled!”
Jin sighed, crossing his legs, and leaning forward. “Yes and no.” He replied, “What we’re doing is working, but I don’t think it’s working well.”
Alice frowned, but Ker nodded. “I agree. After watching them today, I don’t think it’s good to leave the two of them alone like that. In fact, I think we should split them up temporarily.”
“Elaborate.” Jin requested, arching his brow. Ker was usually on-point when it came to interpersonal judgement, but Jin liked to hear the reasoning behind his assessments.
“The first big problem is that Ellie is too protective of Tess. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Ellie’s crushing hard on Tess, and with the stat difference I believe she’s operating under the assumption that Tess is, comparatively, incapable. As a result, she’s trying to protect Tess more than is necessary.
“I think if we let their party dynamic develop naturally, it’s going to become bad extremely quickly. The issue with Ellie’s assumption is that, for the time being, she’s right. Tess is, way, way overleveled for this dungeon, and she’s still not consistently oneshotting some of the tougher stuff.”
Ker sighed. “But that’s only for now. She’s got the potential to snowball in power really fast, and with Heroes and War personally overseeing her growth, I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that she could end up as one of the most dangerous people alive in a few years. If she isn’t by then, then she certainly will be in a few decades.
“Which leads us to problem number two. Tess seems to have some sort of complex, and I don’t know if it’s something preexisting that was exacerbated by the whole stat thing, or is new, but she’s got no self-confidence. Watching Ellie breeze through things she struggles with is only going to make that worse. So, while we train them, I think they should mostly be separated, even put on different regimens so that it’s hard to compare their progress.”
Jin nodded. “Alice?”
Alice gnawed on one of her knuckles, thinking that over. “He’s right. I…should have noticed.” She said regretfully. “I just…see so much potential in her, and it frustrates me that she doesn’t see it herself.”
“It’s fine.” Jin soothed. “But that brings me to the other topic of this meeting. I couldn’t help but notice you two were disagreeing over how we should treat Tess, and I wanted to clear the air before things got more heated. So, let’s just let everything out now. Alice, you seemed to be taking exception the most, what’s your opinion?”
“I just thought we were being too soft on her. That we shouldn’t just let her wallow in self-pity while she’s getting all these amazing things. I dunno…I just thought if she would step back and look at things objectively, she’d realize there wasn’t actually that many things to be down about. I was…jealous, I guess. I know it’s immature when I have so much, but…”
Ker nodded. “We’re all people here. As annoying as it can be, emotions often aren’t logical. I think that, in this situation, that applies to both you and Tess. Logically, she’s got a lot going for her, but I think it’s not easy for her to realize that. With her transformation and that complex I mentioned, I doubt she’s in the best place right now.
“That’s why I’ve been going about things as I have. I think it’s important that we put her in an environment where her strengths can shine and boost her confidence that way. I’ve also been considering having her absorb a strong core to help her feel stronger and more in control, but I’m on the fence about it. It’s entirely possible that she’ll feel like she’s just using a crutch and that it’s not really her strength or something she earned. But, if we do decide to give her a strong core, we have to be really careful about it.”
The three of them started as an ethereal voice filled the room. With it came a hallmark of an official, capital M Message from the Gods – an instinctual, undeniable knowledge of who was speaking. Not every god went about things the same way, some liked telepathy, some liked message windows, but a physical voice was common for public statements.
Do it. The God of Fate told them. It will be for the better.
With those succinct words, the presence faded. There was a long silence as The Rumors processed what had just happened, and once again realized just what they had got themselves into.
“I’ve been doing some thinking and some research.” Ker said slowly, tapping his phone, “It’s got to be something with mostly passive Skills, so she doesn’t get anything that would be too big a crutch for her. I’m thinking something like one of the tougher feline or canine monsters, which’ll give her enhancements to her claws and other things. Still, I’m not sure how we’d go about giving one to her in a natural way. Can’t just…walk up and say “here, we want you to feel tougher, use this”, that’ll defeat the point.”
“Actually, I got this.” Alice said, working her way back into her normal exuberance, “I’m taking her out dungeon diving on Friday as an apology for being rude, I’ll give it to her as a sort of…additional apology. I’m sure she’ll take it without thinking too much about ulterior motives. I was thinking of doing something similar anyway, so it works out.”
“Alright, I’ll get back to you tomorrow with ideas for what we can use, and once we decide we can go shopping.” Ker looked at Jin. “How should we pay for it, though? Do we want to take it out of our equipment fund, or…?” He trailed off, waiting for Jin’s reply.
While Jin was thinking about it, Alice spoke up. “I’ll just buy it myself. I’m not doing much with my extra money anyway, and this isn’t something we should budget ourselves for. So, don’t hold back on any ideas because they’re expensive, provided they’re not so expensive they’re going to bankrupt me. So, just…no Calamity level cores, although I doubt you were thinking about using them anyway.”
“Sounds good.” Jin said. “Heading back to splitting the two of them up, how do we want to divide our attention? Specifically, curriculum and who will be with them when. Ker, you’ve spent the most time with Tess of any of us, what are your thoughts on her?”
“We’ve got a lot more time with her than we do with Ellie, so we’ve got room to work with taking her to more exotic dungeons once she’s out of the beginner ones. That being said, while she’s in a dungeon and not just sparring or something, I think she should only be with one of us at once. And we should let her do most of the work herself unless we need to teach her something, just to show her she can do it.” Ker replied.
“I don’t know where we’re going to find someone who can teach her to use claws properly, though.” He continued thoughtfully, “We’ll need to ask the guildmaster about finding some trustworthy beastkin martial artist or something.”
“I’ll do that, since you two are taking care of the core thing.” Jin offered. “I’m sure the guildmaster will be more than happy to find someone who’ll fit the bill.”
“That sounds good. If they come on as a permanent tutor, we’ll have them accompany Tess along with whichever one of us is her guide for the day. And, of us, I would recommend it’s either me or Alice. I think we should put her in a similar situation to what her situation with Ellie will be, so we need someone capable of being a tank. We can teach her about protecting others later, right now I just want to get her used to her role.”
“And I’m guessing the other two will be with Ellie?” Alice asked, “Sounds good to me.”
“Fine with me as well.” Jin added. “Ker, you be in charge of Tess’s curriculum, and if Alice is fine with it, I’ll be in charge of Ellie’s.”
“I’m not good with that stuff anyway.” Alice said, “Just let me know what you need me to do.”
Jin nodded. “Alright, if no one else has anything to say, then I think we can call the meeting here.”
The other two agreed, so everyone split, ready to prepare for the next day’s activities.
Tess: "It’s not like things can get *more* embarrassing.”
Murphy claps his hands and rubs them together gleefully, eager to work his magic.
I'd be funny if there was a god named Murphy who just went out of his way to make things like this happen.
@miclowgunman Murphy, the god of Law and Fate
Murphy told them to do it like the dark lord of the sith he is.
Everything else aside, I'm with Ellie on this, seeing fluff in front of you and not petting it?
Nai wa.
Kemonomimi daisuki.
So, even Fate is in on these particular dealings. Most intriguing. So thats 4 (5, if we count this alleged 'Boss') gods now with at least some level of personal interest in Tess. I kinda want to say some shenanigans are a foot but i say too much. I need something new to say instead.....
Well that aside, the decision to split up Tess and Ellie while logically sound is sure to have some....interesting results on the intrapersonal side. Because i really doubt Ellie is going to appreciate the fact that she is being intentionally separated from Tess because she wants to protect her too much.
Moving on from that, and kinda sorta returning to the opening bit. If The Rumours are buying Tess a strong core by *their* standards and trying to get Tess to use it while having the backing of both Fate *and* Fortune, well i get the feeling Tess is goint to get some rather....useful skills from that core. As well as a f*ckton of experience since she gets experience for absorbing new cores. And if she absorbs one from a monster that is probably a good 70-100 levels higher then her and with the enforced maximum xp gains from Fortune i expect Monster Breeder to go up several levels as a result (and possibly her base level? I don't remember if both got experienced from absorbing cores) perhaps Monster Breeder will even acquire another skill because you have mentioned multiple times that Classes can unlock new Skills as they progress. Would definitely be most interesting if that was the case, with how the current skills are. Though thats probably really unlikely, again considering the current Skills inherent to it. I'm probably rambling at this point aren't i?
Well whether not any of my suspicions and expected events come to fruition i am definitely looking forward to the next chapters
Absorbing cores only gives EXP in monster breeder (I had to go back and double check, though, lol)
As for the rest...well, I really want to talk about it, trust me. I just have to keep my lips sealed because a lot of that stuff dips into enormous spoiler territory, so uh...you'll know when we're able to talk about a lot of this stuff. When that time comes, do let me know how much of what you thought or suspected was right, though. I'm curious as to how well foreshadowed some of these things are.
@Fighterman481 Foreshadowing is tricky like that lol. And as for my predictions and or expectations, that i will.
I imagine Fate is Fortune's boss, I mean, fortune is like an offshoot of fate, and why else would Fate be getting involved with Tess?
I was kinda hoping Tess and Ellie would be a team but as is I can see why splitting them may be better for training. Ellie is on another level over Tess and will be for a very very long time unless the core is really good and there is a time skip. I mean it is taking 3 gods to even make her viable while Ellie is your typical protagonist who has insane growth and frankly could probably be left to her own devices as long as she has an observer to keep her from dying. However, there may be a bit of conflict from separating them which could damage their relationship though they still live together. I look forward to reading the unique route you are taking with your story.
“So, um, one thing sort of led to another and now Fortune’s job is kind of to just watch me all day? I was probably reading a message from her if I was spaced out.”
This is starting to feel cheap.
tut tut how could you pass up the opportunity to talk about how it feels to be patted, i want a redo
Hey! Don't blame Fortune..... It's not like she didn't pay!
ahhhh this chapter was really good at clearing the air and planning for the rumors, it was enjoyable :3
Thanks for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter