Lilith moved to stretch as she woke up but found herself restricted by Kali’s embrace. She froze, thinking back to how she had fallen asleep. She had nodded off in the middle of watching TV, and she certainly wasn’t snuggled up to Kali then.
She fell asleep on the other side of the bed, rolled over, and grabbed us. Mae said. I didn’t think it was a big enough deal to move us without permission or wake you up, so I just let it happen.
Oh. Thanks. Lilith responded, and began trying to extract herself without waking Kali up. It wasn’t that she was unhappy to wake up in the arms of a pretty girl, it was just that she felt like…well, like she hadn’t earned it. She wasn’t sure what earning it would entail, but she figured at the very least it would involve going on a couple of dates.
Kali’s grip tightened. “You’ve earned it.” She muttered sleepily. “Been a big help. And the dates were fun.”
“What do you mean?” Lilith responded, bewildered. She didn’t get a reply.
I believe she’s still asleep. Mae said. I haven’t noticed an increase in her heart rate, change in breathing, or anything that would indicate she’s woken up.
Giving up on that for the moment, she hopped over to the spare body and made her way over to the kitchen, where she began to fix breakfast. On an academic level, she knew that she didn’t really need to eat any more, but the day just didn’t feel right without breakfast.
Wait, did she ever find out if avatars needed to eat or sleep? She asked Mae, who dutifully answered.
From what Carmen’s shared with us, the answer is yes and no. If the avatar is currently being piloted, then yes, it does. Otherwise the body functions of an avatar seem to be placed on some sort of hold while it’s empty. It’s honestly somewhat baffling. It can still be hurt and killed, but other than that it’s like a corpse.
Oh, and don’t forget that that’s not your real body. You’re not even going to get the benefit of Assimilating the food if you do that. It’ll just sit there, undigested until someone pilots it long enough to fully process it.
Eh, I’ll take the time to fix up something I can eat with my real body then. Lilith responded, putting down the bowl she was about to fill with cereal and turning to the fridge. She got out some eggs and then rummaged around the cupboards for a frying pan.
“So, have a…pleasurable night?” Siph said, arching a brow suggestively.
Lilith glanced over her shoulder at her mother. “No, mom. Nothing like that happened. She just grabbed me in her sleep.”
“Shame. I want grandkids.” Siph replied, sitting down on a chair. “Can I have some eggs?”
Lilith sighed in exasperation, grabbing a few more eggs. “I don’t think it works that way. We’re both girls, remember?”
Siph chuckled. “Even if we discount this handy spell I have that’d let two girls have a kid, I’m sure if push came to shove you could make the necessary parts for a time.”
“What? You’re kidding me, right? There’s no way there’s a spell like that.”
“Sure is. Made sure to grab it from Tunem’s place when I had the chance. Figured it could come in handy for you, or your other mom and me. I’ve been given to understand they’re working on a version that works with two men, too, but that’s a bit more difficult, given men aren’t built to carry a child.”
“Wait, you and mom? What about dad?”
“He gets tired. I’m working on fixing that too, though.”
“Could just make him a girl for the night.” Kali prompted. “No refractory period then.”
“Jessica’s already brought it up. He wasn’t interested but we’re working on bringing him around.”
“Too much information, mom!” Lilith said, blushing. “I did not need to know that.” She paused, unsure of how to greet Kali. “Uh, hey.”
“Hey. Sorry about…you know. I swear I was asleep when it happened. I’ll take over making those eggs if you want to get back into your main body.”
Lilith gave the spatula to Kali, walked the avatar back to its resting place, and went back to the main body.
“Yeah, that’s what Mae said.” Lilith said, walking back into the kitchen. “By the way, has anyone ever told you that you talk in your sleep?”
Kali froze. “What did I say? Did I read your mind?”
“Yeah. I was thinking about how we kinda skipped a few steps, like going on a date, and you said that the dates were fun.”
“Um, we sat alone in my room watching TV for hours on end. I don’t know about you, but that’s a date in my book.” Kali replied, resuming stirring the eggs.
“Why bother with steps?” Siph asked. “If you both want it, go for it.”
“That’s the problem. I don’t know if I want it. I’m still trying to sort through my feelings. I’m still new to romance in general.”
“Oh, come on, if you were half as good-looking as you are now, I’m sure the girls would have been beating your door down with a stick.” Siph said.
“Do you even have a reference frame for how attractive humans are?”
“Sure do. Your other parents are fine, you’re gorgeous, and Judy looks good enough.”
“And everyone else?”
“Insignificant.” Siph waved a hand. “If they can’t see how great you are that’s their problem.”
Kali put a plate of eggs down in front of each of them and sat down. “Take your time thinking about it. I’m in no rush for any of this. We are in a rush to get you stronger, though.” She adopted a more serious expression. “So, today I need to officially make you my Champion, and then I think we should get your dungeon going. Don’t expect too much from being my Champion, though. I’m pretty strapped for Worship right now, what with the whole system swap going on, and although I’ve been snapping up all the spare Worship up ‘til now, that takes a while to filter in when it’s not directed to me. That should fix itself for both of us once we reveal ourselves to the world.”
There was silence at the table for a long moment, and Kali looked expectantly at Lilith. Finally, she spoke up. “What’s involved with being your Champion?”
Kali smiled. “Good job. You can never be too careful about this kind of stuff. Being my Champion isn’t going to force you to follow my commands or anything like that. It’ll allow us to telepathically communicate at all times, I’ll gain some experience in Higher Power whenever you gain experience or do tasks for me, and I’ll be able to bestow buffs upon you, as well as remove them, and Worship gained from you is increased. Nothing really binding, provided you don’t do it with someone shady.”
“Alright, fair enough. What’s the process?”
“Well, I opt to spend some Worship to do it, you get a prompt, you agree, done and done. It’ll be coming over shortly.”
Would you like to become Kali’s Champion? Yes/No |
Lilith pressed yes and waited. There was no flash of light, no sense of some greater power within her. Nothing but a window letting her know she had become Kali’s champion.
“Perfect. I’m going to give you your first Blessing now, hold on for a moment…” Kali said.
I’ve granted you the Blessing Sponsored Dungeon! Sponsored Dungeon |
“Sarlienne?” Lilith asked.
“Well, I haven’t married yet, so I’m still using my original last name. I’m looking to change that, so I don’t use it much, though.” She said, winking at Lilith.
Does this mean you have family? Mae asked.
“Yep. Haven’t been able to meet them in person since I became an administrator, but my friend lets me go check on them from time to time. They’re still kicking.”
“How do you become an administrator?” Siph asked.
“Once your universe’s administrator gets enough in the way of resources, they can allocate a new plane to someone to manage, and eventually one of those people can be made their own separate administrator. It’s an optional thing, and if you do become your own administrator you can’t go back down to your old administrator’s worlds without jumping through some serious hoops. I’m not terribly upset about it, though. I knew what I was getting into.”
“And if you die?”
“If I die while I’m down there I’m just sent back up here after 5 years or whenever I’m revived with Worship, whatever’s first. If I’m revived with Worship, then my stats will return back to normal at the end of those five years. It’s not a big deal. Now, if someone somehow kills me in here, or if I die at someone else’s place, then I’ve only got Worship to bring me back. All Worship generated in my universe will stop going to wherever it would usually go and come to me instead. If it was addressed to someone, I get the extra boost that would come from that, so a lot of administrators like to have a lot of Higher Beings as a safety precaution. Nothing like being gone for a long time and coming back to find everything falling to pieces without you.”
Kali shrugged. “Doesn’t matter much to me, though. It’s not like people can come here without my permission, I’m only receiving visitors and going to people I trust, and the only people from my planes I’m letting in here are you and Siph, and I’m not in any danger from either of you. But this is a morbid topic, let’s talk dungeons.”
“Finish your food first. It’s gonna get cold.” Lilith said, taking her plate to the sink and washing it while Kali wolfed down her eggs.
A few minutes later, everyone finished eating and made their way back into Kali’s room, where they sat in a group of beanbag chairs to the side.
“So, dungeons.” Kali said, lounging in her chair. “People have come up with all sorts of explanations for them, but in my opinion they’re wrong. If you ask me, they’re simply there to make the inhabitants of the plane stronger. Nothing more, nothing less. And, as such, that’s why they’re in my universe. Well, Haven, anyway. I don’t plan on introducing them into other planes for a while. Want to get everything stable first.”
“Given that that’s the purpose of a dungeon, let’s talk about what your dungeon is going to be. What do you think we should do with it?”
“Why do people need to get stronger in the first place?” Lilith asked.
“Ah, right, good question. See, planes are constantly being generated. The catch is they’re not directly given to anyone when they pop into existence. So, if there’s ever a dispute, we have to fight it out, and a long time ago people decided it would be better if we fought using people from our universe and not the administrators themselves. So, stronger people, stronger administrator. And before you ask, we need the planes to support the expanding population of our other planes and for political clout.”
“I won’t bore you with the politics right now, it’s unimportant. I’ll tell you about them later if you want, though, since you’re liable to get tangled up in them, sorry. So, back to the question, what do you think we should do about it?”
Lilith thought about this for a moment. Obviously, there had to be some immediate benefit to making a dungeon, or Kali wouldn’t be this insistent about her making one. And, given her explanation on the purpose of dungeons, one answer immediately sprang to mind. “To help me level up?”
“Bingo. Well, equipment will be a side benefit and it’ll also serve as a test for my system integration, but the main reason is to help get you strong fast. And it’ll remain usable for whoever you want after we’re done with it here.”
“But it’s not a perfect solution. It’s got a few problems, the most glaring of which is your Dungeon Core. The Dungeon Core has to be within the dungeon at all times, and if someone gets their hands on it while it doesn’t have a master, they can become the Dungeon Master. That is obviously less than ideal, but I have a few solutions. The first is that we create another Parallel or even just a Mask dedicated to running the dungeon, make its avatar the Core, and trick the system into thinking you’re a separate person, letting you be your own Dungeon Master. The second is we use the spare avatar as the Core and trick the system into letting you be your own Dungeon Master. The third is making the avatar the Core and having me or Siph be the Dungeon Master. That’s a dicey option, though, since it puts you in a position of complete subservience to someone else, much like Alex, and there’s no benefit to it, so I really don’t recommend it.”
Lilith frowned, putting her fist under her chin as she thought about the options. Option three was out. Too many risks for no benefit. That just left options one and two. One sounded really nice but creating another Parallel to be nothing but a prisoner to a dungeon seemed…unethical. So, option two seemed like the best one, but it couldn’t hurt to hear what everyone else said, right?
“What do you two think of my options?" She asked.
“Option one.” Siph said instantly. “The more Parallels you have, the stronger you are and the more safety you have. I see no reason not to go with that. Option three is right out, I’m not going to control you like that and I’m certainly not going to let anyone else do so. Freedom is precious.”
“I have to agree.” Kali added. “Option three is too risky, and there’s no reason to go through the trouble of managing it with one of your current consciousnesses when you can just make another.”
Lilith shifted uncomfortably. “But…doesn’t creating a person for the sole purpose of doing one job for their entire life sound kind of…wrong?”
I can hear you. Mae said. For what it’s worth, I’m completely content with my life.
“But you were designed that way!” Lilith protested. “The feeling’s artificial!”
Excuse me? Mae replied incredulously. Your biology “designed” you to like women. Is that feeling artificial?
“That’s different!”
How?
“It…It just is!”
“You’re not really creating a person.” Kali soothed. “You’re just giving your desire to design a dungeon a wider set of emotions. It’d be like creating a mouse for the sole purpose of eating cheese all day. It gets to do what it loves all the time so it’s a win for the mouse and a win for the person who presumably has so much cheese it’s causing a problem.”
“No.” Lilith said firmly. “They think, therefore they are. It’s as simple as that. They’re people.”
“You don’t seem to have a problem keeping your Elder God personality locked away.” Siph interjected.
“She hasn’t even had a chance to think yet, so she hasn’t really existed yet. Besides, she’s too dangerous.”
Siph raised an eyebrow. “So, you’re not even going to give her the decency to make a case? Look, it’s not that I think you should ever let her out, it’s just that if you’re going to insist that all your personalities are people you can’t make exceptions.”
“But she’s just a potential at this point. She never actually came into being, no different than the potential personality we’re talking about. She’s just got words on the status screen.”
I would like to say that I much prefer this existence to no existence. I would prefer this existence over any other anyway, but the fact remains.
“No. We’re going with the second option. End of discussion. If I ever change my mind, we can make the personality then. We can’t unmake the personality.”
“Alright. We’ll go with that. Although, it sounds like you had made up your mind before even asking us, so why do so?” Kali said, then hurried on, not giving Lilith time to reply. “And if you would like, I can remove the Elder God personality. I had to put in something to make people less suspicious of you after reading The King in Yellow, but it’s served its purpose. If I’m being honest, I haven’t actually designed it. I never expected you to use it, so right now it’d just black you out while I actually made the thing.”
“That would be great.” Lilith said. “Now, where are we going to make this dungeon?”
“I made a side room just for this. We’ll do it over there.”
“You want it in your house.” Lilith deadpanned.
“Yup! Well, the Core room, anyway. Since this is my house, I was able to set up a really advanced portal that only allows people I want in, so not only is it the best security system you could ask for,” she walked up to Lilith, smiling brightly, “it also allows you free access to my home if you ever want it! Your very own set of house keys!”
Lilith blushed. “And where will the rest of the dungeon go?”
“A plane of its own. Like Tunem’s plane. It’s just a dud plane. Tons of them are made when other planes get created, so my faction’s got a bunch lying around. Any “demiplane” is actually just one of those, so don’t believe someone when they say they made one. I just let them think that because it’s easier.”
Lilith paused. “Dud? Faction?”
“Dud planes are those too small to be of any real use to anyone. Generally, it means a small amount of weak flora and fauna, next to no space for significant expansion, and no outstanding resources. Most people don’t bother with them because they’re more trouble to set up than they’re worth, but they’re basically all I can get so I’ve had to make do. As for the faction, it’s just a group of administrators who pool their strength when getting planes. It’s just me, my old administrator, and a few other friends in the one I’m in, so we’re not particularly large, but my old administrator and our friends are tough enough that they can muscle their way into getting a big plane every now and then. At the very least, you’re going to meet my old administrator soon. She said she’d show up to give more advice once I swap the systems over, so you can look forward to that.”
“But that’s enough of that. Let me show you the way to the room!”
Ngl I hate Lilith's personality, I prefer Carmen
Ah yes, nothing like arbitrary labeling what is and is not a person.
Arbitrary, yes, however I had to make a decision, and this was the one I made. My personal opinion, with how everything works, is that the Parallels should not be counted as separate people, and that comes down to what they are at the core, which is an alternate personality.
They still retain most aspects of an alternate personality (and the separate memory thing is something that occurs IRL), the main difference is that they have a body. I would not consider the personalities of someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder to be separate people (and legally I believe they are not, though my guess is most courts would accept an insanity plea in most cases involving someone with DID), and as such I do not consider the Parallels any different because they have their own bodies. Aside from sharing the same memories, the common "base", the main reason for this is that, were Lilith to permanently die, the Parallels would as well. They are inexorably tied to Lilith, and nothing anyone could do would change that. Well, Kali might be able to, but that would cost a ridiculous amount of Worship.
This is not to say they don't deserve rights or anything, just that, when it comes down to it, they should be considered the same person as Lilith and all the other Parallels.
Of course, I recognize that this is an issue that a lot of people have split opinions on, and I don't think that people who think the Parallels should be treated as completely different people are just flat-out wrong (In many ways, I do have to write them as different people). It's not something we have a good analogue to IRL (DID is my go-to because it's the closest AFAIK), so people have to draw their own conclusions on what does and does not constitute personhood.
So, what it really came down to was "would I count someone with DID however many different people?" And when the answer was no, and had to ask "would having a separate, linked body change that" and the answer was still no.
TL;DR it's a complicated subject and I feel like there are no decisions that could be considered not arbitrary. We don't have any real frame of reference for this topic, so we have to make our own decisions and with a subject like this there's no good benchmark.
@Fighterman481 Talking about Lilith's reasoning for not making a Parallel
@TypeAxiom Ah, yeah, my B, I just kinda assumed lol. I've had a lot of comments from the other direction so I've gotten used to laying out my reasoning.
Although, I think she does have an argument to be made, it's just not enough to actually sway me in any way, and her reasoning is completely arbitrary. It's just her being stubborn and not really much else TBH. I actually wanted to make a dungeon master Parallel right away, but it just didn't feel right for the character and so I couldn't. It was kind of a bummer, because I was getting all excited.
f*ck Lilith gets annoying
I hope she improves later or I'm going to want to throw myself from a building
There's some rather massive improvement, though not all of it is in the public chapters yet. Give it some time for the current arc to end on SH (which is in like...two weeks from tomorrow, I think) ;)
@Fighterman481 Will do, love everything else just Lilith tends to annoy me sometimes.
Keep up the good work though!
“Oh, come on, if you’re half as good-looking as you are now"
Should this be "If you were half as good-looking..."?
It is now!
well first things first, what they've done totally counts as a date in my book. though i guess a date is only really a date when both parties acknowledge it so really anything could be a date. in any case, i do hope you work on their relationship because i think they have some good chemistry with each other. plus seeing how lilith is essentially immortal now it doesn't really make sense for her to be with someone else with a limited life span. sure there's something to be said about better-having love and lost yada yada, but if the option to not even be in that situation is there in the first place i'd just go with that.
now about the parallel's, i too think lilith is kind of making a big deal out of nothing major. sure don't make them willy nilly but i see no reason to not try to gain strength when gaining strength quickly is the main reason you're doing this in the first place. really at the end of the day they are still lilith. they can do everything she can and they know how she thinks. she could essentially become them, she has the capacity to do so. they aren't really separate people in the first place. i mean you wouldn't say someone with Multiple Personality Disorder is more than one person. the only reason she probably feels they are is she has the option to give them a body to pilot.
lastly i hope you touch on it eventually, but i really want to know where lilith/lucas's intense desire to be approved comes from. at this point it seems kind of unnatural. maybe not magical but is there some sort of trauma there or something?
Gonna level with you completely, I haven't pinned down a reason for the desire to be approved. I've had a few ideas, but I haven't decided which one it is yet.
Oh, and as for the love and lifespan thing, I totally agree. I much prefer when the lifespans of the people in a relationship match. Fortunately, this is much less of an issue in this universe, since immortality (or at least eternal youth) is an option for just about everyone if they do enough work.
@Fighterman481 I'd want to live in a universe were immortality (or at least eternal youth) is an option for just about everyone if they do enough work... imagine all the novels I could read... all the games I could finish... but hey you don't always get what you wish for, guess that's why we lose ourselves in fictional stories, imagining how, why, and, what could've been - inserting ourselves into the characters and almost living another life, even if for just a while... what am I even ranting on about xD
Thanks for the chapter.
I’ve granted you the Blessing Sponsored Dungeon! - Don't really think that fits for a dialog box. Probably should have been You have been granted...
my options? She asked. - options?" She
who pool our strength when - pool their strength (since it's more speaking in general)
The "I've granted you the Blessing Sponsored Dungeon!" Is supposed to be weird. When Higher Beings grant a Blessing, they have control over the message given (if any), so that was just Kali messing with it.
The other two have been fixed, thanks!
Man that comment about how all other Lilith would disappear if there’s no magic for them makes me really wonder about the plane-claiming battles ——— what’s the fight like if there’s no magic in the plane to begin with? Big ol’ Capture the Flag or DOTA where you get to the others’ base in that plane to turn off their “magic works for me here” thingy?
What each battle looks like depends on who the participants are. Usually, the administrators involved will apply a sort of failsafe on their participants that prevents them from being completely useless on planes like that (usually by powering their magic with the administrator's own). Lilith in particular is less susceptible to planes with no magic, as she's tied to the system a lot closer than most people are, and sort of brings it with her everywhere she goes.
And, if you were wondering, it's not usually to the death. No one likes losing champions they've sunk so much time into, so a champion is often airlifted out before things get life-threatening.
And I gave up after 30 minutes of trying to write a comment since the f*cking comment system here interprets ctrl+arrow key as previous/next chapter and overrides ctrl+shift+arrow key for selecting a whole word.
So 10 attempts later at writing here is the TL;DR
The TV watching is a date, don't get bogged down by societal norms.
The Parallel skills is merely a more extreme version of what people do in daily life anyhow.
Oh believe me I know how that is >_> I spent a long time on a post on another site, posted it, and it only posted like the first 1/4 of it and I had to redo the whole thing.
I'm curious as to what you mean by 'what people do in daily life anyhow', though, could you elaborate a little?
@Fighterman481 It is fairly simple, different situations result in a person behaving differently. What that means is your behavior at work is different from when you with friends which is again different when with family even when doing the same activity. But that isn't exactly interesting (or rocket science). The interesting part is that it alter skill/ability effectiveness as well. The effect is marginal, the study had the error bars at close to +1% and -1% almost having 0%, or no effect, included. The other end of the range didn't come over +10 or -10% with the mean closer to 0% then +10%/-10%.
And it seems having a Mask/Parallel is just scaling that of by a lot. Note that I'm not talking about a different personality here but the ability to get a different skill set for different personalities.
@SneezyOfTie Huh. Interesting. I wasn't aware that that sort of behavior alters ability effectiveness. The brain's a fascinating thing.
That was actually how my last relationship ended I thought of dates as going out so I needed money... she said we weren't spending enough time together, lesson learned.
Thanks for the chapter!