[Luna POV]
When I left the room, I called everyone to come and meet me in the room I woke up in. They all showed up quickly.
“What’s up, big sis? You seem agitated.” (Soleil)
“That’s an understatement, Soleil. It seems that letting Lia contract with a fluff spirit was a mistake. He has gone and influenced several elves and they started a cult. Now I need to go to the Elven Nation to take care of it somehow.” (Luna)
““““……””””
Thinking about it more, my agitation grew even more. I opened a Gate and pulled out a bottle, uncorked it and drank.
“What is that, Luna?” (Velvet)
“Alcohol. I thought a situation like this called for it, but I forgot I won’t get drunk off of it anymore. I honestly don’t even want to think about this right now.” I said as I took another drink from the bottle. “The one time I wish I didn’t have status effect immunity.”
{Luna, you’re enjoying this situation a bit, aren’t you?}
‘I’m really not. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know how to peacefully deal with a cult.’
{Give them something to do that makes them leave society alone. That’s what we normally do when the cults get troublesome. After that, they normally disperse after a few hundred years.}
‘…’
“Lunya nya.” (Mio)
“Huh.” (Luna)
“Please put that bottle away nya. It’s starting to affect us nya.” (Mio)
I recorked the bottle and tossed it back into my inventory.
“Sorry. I didn’t think opening that would do anything to anyone else.” (Luna)
“It’s fine nya. We’re just tipsy at most now nya. Now if you excuse me nya, I will now bury myself in your tails nya.” (Mio)
Mio started to get up, but I used one of my chains to trap her where she was.
“No can do, Mio.” (Luna)
“Luna, you shouldn’t take that out again.” (Velvet)
“I wasn’t planning on it, though you seem better off than the others.” (Luna)
“Well, I did just drink some blood, so I’ll be good for a while. That isn’t to say I’m not affected, just not as much as the others.” (Velvet)
“Weird. I wonder why?” (Luna)
{Does it have something to do with her depth in the Abyss of Fluff?}
“Why would that do anything in this situation, Tamamo?” (Luna)
{No idea, it’s just the first thing I thought of. Whether or not it’s the case is different.}
“Anyway, Velvet, take Soleil and put her in a bed, I’ll do the same for Ophidia.” (Luna)
Velvet picked up the now asleep Soleil and left the room while I tried to figure out what to do with Ophidia. She had turned into her lamia form and was half-asleep and mumbling to herself.
“Hehe. Skadi, where did you go? Let me wrap you and squeeze you. You will then feel how much I love you. Hehehehehehehehe.” (Ophidia)
“Ophidia!” (Luna)
“Oh, master, do you know where Skadi is?” (Ophidia)
“Before I answer that, smell this.” I said as I held out a bottle of with some sleeping medicine in it.
Ophidia got one good sniff in before falling asleep completely. I then picked her up from her human section and started to bring her to another room. It took some trying, but I eventually did it. When I got back to the room we were in before, I looked at Mio. She was sleeping away while still wrapped up in a chain. I unwrapped it and she fell down onto the bed. I put the blanket over her and went back to the office.
“I regret doing that now. I didn’t intend to get everyone drunk.”
{I don’t think that could have been helped. None of us knew that they would get drunk just off the smell of that alcohol.}
“Maybe I should give it to a dwarf or a dragon one day so I don’t have to deal with it.”
{A dragon would be better, though the two of us could also drink it in our alone time.}
“I’ll consider it.”
I looked out the window at the night sky. The moon was high in the sky.
“Not long now until the next full moon, huh.”
{Nope. A few days.}
“Hey Tamamo, this is completely unrelated to anything that happened today, but would you enchanting one or all of my new ships with gravity magic violate any divine rules?”
{I don’t think so, but I won’t just to be safe. Why?}
“I wanted to make them into flying ships, but I guess I’ll have to find some other way to do it. I do have one idea, but it’ll take some time to do. I’ll also need the help of Blake, Ana, and Damien.”
{The alchemist?}
“Yeah. Alchemists are the ones that can get the most out of magic crystals, and if my idea pans out, I’ll need to use a lot of those. I’ll just have to hope that he’s mellowed out after all this time.”
While still looking out the window, I pulled out some things to make something.
{What are you making?}
“Something to wear when I captain one of the ships. If I’m going to do it, I might as well look the part.”
{Ufufufu.}
Like that, the night continued on. When the sun came up, I went to check on the others and found they were awake. Luckily they didn’t have hangovers.
“Lunya, as a member of this party, I ban you from taking that alcohol out again nya.” (Mio)
“Don’t worry Mio, I wasn’t going to.” (Luna)
“Good nya. I hate feeling drunk nya.” (Mio)
“Noted. Also, sorry about that, Soleil, Ophidia.” (Luna)
““It’s fine.””
“Now, while we wait for Skadi to return, let’s go and check out the ships, then get to counting the money.” (Luna)
“So, they didn’t have a ledger?” (Velvet)
“Nope.” (Luna)
We left the mansion and went to the docks in the cave. We spend a long time going over every inch of the ships. We didn’t find any other treasure, so it must have all been in the treasury in the mansion. We then went back and got to the tedious task of counting everything. We finished close to midnight.
“So, in total, we have a little over five million in gold here. This doesn’t count the cost of all the jewels in the chests. Add that on top of what we already had and we’re probably richer than a king.” (Luna)
“What are we ever going to do with all of this? It’s not like we even spend that much anyway.” (Soleil)
“No idea. I guess we can donate it to some orphanages or something.” (Luna)
“Well, we should keep some of it. You’ll probably need it to run your shrine before people start regularly donating to it.” (Velvet)
“Wait, I’ll be in charge of that?” (Luna)
{Technically, Velvet, Ophidia, or Soleil will be. But you have the final say in who works and manages your own shrine. But that isn’t important right now.}
“Then we’ll shelve that for now. If you guys want to take some things before I put this all away, go for it.” (Luna)
The others looked over the pile of treasure for a few minutes before they all picked some things. I then put all of it in my inventory. I then moved over to the weapons that were stacked up in one side of the room.
“Soleil, you awake enough to help me look over all of these?” (Luna)
“Yeah. This shouldn’t take quite as long as counting everything.” (Soleil)
The two of us then sat down and started looking over the weapons. The other three looked at us then decided to join us. About two hours after that, we finished going over the weapons. I stored the usable ones in my Space magic inventory while putting the less usable ones in my normal inventory.
“You know, the more stuff I collect like this, the more I feel like Gilgamesh.” (Luna)
“Who” (Ophidia)
“Someone from my old world known as the King of Heroes. Don’t worry too much about it.” (Luna)
“Sounds like there is a story that goes with the name nya.” (Mio)
“I’ll tell them some other time. For now, lets go to sleep, I, personally, am exhausted from counting all of that.” (Luna)
“Let’s do that then.” (Velvet)
We all climbed the stairs and went to bed. The next day we woke up and as I was preparing breakfast, Skadi came back.
“Welcome back. How did it go?” (Luna)
“Good. I got a lot of stuff as thanks for bringing that mermaid, who turned out to be a noble’s daughter, back. I’ll show everything later. How has it been here?” (Skadi)
“Good. We counted everything we got from the treasury. Over five million in just gold. More in jewels and other stuff. Ships were empty. Also, once we get back, we need to start preparing to depart to the Elf Nation. I have a cult dedicated to fluff to take care if apparently.” (Luna)
“Oh, your first cult dedicated to you? This’ll be fun.” (Skadi)
“No it won’t. Tamamo told me how these are normally dealt with, but I don’t know how to go forward with it. By the way, can you teach me how to captain a ship?” (Luna)
“I can.” (Skadi)
“Good, then please do that once we’re all done here. We’re setting off later today.” (Luna)
“Alright.” (Skadi)
She then sat down and started to eat what I gave her.
“Luna, since Skadi is back, we should discuss indorsing Soleil and Ophidia.” (Velvet)
“Right.” (Luna)
“Why not just get it over with? I mean, we all know how strong they are, so let’s just do it and get it over with. It’ll only be beneficial.” (Skadi)
“I don’t disagree. So, which of us will do it?” (Velvet)
“I’ll indorse Soleil nya.” (Mio)
“I’ll indorse Ophidia.” (Luna)
“Then that’s decided. Are we going to go there right now, or do you have something else planned Luna?” (Velvet)
“I want to learn to sail a ship. After getting the minimum knowledge on that, I’ll teleport us to Grey and get that over with. Then we can head to the Elf Nation from there. Is everyone fine with that?” (Luna)
All of them looked at one another then back to me and nodded. We quickly finished breakfast and then made our way to the ships. I stored two of them in my inventory, then we all climbed aboard the remaining one. While Skadi was checking over the ship to see if it was good to go, I quickchanged into my sailing outfit I made. I then pulled out a tricorne hat and was good to go.
{It suits you, Luna.}
‘Fufufu.’
Chaos Realm:
Grey: Luna is going to start singing sea shanties, isn't she?
Yep.
Tamamo: Don't those only sound good when there are several people singing them?
She'll probably just make illusions of herself to join in. I mean, she's going to have to make some if she's going to captain a ship after all.
Grey: Ture. It's going to be a sight to see.
Indeed.
FIRST, HAHAHAHAHA
I honestly don't even know how you'd go about turning a Cult based around Fluffiness into something evil, let alone beneficial.
Actually... Considering that Luna's tails are a cognitive hazard, I could see the former...
It’s easy to make them beneficial actually, but I’ll let you speculate on how until it’s revealed.
@Paytoechip Given Fluff/Abyss(?) only seems to have cognitive effects amounting to a consumption of their attention. From a niggling desire all the way to petting the Fluff until self-Vegetation, so I'm not entirely sure. Unless you max out the Depth, but I've actually forgotten what the Fluff/Abyss blessing does specifically with that as a prerequisite. I think it was proximity buffs?
Perhaps there's additional effects we don't know of or that I've forgotten, my guess is Therapeutic or a form of Buff Support for those sufficiently corrupted.
Might be thinking too much on Mechanical. Maybe they just dedicate themselves to a series of very fanatical elven pet cafes.
@Avidya Well, you have one thing wrong, all of these things you’re talking about are directly from Luna herself. The one that did this is just a fluff spirit. Fluff spirits, despite being closely connected to the Abyss of Fluff, are still outside its direct influence. So these elves that made the cult are just really fanatical about fluffy things. When Luna arrives, things will get clearer.
@Paytoechip Kittens, puppies, rabbits. Horde thereof. First elven petting zoo.
@kaithar evil fluff cult: You will become fluffy, whether you like it or not. Chase people with brushes. Forced grooming. BURN down hair salons. Everybody gets curls, which then frizz in humidity.
Good fluff Cult: Same thing, but voluntary.
@Darkakuahebi I was figuring the good fluff cult is a cat cafe on steroids, and the evil fluff cult is like a prison where all the guards are adorable kitties that try to murder you any time you touch them and only release you when you're obsessed with fluff. Or something like that.
@kaithar if one was a fennec-fox, I'd be gone immediately. I wanna stroke those EARS! those soft... fluffy... rabbit-shaming ears... And the tails... The little paws... no-WAIT... Fennec-Fox Massage Parlour(yes, apparently it's an actual thing)... Fluffy paw-pad massages(Literally just cute little Fennecs walking on your back)... now THAT'S A will Sapper...
"NO, I WILL NEVER SUBMIT TO THE FLUFF!" Prisoner, pre-massage
"NO... BRING THEM BAAACK! ILL DO ANYTHING! YOU WANT SOMEONE KILLED? KIDNAPPED? AN HJ? BJ? WHATEVER YOU WANT, JUST BRING BACK THE PAWS!" Prisoner, post 12 hour Massasge.
The fluffy paw massage has been known to be addictive, and possibly driven lesser men insane... Theres your Cult Indoctrination technique.
Also, random idea for the author: A race of Goat-people who are REALLY into Yoga. Like Ultra Skinny, Clichèd Yoga instructor types, who dont like anyone who dosent do yoga, see other races as beneath them, and treat it like a religion... A confrontation with THOSE jerks, knowing your style, would probably be HILARIOUS... maybe as a post ascension enemy? Something along the lines of "Blaaahaha! Brothers and sisters, this multi-tailed ANIMAL thinks it's a deity! None are divine, Save our PERFECT FORM! Laugh with me, friends, Laugh with Scorn, And Humble this Lesser Being! BLAAAHHH HAHAHAHA!" Then they get destroyed in a humourous way by two angry fox-godesses... it's an excuse for genocide!