LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 26 (Patreon)

A little while later, once Mira had excused herself to let the others have some privacy to get their families settled in, her phone bipped with a text alert.

She looked up from the rough draft of a spell she'd been composing with the intention of seeing if she could transfer it into Will's grimoire and checked the screen.

[CN: Are you busy? Is Mr. Dietrich around?]

Mira shot back a quick 'No.'

[CN: Oh, good. Everyone is done unpacking and the boys want to talk. Is it OK to keep using your place as the meeting space?]

As the penthouse was the only human residence in the building without someone's dependants in it, Mira supposed her space was the only option. In any event, she didn't mind. The penthouse was nicer and no one else had enough places to sit.

[SB: Come up. I've unlocked the door so you can let yourselves in.]

She turned to Adra, who was puttering around on his laptop. "We're about to have guests. I think they're avoiding your other body. Cece asked if 'Mason' was around and was happy when I said no."

He smiled. "Good, then my plan is working."

Mira cocked her head. "Do you really dislike the other body that much?"

He paused in the act of putting away his computer and turned to look at her. "The body, specifically, does not bother me. I've done more with less. His memories are closer when I wear it and he had an abhorrent personality, to say nothing of what he did to your pre-awakened self. He also has violent instincts and his body does not regulate impulse control very well. I have to be more careful of my behavior when I am in that body. It can be tiring. I understand that it may feel important to you, to show that you love me no matter what shape I take—but please, have less concern for that one."

Mira felt contrite. She should have realized that this went beyond mere vanity. She went over to kiss his cheek and wrap her arms around his waist. "You're right, I'm sorry. We can get rid of it, if you like?"

He shook his head. "No, that body needs to be able to appear at board meetings. I used it to secure more funding for this guild and to support our people until the guild begins earning. I'll need it to speak with our investors. Not to mention, that face is very useful when dealing with Virgil Bellamy. I've come to realize he doesn't trust attractive men or men who are too capable. He's the sort who is only comfortable with those he believes are beneath him. He thinks of 'me' as a brainless thug and will speak comfortably in front of me. That can only be to our advantage."

Ugh, Virgil.

Mira had set Soneares to the task of learning about conservator law after identifying a few reliable open-access law libraries that had digital collections. She probably wouldn't be ready before Virgil and Helena pulled their next stunt, but Mira would deal with that when it happened. Adra had bought them both some precious breathing room by getting Virgil to officially hand over some of his authority over her.

She was pretty sure that Virgil did not yet realize that a System-enforced contract was different than anything he was used to dealing with.

A noise from the corridor reminded Mira that they didn't have unlimited time. Adra kissed her temple and stepped into the shadows, presumably to go be in his office/audience chamber.

Cece and the others let themselves in, as requested. Bryn handed her a shaker bottle of what appeared to be a protein shake. She squinted at it until a System window popped up.

[Bulking Shake: this meal supplement, carefully prepared by a skilled Cook, is both nutritious and delicious. Eating this will help the user mover ever closer to an ideal bodyweight or recover from malnutrition. Flavor; nostalgia]

Huh.

Mira took a tentative sip and then another. "It tastes like peanut butter and chocolate," she reported with surprise.

Specifically, it tasted like the first dessert she'd ever tried as a newly-minted thirteen-year-old princess at her very own debut ball; a dried date filled with coarse peanut butter and dipped in dark chocolate before being rolled in crushed pistachios and wrapped in a sort of marzipan shell that had been sculpted to look like a nesting swan. The swan had been settled into a nest of sugar strands and had almost been too pretty to eat.

She hadn't remembered that party until just now.

"Luca said his tasted like a snap-tart," Bryn replied, arms crossed over his chest. "I used vanilla protein powder straight from the jar. You should finish that, though"

"You'll have no argument from me," Mira chuckled and took it over to the sofa. She offered Cece a sip.

Cece accepted, took a cautious taste, and blinked rapidly. "It tastes like my mom's fig cake, the one she won't tell anyone the recipe for."

"I wonder what other mysterious flavors Bryn is going to discover?" Mira mused and took the shake back. No matter how horrid her family had been, nothing was ever quite like that elusive taste of home.

"It was plain vanilla whey powder and water!" Bryn protested. His ears were getting red. "I wasn't even trying to use my skill!"

"Hey, Mira," Will called over to her. He was standing by the counter where she'd left her notes. "What's this?"

"I was brainstorming a spell to add to your book," Mira replied, feeling caught out. "I was wondering if I draft the spell and you copy it, then we might be able to avoid that paywall Randall mentioned."

Will grinned and it was the first big display of emotion she'd seen from him. He had a nice smile. Somehow, she hadn't realized.

"I'm game if you are," he told her.

"Well, that's one item on my agenda taken care of," Randall mused aloud. He was "Mira, could you draft spells for Cecelia too? I also want to see if we can use your written spells like enchantments."

"Probably," Mira hedged. "The inscriptions might need to be recharged or they could just fail after a while. They still need a source of mana. Some of us have enough to spare, but that isn't the point of a magical item."

Randall nodded, mostly to himself. "Alright, something to workshop. Speaking of magical items, has anyone messed with your dungeon prizes yet?"

Mira kept a neutral expression. She had, in fact, reviewed her winnings. The wand was a welcome upgrade from her stinky goblin staff an the dragon-hide robe was—well. "It will amuse you to learn that the clothes change shape when you actually put them on."

Randall seemed to sense some of her mood and squinted in her direction. She was the only one who'd gotten clothing as gear. "When you say they 'adjust' do you mean the fit or do you mean it's like World of Warfare where the full plate armor turns into a bikini and thong set when a girl puts it on?"

"The latter," she replied, flatly.

The dragon-hide robe had transformed into a long-sleeved, ankle-length dress with slits that went up well above the crease of her thighs and a neckline that reached her navel. She wasn't above wearing such things, but her current body boasted a DDD cup size, underweight as she was. Fortunately, the System let her layer some thin foundation garments underneath it, but it balked when she tried to add a pair of leggings or an undershirt.

"I wonder if we're being penalized for our own popular culture?" Alan asked the room. "Between this and the System trying to honor Mira's protection order, you have to figure it's been watching us for a while."

"…or it absorbed a whole lot of information about us all at once at the beginning of this 'incursion' and it doesn't have enough context about is to know what parts of the things it learned should be enforced or ignored," Randall countered.

"Yeah, there's that," Alan allowed. "I can sell the robes on Mira's behalf and bank the proceeds against whatever she wants to replace it with. I was messing with the System Shop last night and it looks like my merchant class gives me the ability to act as someone's agent. I can access all the specialty shops and use my discounts there. I just can't purchase anything without a buyer on hand."

Randall got up and started pacing. He looked more thoughtful than agitated, which made sense. He'd been their chief strategist so far and was shaping up to be leader material, unless Cece decided she wanted it.

"We should probably think about our gear first, before we get sent out again," Will pointed out. "Mr. Volkov said he couldn't predict when we're going to be needed again. It could be soon and I know I was starting to sweat when our food supplies started to run out. We were lucky one of us was shopping when the incursion started. I don't think we should count on getting lucky twice."

"I want to talk to some of those people guarding the Gate," Alan said. "They really knew what they were doing. They might know more about what goes on inside the Gates."

"They definitely do," Cece piped up. "I was talking with the lady who gave us the facilities tour. Apparently, this is equal parts volunteer initiative and resettlement. They'll get preferential treatment when the System starts allowing immigration between this world and the other worlds connected to the System. Apparently, it's really hard to legally leave your home world permanently. You have to either pay huge fees for a transit ticket and still risk getting rejected for a residency permit when you get there or you have to earn points through civic services—like keeping the new aliens from getting eaten by goblins."

In retrospect, she could now see how Andre had fit into this group. 'Often wrong, but never in doubt' was a common leadership trait for a reason. Even if he was an asshole, having someone good at making decisions was invaluable until the group learned how to come to consensus. She'd been hanging back a little bit to see how they'd come together and, so far, they were struggling to choose a direction—and why wouldn't they be? Mira's host body was, once again, the oldest person in the group and Samira had only been in her twenties. These kids should still be in school or just starting their careers. They had great instincts under fire, but they had no real experience in this life. None of them had been in the military or anything like that.

"Mira?"

She startled and looked back at Randall, who looked like he'd been calling her name for a little while.

"Did we lose you?" he asked.

"No, I was just lost in a thought," she said.

"What do you think?" He was looking at her, kind of thoughtful. "If you were in charge, what would you want to do first?"

"First?" Mira thought about it and started ticking points off on her fingers. "Firstly, I'd unload all our gear that we don't want to keep either on Alan or the Guild so we can resell it, depending on who is getting better prices from the System. Then I would consult with Syrith to find out what a standard supply package looks like for a dungeon run. I'd put that together and we'd each commit one or two inventory slots to the needs of the group. If we could trick the System into recognizing a supply kit as one item, that'd be ideal, otherwise we try to take advantage of the stacking items feature where we can. Once we have our bug-out bags and gear on our persons, I would ask some of the demons to train with us until we learn to fight as a group. I think we are off to a strong start in that arena, but I'd be a fool to think there nothing more for us to learn. Somewhere in there, Will, Cece, and I would compare notes about our spellcasting abilities and flesh out our spell repertoires where possible. Everyone should also spend as much personal time as possible grinding their crafting skills. If Bryn's food is any indicator, we'll get some useful benefits from anything we learn to make. Lastly, if we haven't been sent off to help with another dungeon, my stretch goal would be to start workshopping ideas for spell scrolls. Randall's idea about enchanted equipment is good, but I think my 'offline' spells would work better as single-use scrolls. That way, for example, Alan could use his stealth capabilities to pull off a round of Rail Gun against an unaware enemy or Bryn can have a stash of healing spells to use on himself if Cece is out of mana and can't get to him."

She paused and looked around. Everyone was staring at her.

"What?"

Note:

Snap-tart - Pop-tart