LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 27 (Patreon)

Randall shook himself. "Sounds great. Alan, can you get with Mr. Volkov to compare your System Pricing? Everyone else, start poking through your specialty shops to figure out what your 'best-in-slot' gear looks like. Get a list together with backup options. I don't know what we or the Guild can afford yet. Mira? Uh, since you seem to be on a first name basis with Miss Syrith, do you think you could ask her to find someone to consult with us about all the things you just listed?"

Mira blinked. "Well, yes, of course."  

Syrith answered her text with an immediate affirmative. Mira had no doubt there was already a short list of candidates, since the primary mission of this organization was to keep the humans from getting killed, as much as was possible.

"Syrith says she is already in the process of selecting teachers," she reported. "She also says that Alan's purchasing discounts will be better at this stage. The Guild will receive better price breaks on bulk orders so they will be purchasing our crafting materials. They'll work up an equipment budget for each of us by tomorrow. She has also confirmed that if we package our survival gear into one container, that will count as one item so long as we can pick it up for the amount of time it take to transfer into inventory."

When she put down her phone, Alan was crouched in front of her.

"It's Skyrealm, isn't it?" he guessed. "Deep Souls? No? Mass Impact?"

Ugh, they were back to the video games.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied and turned away.

He was quiet for a minute, but it was a thoughtful quiet.

"I get it. You're a first person shooter kinda girl," he announced, in the tone of someone who just got it. He clapped and laughed when she couldn't resist a guilty flinch. "I should have guessed. I'm gonna get my consoles set up and we're playing Oversight.

Mira sighed and resigned herself to this. "Fine, but I haven't played in years."

Alan's cheer faded a little bit and Mira didn't like the sympathy the flickered across his face. "Yeah, I guess not."

"Go away and pick out gear," she told him.

He held up both hands in surrender. "I already did that last night instead of sleeping. My wishlist is already filled out. I came over to share my shop interface with you so you can start in on your list."

She squinted at him and wondered if this was what it was like to have a realistic male sibling. Anytime she'd had brothers in the past they were all a very different type; young, overbearing aristocrats or cold, domineering CEOS—neither of whom thought highly of women or sisters, in particular.

"Oh, well… thank you," she demurred and allowed him to share his System window.

The sorceress equipment was, annoyingly, all of a 'sexy' theme, but between her and Alan's most determined efforts they put together some options that would permit Mira to explore the dungeons without having her tits out. A low decolletage had its place and Mira wasn't above using whatever assets the gods gave her, but not on the battlefield. Assuming the Guild could afford it, Mira had found a dress not unlike the one Syrith had been wearing earlier; a high-neck, low back dress with split skirts that fit nicely under a light duster coat with what appeared to be decent elemental resistances.

Cece had an easier time of it. There was plenty of revealing priestess robes, but she had a wider selection of more modest options and eventually settled on a sort of bell coat and split skirt situation that had the virtue of being cute as well as comfortable.

The real problem both women struggled with was finding footwear that didn't have heels.

Later, once the others had gone, she complained to Adra about it.

They were sitting up in bed. Mira had begun the agonizing process of going through her backlog of social media notifications. Samira had, fortunately, been using a professional dashboard to manage her different accounts, but the comments had been stacking up ever since the dungeons appeared. Mostly, her followers were worried about whether she was alright.

They'd noticed that the content all her accounts were posting was scheduled from earlier in the month, since she was still putting out GRWM reels and the 'let's wind down' series would have been a little tone deaf—if they weren't already certain that she was the same Samira from the global announcements.

Soon, she was going to have to film an announcement and she didn't want to think about that, so she chose to bitch to her husband about the sexist System Shop apparel options instead.

Adra listened. He was leaning against the headboard of their bed with his cheek resting on the heel of his hand while she stabbed angrily at her phone and fussed.

"Would you like me to go have a talk with it?" he ased.

That got Mira to put down her screen and turn to stare at him. "Would I like you to….what?"

"The System and I are a similar category of being," he replied. "It is far more—distributed than I am, but I have been able to make it pay attention to me. Unfortunately, we're pretty evenly matched so I can only throw my weight around so much. Didn't I tell you that was how I got one of the Guild charters available?"

Mira shook her head.

He scowled. "It was a consolation when you were taken. I tried to follow you, but the System refused me entry. Only Hunters can enter a Gate and I did not qualify. We had a small altercation and it pointed out that you would need a supportive organization when you inevitably emerged. We came to an agreement. That is how I was able to handle matters on this side of the gate, while you were shepherding the others through the dungeon."

"I didn't have to do much shepherding," Mira told him. She felt like she needed to defend the others. "They have good instincts when they aren't second-guessing themselves. Well, Andre's behavior was a nasty surprise. He's usually more reliable that that, as I recall."

Adra shrugged. "I'm not so sure. I've always had the feeling that there was always an external factor in play that forced the others to tolerate him long enough to housebreak him. Take his last incarnation. Even a young nobleman wouldn't have gotten away with half the nonsense he did. He had rank and privilege to shelter him. This time, it seems as though he doesn't and the others didn't tolerate him for long."

Mira thought about that. "I think they would have let him stay. He stomped off on his own. It's more that they didn't let him come back when he got tired of being on his own."

"She said it would be different." Adra pulled Mira closer and took her phone away. "Enough of this. You have rest you need to catch up on. The coming days will be busy."

Reluctantly, she acquiesced and let him pull her under the blankets—but then she asked, with sparkling eyes, "Tell me all about this 'altercation.'"

Note:

Skyrealm - Skyrim

Deep Souls - Dark Souls

Mass Impact - Mass Effect

Oversight - Overwatch