Kahli wasn't sure what to think about the jellyfish offering to engage with her psychic warfare, but it was the most interesting thing that had happened to her in the void. It was at least more interesting than always seeing the same three scenarios played out different ways in order to give her some sort of weird illusion of time and choice based on... timelines.
So, what do you think? Should we?
Kahli thought about it for a moment. Will it help me level up?
Probably not. This isn't really considered in time, which makes it hard for the system to quantify it into experience points - that is, unless something truly monumental were to occur. And a faux fight wouldn't cover it, only something real would have a chance of registering to your system at all in here.
Kahli was a little disappointed. How do experience points work?
Unfortunately, that's as much as mystery to me as it is to you at the moment, mind-sighed the jellyfish.
Wow, this sucks, said Kahli. But, um, anyways, I think I want to get rid of my [skill].
Why?
This feels like, ironically, a waste of my time. Are the choices always going to be the same?
What do you mean? They're, like, totally random!
They're always the same. The first one, I die. The second one takes a while but always gets cut off early. And the third one, well, it's the only one that seems to not totally suck in some way.
Not everyone would interpret it that way, thought the jellyfish. They are genuinely random. One hundred percent random.
How is that possible?
System magic.
I don't believe you.
Look... Okay. Maybe there is a bit of a problem of overfitting with the random-ocity modules. That much I can agree on. But think about it, if you keep your [skill], you can level it up and improve it! It can expand out to see up to fifty different timelines, probably! Don't take that for granted of course I'm not your system I'm just an entity here paying you a visit.
But what if I just... don't like it?
The jellyfish thought-sighed. I guess you can just move on, then. But, this is pretty valuable. I wouldn't want to get rid of it now that you've added it to your system.
Kahli considered this. Maybe the big jellyfish was right. Could she possibly [disable] a [skill] without removing it?
Why don't you look at the scenarios, said the big jellyfish. They might show you.
Kahli sighed. Not more stupid scenarios!
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Taubitha sighed as Princess flapped through the clouds ever so slowly. She was crying, her mascara was running into her eyes. Then again, if no one was there to see it, did it really happen? Taubthia told herself no. No, no, no.
And she just kept crying! It was an ugly, painful cry that she just couldn't get over and it was truly painful to an extreme degree. She felt so horribly self conscious, it was unbearable! She'd just been beaten by Kahli of all people!
Kahli, who couldn't hear a tree branch smashing into her own face. Kahli, who misunderstood everything. Kahli, who walked like a stork on uneven stilts! She beat her, Taubitha!
Kahli hadn't even been masking her character sheet one bit. Did she even know how character sheets were supposed to be used? And Kahli was what, level 16? A level 16, beating a level 23? Okay, well, maybe a level 21, but still! Level 21s shouldn't have been able to be beaten by level 16s!
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Plus, Kahli had a total idiot for a fighting companion. What was that disgusting blob thing? What did she think she was doing with it? And why, for the love of the gods, did Kahli just keep wasting her time over and over again whining and complaining and just being the worst, most obnoxious person this side of Nomachiato? It was, in a word, obscene! Wholly and truly obscene!
Taubitha felt sick to her stomach. But now was not the time for vomiting off the side of her fony. Now was time for Taubitha to level up - or not. Shed tried, but then she sighed.
[Not enough XP]
Life just didn't feel fair at the moment. And then, she encountered the balloon.
"What the shit?" Taubitha said as an enormous balloon emerged from a coiling cloud. "What is this?"
Princess didn't seem intrigued as much as she did relieved. The fony forcefully flapped its way to the floating blimp and lowered itself near a small box. They landed next to a stone gate with a sensory panel beside it. Princess huffed and sighed in relief as Taubitha stepped off her back.
"Hello? HELLO? Anyone here?" Taubitha called, but no one responded. She went up to look at the gate and knocked on it. There was no response. Princess laid down and yawned with relaxation.
"Don't look so pleased with yourself now!" said Taubitha with a groan. "Now if we could just look into this and see if we can get in, I hope these people have alcohol, because I sure could use a drink!"
Princess huffed.
Taubitha growled as she hit the door over and over again. Then, without thinking much of it, she activated her [Strong Shape] [skill] and started to morph into a sort of bird-lady hyrid for a moment. With a powerful dash and slash she tore at the door, cutting cracks into it predictably.
"Hey, who is this?" responded a voice from a clam speaker on the side of the door.
"It's Taubitha, duh!" said Taubith as she transformed back into her tauman shape.
"Hmm. Don't know a Taubitha, we don't have any Taubithas on the guest list here."
"Oh the guest list? Your blimp has a guest list?"
"Well of course it does, Taubitha!" The voice crackled away for a moment, and then she heard muttering. "Sorry, didn't mean to be curt there. Um, listen, I asked around, nobody here knows a Taubitha. Can you, uh, please give us a reason why we should let you in?"
"You need a reason to let me in?"
"Um, yes," replied the voice. "We wouldn't if you were on the guest list, well, but you, so... so here we are."
"I have a fony with me! And I want a drink. And, um, and, uh, I don't have anywhere else to go!" Taubitha just started crying. "I just, like, I just totally failed in a fight! I got shown up by somebody so many levels below me that I'm endlessly embarassed and ashamed to show my face anywhere at all! I swear I can hardly live with myself after the bouts of failure I just experienced. I’m carrying with me a palpable pain that seems to ache at me like a stabbing dagger!"
"Oh, wow." More muttering. Mutter, mutter, and a mutter again. And then, another crackle. "Oh, alright, come on in."
The rocky door rolled away with a gravelly grumble to reveal booming loud music.
"Quick, come in ya, before we cause a noise disturbance ya, okay?" said a bright voice as a long arm gripped Taubith's wrist and pulled her in. Princess trotted in quickly afterwards.
As the door slid shut, Taubitha heard the loud music go faint. She was in a dark room with a small blue light at the end of a hallway. Taubitha wasn't sure if it was warranted, but she felt a little concerned.
"Alright, ya, not on ze guestlist, huh?" asked the lady who'd pulled Taubitha into the blimp.
"Yes," said Taubitha with a sigh.
"Ohh, I love your makeup, ya, it's giving hell hunt. Very mauve."
Taubitha felt her left eye twitch. Did she just get called a hound? Taubitha made a mental note of that issue.
"So will you be coming into ze party room, ya?"
"The party room?" Taubitha suddenly felt a little less depressed.
"Ya, ze party room. Just down ze hallway and to the right, ya. Or do you want me to go with out? We've been told by newcomers that it's a little itty bit disorienting, ya."
A party room sounded like a lot, but it also sounded like it might have been just what Taubitha needed to finally feel better about herself and her life decisions. Plus, this lady was being so nice to her!
Taubitha ask the lady if there was alcohol, and she only laughed.
"Go come with me to ze party room, miss Taubitha. We can do ze kegstands."
There was no need for any more words of encouragement. Taubitha followed the lady down the hall, past the blue light, through another stone door, and into a room that was far, far bigger than it had seemed out the outside.
Taubitha was disoriented in the miasma that she'd stumbled upon. As the door shut, she found herself inside a large stadium-like auditorium room. There were no overhead lights, but what there were were the craziest visual effects performed by light elementals that anyone could fathom.
"Wow," said Taubitha. Princess huffed in agreeance.
With a bright flash, flash, flash that imbued light impressions on the eyes and disoriented the mind, Taubitha made her way through a bouncing, booming soup of dancers and trippers that eventually snaked its way to a circle of kegs.
"Oh, who's this?" asked a lady who had just finished doing a keg stand. She was presently wiping fizzy beer off her cheek.
"I'm Taubitha.”
"She's wasn't on ze list," said the nice lady.
"Oh," the other lady changed her tone.
"Oh," echoed another lady.
"Oh!" echoed yet another.
Taubitha was feeling terribly uncomfortable. She noticed something. All of these ladies had systems! Somehow, she'd been completely unable to see the faint purple aura that surrounded them, but for just an instant, it was there as a faint afterimage.
"She is very low level," said the lady who'd led Taubitha there. "Perhaps we should work her a little bit? Give her a bit more experience?"
Taubitha didn't know whether to be scared or afraid.