A Nice Chat

Chapter 94

It took a couple of hours and many follow-up questions to sort things out between Mina and I. Mainly because of the similarities, rather than the differences. Neither of us being any kind of expert hadn't helped. Finally, we agreed we weren't from the same place, rather than from different time periods.

We figured out they were both called Earth and had similar cultures, geography and shared some historical events. It was when we started naming countries the differences became apparent. Russia and Prussia were both modern countries in Mina's case.

"No world wars? That's pretty different," I said with flickering orbs. The history of her world only had smaller-scale intercountry wars—a reflection of how the nations were smaller and more isolationist. Also, no one had assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but not for want of trying.

"Yeah, it's weird you have space rockets but no VR. I mean, do people game professionally where you're from? I'm a third-tier solo player, which is pretty good, since I only made my debut a year ago," Mina asked. I had to think about it.

"It's different between countries and not nearly as advanced as what you described," I offered with a shrug. Going by how little I knew about it, either there hadn't been much, or I hadn't been interested. I suspected the former rather than the latter since the terms made sense.

"So not all summoned hero-… people are from the same place?" Andrea asked. Belatedly, I realized we'd been ignoring her while comparing notes. In fairness, it wasn’t really a conversation she could add much to as a local.

"I can't be certain, but all evidence points to yes," I said. I could see in my display that Mina was nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, evil might summon from totally different worlds from good too," Mina offered. I felt an uncomfortable little twitch at her word choice.

"Chaos," I corrected.

"What?" Andrea asked. She was distracted as she picked at what was left of a dessert cobbler. Most of the food Elim provided was pretty good, but I'd upgraded the hell out of the sweets. I wasn't sure why, but those had come up an entire grade lower than any other foods. Possibly a cost issue, I remembered sugar used to be a luxury good, historically.

"I was summoned by chaos, not evil," I explained. I wasn't going to get into my alignment change, but I felt like that much needed to be said. Steve had been good to me more than once, and I didn't feel like it was right to let that go.

"Oh… Yeah, I guess no one said that for me either, just that I was on the side of order," Mina said after some thought.

"I'm lawful good, though… I guess… My stats say it, but I've done some awful stuff," Mina added. She looked dispirited as she finished, and I felt terrible for her.

"You were under mind control. It would be a dick move to judge you by that," I said flatly. It probably wasn't comforting coming from me, but I hoped she wouldn't be too hard on herself.

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"I agree with our captor," Andrea said, and the pair started giggling. It was a bit absurd I was giving my prisoner a pep talk. I refrained from joining in on the laughter, since I didn’t know how I’d sound to them. The skeletons were unbothered by it, but they were monsters like I was. I could full on villain cackle and they probably wouldn’t bat a jewel.

Once the girls stopped laughing, I took a look outside with an extra window. Seeing darkness, I figured it was probably past time we stopped our chat. The girls likely should get some rest.

"Alright, let's talk again tomorrow. Use the stone again when you're ready," I said and set mine down once the pair agreed. I should have gotten back to work after I was done talking to Mina and Andrea, but I couldn't. For the first time in a while, I felt uncomfortable in my own skin and not because of system weirdness.

My hand went to my lips. I explored them as I contemplated our discussion. Mina and Andrea both had food preferences. I didn't.

Picking a meal out of my inventory, I raised a block of stone to act as a table and set it down. It was a pot pie, and I could smell pastry and butter clearly over the more subtle scent of its filling.

Though my sense of smell was working fine, my mouth didn't water. I didn't feel like I was looking at 'food,' but something more like a fragrant art piece. It was nice, but it didn't trigger any physiological reaction. I put it away untouched.

I'd thought I'd enjoy talking to someone from my world or a world like it. Instead, my experience with Mina had been uncomfortable. The information about her world was interesting, but the way she talked had been a bit off-putting. She had opinions and preferences on just about everything. I felt limited in comparison.

Certainly anyone who took even a cursory look around the dungeon would see I had preferences when it came to design. I’d even argue that while opinions on my aesthetic sense might vary, no one could deny I had style.

Dungeon matters were as much work as part of my identity. Despite that, I felt uneasy at how little I had outside of it. It hadn't been long ago I'd decided I had a favorite color. Green. A color I was starting to question.

The more I thought about it, the less satisfied I was with green. It wasn't as if I'd suddenly developed a distaste for it though. It was subtler than that. Now, if I thought of favorites, blue came to mind.

I looked myself over in the mirror I'd placed earlier. I tried to picture something. I didn't think clothes were the right choice in my case. At least not the kind involving things like full skirts or pants. I could do legs if I felt like it, but they weren't part of my natural state. Accessories were probably going to be more comfortable and practical. Maybe a new hairstyle.

I thought about the appearance editor, but immediately flinched away from the idea. Fucking around with an alternative apperance was something I should do when I wasn’t in a weird head space about my looks. Ideally anyway.

It wasn’t bad to want to change things, but I didn’t like the idea of doing it because of something as nebulous as what I was feeling. More to the point, despite trying to picture something, nothing clicked.

I caught a flash of blue in the corner of the reflection. Turning, I looked at the niche where I'd put the roses Henry made for me. I couldn't help laughing fondly as I looked at them. Blue like his jewels, no wonder my favorite color had changed.

I leaned back, bonking my head on the mirror. I was probably overthinking things after being around the living again. Particularly such lively examples. Before, I hadn't talked to Elim at length about such personal but frivolous topics. He also wasn’t a teenage girl whose favorite hobby after virtual monster slaying was nail art.

Really, what was the use of having a favorite food if you didn't eat? Or a sense of taste, for that matter. Fixating on things that didn’t apply to me was only going to drive me insane. If I let it anyway.

Also, it wasn’t like the clothing thing only applied to myself. I could design clothes for the dungeon denizens if I felt like it, but I never had. I was happy to edit things or add designs to clothes or fabric, but I never felt motivated about fashion itself.

I was starting to feel like I’d been a tracksuit and mountain dew rpg nerd and I didn’t know how to feel about that.