Lilly's thoughts.
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Everything is a bit.. strange? Like I get that there was an apocalyptic event of some sort, but nothing really lined up with my thoughts of what an apocalypse "should be". The only real evidence for an apocalypse was the twisted towers that used to be buildings and the landscape that failed to look natural, even though it was mostly rock and some plant life that survived. Everything else was just... peaceful? No marauders rolling around in cars looking for scraps of oil. No mutated monstrosities looking to crush everything beneath them. Just a distinct lack of living thinking beings. Except for Tom of course.
Now there is a focal point for strange. If he wasn't so clueless about everything, I could even believe he was the cause for all this, that, and apparently a "god" tasking him with figuring out what happened. Or maybe he was the reason and this was "gods" way of punishing the foolish mortal who destroyed the world. Though, as I said: "A little early to speculate when your only evidence is twisty rocks and blue boxes," I guess that now also included a god.
Anyway, back to Tom. He accepted his reality too fast, or was it just fast enough? I guess I should be the one accepting it faster if anything, though Tom does have the advantage of only ever knowing the twisty landscapes, and magic too... That was maybe the weirdest part, clearly something happened that allows him to use magic to such extent because it just isn't possible for me. The status alone indicates that.
Name: "Lilly Smith" Level: 1 Attributes: base Endurance: 10 Strength: 9 Intelligence: 11 Magic: 0 Attribute Points: 0 Resources: current max Mana: 0 0 Health: 100 100 Stamina: 90 90
I have zero magic attribute, which probably causes the 0 Mana. Since all the other Attributes are probably tied to the other Resources. It made me wonder if there's a hidden resource that intelligence is tied to. Stamina seems like a less important compared to Health, maybe Intelligence is tied to some higher version of Mana? 'my thoughts keep wandering.'
Maybe it's a good thing, thinking about the current situation will probably keep me more sane than thinking of the past. Even if the current situation isn't exactly pleasant. Not sure if it's just that "being In a makeshift hair sleeping bag with a stranger" isn't my kink. I guess I could consider myself lucky. At least i'm not attracted to men. Having any more hormones in the current soup would probably just cause a melt down. Or maybe it would be easier? Maybe it would be dependent on the attractiveness of Tom then? Enough said, it would be a mess.
At least it's not all bad, cuddling could probably be considered an universally liked activity, just very strange with a stranger. Heh.
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Order was slightly amused by the situation, It hoped that Lilly wasn't too disturbed by what was happening and that it wasn't damaging to the relations between the two. At least Tom didn't mention feeling good about the touch. Even if oxytocin release is a natural reaction to being touched, Order doubted that Lilly would have responded nearly as clinically to the meeting if that was said. Though maybe Tom getting labelled as a pervert and left confused amid the grunge would've been entertaining, if not only for a short moment.
Maybe Order should make sure something like that didn't happen. Surely Tom would have enough trouble without being subjected to social issues.
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I woke with a startle and also woke Tom. We started the night back to back but apparently I sought warmth since I had wrapped around Tom during the night. "Sorry." I whisper. Mostly about waking him and a bit about being a tangle.
Tom just grunted. 'All right. Not a morning person,' I think to myself, still slightly confused about what to make of the whole situation. 'the fuck do i do?' getting out of the sleeping bag would probably annoy Tom, but staying would be awkward. At least it was warm.
After a minute or two of contemplating i decided to extricate myself from the confines of a warm and hairy prison. Tom grumbled some more and just said "cold" lightly. 'shush you abnormally large baby' i think at him with an amused glance and stretch, doing some wide movements, being locked in place for a night is quite uncomfortable after a long period of time.
Luckily during the shelter building I told Tom to dig a hole in to ground for a toilet of sorts. Going too far from shelter probably wasn't a good idea even if privacy was lacking. 'I'll have to make plans for something more modern at some point, survival before comfort though,' I think to myself, pondering a bit on how Tom could make it better.
I hated having to rely on him for pretty much everything from food to shelter. Hell even living is his doings. And now I remember the pain, great. At least the nerve damage seemed to go away, not sure if it was Tom since he did say something about only doing the tumors first. I probably have to ask him about it later.
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I went back inside the weird stone hut. Architects would probably have a hissy fit about it's stability or elegance or some such, but it was keeping me dry, and thus I was keeping my mouth shut. Unless the building actively murders me.
"Welcome back," Tom says. I don't think I took that long outside but apparently he was already dressed. Maybe I was more in thought than I thought.
"How long was i out?" I asked, wondering if he knew.
"Less than one mana." Tom replied. Leaving me confused.
"How much is that in human units?" I asked for clarification.
"Aren't all units human units?" he asked, almost dryly. I was unsure if he was being sarcastic and if it was a rhetorical question until he spoke again "100 mana per day, i don't know any other conversions."
So that was... Around 4 Mana per hour or 1 Mana per 15 minutes. And apparently a good way to measure time without a clock.
"Ah so less than 15 minutes. 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute," I replied with a conclusion and explanation.
"You should probably give me a refresher in mathematics. I want to be sure i'm not doing anything wrong," He said with a thoughtful look.
He was somehow transparent and mysterious at the same time, though maybe the mystery part was just him missing parts of himself. A bit alien. His thoughts were detached from normal reality, or at least what used to be normal to me, only focused on what's useful. Which again, is probably a good mind set for survival, I just have to wonder if he'd do as well in any sort of social event.
"Yeah, sure," I reply. "We should continue from where we left off yesterday though, clothing and scouting," i said, bringing back the plans of yesterday to the front of my mind. Clothing somehow was a secondary priority, Which again, was odd. Or maybe having clothing was odd? Humans were to my knowledge the only creatures that wore clothes. Thought having those clothes was a strength that probably almost single-handedly thrusted humans to where they were before the apocalypse. Being able to adapt to the environment at a moments notice and getting just a little more defense from the elements was a huge deal over the thousands of years. So, back to civility and civilization we go.
I made a pretty standard set of pants and shirt, and some shoes. It took a bit of trial and error though, never having made clothes before forced me to re-invent some concepts probably. At least the clothes were soft and comfortable due to being [Manipulate]:ed that way. It was hair foam but the surface had a layer of smooth keratin to prevent chafing.
"Interesting," Tom says after receiving his pair of clothing "What's the extra piece for?" he asks and point at my "bra" it would probably suck, but it was better than nothing.
"Uh, it's to keep my.. bits.. from being in the way around when moving, also if we meet anyone else you probably should have more tact about asking about it," I half explain. Also why did I say it like talking to a child? I mean he kind of is, but still. I'll just go with it, not really a man child since that's really a different concept, but yeah, child man. I'll figure the terminology eventually.
"Hmm, sounds inconvinient," he just states while staring at my boobs. 'you don't have a half of it buddy, and never will' I think to myself.
"Could you.. stop staring at my boobs? It's considered rude," I say.
"Oh," he pauses. "Sorry, I found them aesthetically pleasing," Tom says casually. I can feel myself blushing.
"P-probably never say that to a woman either?" I stutter a little 'Alien child. Alien child. Alien child,' I repeat to myself.
"Oh? Do women specifically not like compliments?" Tom asks, the alien child man he is.
"It's uh. Well I mean," I pause to think a little before trying to say anything.
"I can't say all women, but probably most? And it's not the compliment part it's more that there are people who just think of other people as just 'things' and not really as real people who have feelings and thoughts of their own, they learn that flattering other people gains them social credit because they're pleasant to be around. At least in the beginning, but if you're just an object to someone they don't really care about how you feel, just how you treat them, and so, if flattery doesn't work forever they turn to other means, most often violent in some manner physically or mentally. Instead of trying to actually understand why you've stopped being around them." I said pausing when I notice I had started ranting about society again.
"Hmm. Interesting," Tom says, looking to be in thought. Then continues with "So you just assume that all flattery comes from the same source of assholes."
"I.. guess? It's a useful thing to avoid the ones that haven't learned yet, and the longer you live the higher chance you have of understanding other people, some never do, but that's rare to my knowledge," I reply to his statement that boils down thousands of years of human behavior and social constructs into a neat little sentence.
"Isn't it possible those people just eventually figure out a way to not piss off the people they talk with, even while still thinking of them as objects in their mind?" Tom asks.
"Huh. I mean probably? I mean eventually they probably would get to the point where they speak to you like you were a human but in their head they're just on a grand quest of conquering. But i'm pretty sure that would require quite large amount of delusion, and lack of touch with reality. But with people you really don't know" I replied and thought 'I like this.'
"Also it has a lot to do with trust. If I don't know a person, i don't want their compliments. I just can't know the motives behind it." I added.
Tom has nearly zero clue about, what the fuck a society is, or if it's edible, yet his questioning of concepts could've caused some ripples. I guess I've been told before that detaching yourself from preconceptions lets you think for yourself, and new thoughts, but I pretty much took it as some conspiracy theorist bullshit. Sure if you abandon all of reality you don't produce anything useful, but sometimes change in cemented concepts can be a source of good. Implementing such change in society is a bitch though. Maybe if we're reviving everyone on this planet individually we'd have time to brainwash them to join our cult new age of thinking!
Then again there's a reason why conservatism exists. If it works why change it. The universal fear of a creature who has everything they know to want is change. And sometimes even when you have nothing, a change an be bad.
It is an unfortunate reality that a person can be so greedy that they would kill themselves and everyone around them just to gain more wealth.