As they got back to the house, Maven spoke up. “This may be presumptuous of me, but would you mind if I used your shower before we head back? I have not had a proper wash in a while. I know we have washed in the hoverer and camp, but…it is just not the same as washing in an established place.”

“Go ahead.” Ellie said. “It’s probably not anywhere near as fancy as you’re used to, though. Even the temporary showers at the headquarters were perhaps on par. Sure the floor wasn’t as nice, but they were certainly much roomier.”

“That will be fine.” Maven said. “I will admit I am also somewhat curious as to what showers on Mael are like, as you cannot just generate the water on demand like you do elsewhere.”

“It’s pretty much the same.” Tess said. “Just that the water has to be piped in. Unfortunately, that also means that if you take too long, all the hot water will run out, though, but it should still last you a good twenty or thirty minutes.”

“I do not intend to take that long,” Maven said, “so it should not be a problem.”

“Just turn the knob on the wall of the shower, the more it points to the red side, the hotter it is, and the more it points to the blue, the colder.” Ellie instructed. “Pull it out when you think it’s at a good spot. You may want to pre-emptively pull it out while you undress so it has some time to warm up, it takes a bit.”

“Pull it out?” Maven asked. “Like a drawer?”

“Sort of.” Ellie said. “Just pull the knob, it should slide out pretty easily, and the water will come on. You don’t need to pull hard or anything, and once it feels like you’re hitting resistance you can stop.”

“I see. Where may I find your towels?”

“Should be one hanging in the bathroom. If not, let us know and we’ll get one for you.” Ellie said. “The bathroom is through the door right next to the door we used to get here. Take your time, we’ll be out in the living room, playing games or something.”

Maven nodded. “I will take my leave, then.” She said, stepping out of the car and hurrying into the house. Tess and Ellie followed at a more relaxed pace, taking their time as they walked inside and made their way down the hall to the living room.

“So…games?” Tess prompted. “What do we have time for? Tetris or something?”

“Tetris sounds good.” Ellie agreed, the noise of the shower turning on audible as she spoke. “You can’t really go wrong with that.”

And, as they were setting up the game, they were interrupted by a sudden, girlish yelp from the bathroom.

Tess: Is everything okay in there?

Maven: My apologies. I twisted the knob a small amount and the result was much more drastic than I expected.

Ellie: Yeah, showers here will do that. Each shower is different, and you have to get a feel for every one. It’s a huge pain, but you get used to it.

Maven: I do not think I wish to get used to it. This is much more inconvenient than normal showers.

Tess: Well, we had to make do without magic somehow. If you need to make any adjustments to the temperature while you’re already in the shower, I’d suggest getting out of the stream of the water as much as possible and feeling the temperature out with your hand.

Maven: I understand. How would you go about taking care of wings or a tail in here?

Tess: I can’t say I’ve tried, when I’m here I’m always…almost always without those Attributes activated. As you might guess, these showers are not made for nonhuman people. You might just have to not wash those bits for now.

Maven: A shame, but I believe you are correct.

Ellie: Actually, come to think of it, the shower in Grandpa’s room is unusually big. Do you think…

Tess: Actually, you’re right. I didn’t even think about it because I never use it, but it is super big for seemingly no reason. Give me a sec to check it out, I think it might fit your wings

Maven: I would appreciate that. Would he mind if I used it?

Ellie: No. He even has some shampoo and body wash in there specifically for guests, though it’s…not from a brand from here. I had always assumed he had it ordered online or from his job, but…

Tess got up from the couch and walked back through the hallway to her grandfather’s room and then into the connected bathroom. And, as she examined the shower within, activating a few Attributes to check, her suspicions were confirmed.

Tess: This shower is absolutely made to accommodate other species, even with a tail and wings I have room to spare in here. And I’m pretty sure the shampoo is from Alice’s company. It’s the same kind they have in the dungeon hotel bathrooms, anyway.

Fortune: Yeah, it’s made by a subsidiary company.

Maven: If this shower is used by guests, did none ever question why the shampoo is made by a company they have never heard of?

Death: I think he just takes the shampoo out and uses local stuff. It’s not like he receives many visitors from Mael anyway, most of them are from other planes

Tess: Wait really

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Death: I’d say like a solid 95% of people who have stayed at your house overnight have been from other planes.

Fortune: That’s, like, a whole ten people, my socks have been blown off

Death: That is an infinite amount more than anyone else in this town

Fortune: Is that how infinity works?

Death: No clue but it sounds right

Ellie: Go ahead and dry yourself off and switch showers. Grandpa’s room is in that same hall, we can have like…Tess leave the door open or something, so you know which door

Tess: On it. We won’t look, so just wrap your towel around yourself or something, no need to get fully dressed just to undress again in a minute

Maven: I…will consider it.

The sound of the shower stopped, and Tess returned back to the living room, where Ellie had already set up a Tetris game for them. But they only had a few minutes before they were interrupted again.

Maven: My apologies if this is an insensitive question, but who is your grandmother and what happened to her? I do not see any pictures of anyone that might be her in this house and she is not public knowledge either.

Ellie: Oh, her. Yeah, it’s not a big deal. She was a real piece of work, her and Grandpa had some sort of relationship going on, like…friends with benefits or casually dating or something, she told him she was using birth control and wasn’t or it was defective or something like that, got knocked up, had my mom, then ditched them when my mom was two or so. I don’t remember her name or even know if she’s still alive or what, and frankly I don’t care to.

Tess: Gramps says he thinks she had some sort of undiagnosed mental health problem or something. He doesn’t hold it against her as much as he maybe should, but there’s not much to really say about that.

Maven: I must admit, I have a hard time believing he was in a relationship with someone like that. He strikes me as a much better judge of character than that. Still, if they did not want children, why did they not have an abortion?

Ellie: He said he was “young and dumb”, and didn’t recognize the warning signs until it was too late. As for the abortion…well, she didn’t want one, and he wasn’t going to make her get one. And of course, he wasn’t going to abandon my mom after raising her for so long just because his partner did something stupid. But, while the circumstances may have been less than ideal, he says his family is the best thing that ever happened to him, and he wouldn’t change a thing.

Maven: Oh. I…thank you for indulging my curiosity.

Tess: It’s really not a big deal. She may be Ellie’s biological grandmother, but to us she’s just someone who did wrong by Gramps back in the day. A story, not a relative.

Fortune: Did we keep track of what happened to her?

Life: I believe this all occurred before Evan became an Appointed, and we did not believe she was important enough to track. Perhaps Fate might know, but if he does, he has not told any of us.

Tess’s attention was torn away from the conversation by the game flashing in front of her, a line of garbage being sent over to her side before she even realized what was happening. “Hey!” She protested. “We were in the middle of something!”

“All’s fair in love and war.” Ellie said smugly. “And this is both.” She leaned over, giving Tess a quick peck on the cheek. “Besides, we both know you can get exactly what you need to clear those lines if you wanted.”

“I’m not using a Blessing to cheat at a game.” Tess said, rolling her eyes.

“Where was that attitude when Death asked you to help her out?” Ellie teased. “You seemed fine with helping her cheat at a game.”

“That was different.” Tess said. “It’s not like she was actively competing against other people for that, and she had put in the work, she was just getting really unlucky, and I counterbalanced it.”

“Excuses, excuses.” Ellie replied. “And your excuses are making you fall ever further behind. You sure you don’t want to turn on god mode?”

“I’ll take my defeat with grace, thank you very much.” Tess said. “In the end, I’ll have won the moral victory.”

“Sounds like loser talk to me.” Ellie chuckled. And she was right; Tess lost in short order after that, too much of her attention having been taken away from the game by their conversation.

A couple games later, Maven emerged from the bathroom, slightly red. “Thank you.” She said. “I understand I was something of a…complicated guest.”

“Seriously, don’t sweat it.” Ellie said. “I’m guessing this isn’t going to be the last time you shower here, so you might as well learn the layout of the place. And it’s not like we were the most helpful hosts, either; we live here, and we didn’t even think about Grandpa’s shower. Anyway, give us a minute or two to finish this round and we’ll be ready to go.”

Tess and Ellie quickly finished up their game and put everything away before heading back to the hall and materializing the door that would take them back to their hoverer. From there, they exited the hoverer, packed it up, then went into The Rumor’s hoverer.

“Ah, you’re back.” Alice said, looking up from her phone. “How’d it go?”

“Well, I think?” Tess said. “It was hard to gauge their reaction when they were so…shell-shocked.”

“I think we may have introduced the next big freelancer to the business?” Ellie added cautiously. “She’s the best in the business back home and I think I saw two of her growths that were below seven. She’s a monster in the making.”

“Is that that Hunter lady that attacked Tess during the graduation ceremony?” Alice asked, frowning. “I still have some…pointed words to share with her.”

“Yeah.” Tess confirmed. “We’re square now, so you really don’t need to worry about her.”

Alice shook her head. “You two may be fine now, but that doesn’t forgive her for the sloppy job she did in investigating you. If she had taken even a bit, she would have realized that something more was up.”

“That’s a little unfair.” Tess said. “I was rather blatantly using actual monster abilities, and the only place on Mael you’d see those is in real monsters. You don’t have to do much investigation when your target has basically admitted to being the kind of thing you’re supposed to get rid of.”

Alice sighed, walking over and throwing an arm around Tess’s shoulder. “You’re way too forgiving, you know that?” She said. “We’re going to have to drill some cynicism into you if you’re going to be able to deal with the gambling world seriously.”

“It’s not about cynicism!” Tess protested, allowing Alice to lead her back to where Alice had been sitting before, then sitting down with Alice. “It was a genuine accident brought on by her having no way to know about the wider world. The moment she knew what was going on, she changed her tune!”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Alice said matter-of-factly. “You’re going to bring her to me, and we’ll have a…civilized chat.”

Tess heaved a sigh of her own. “Fine. Just don’t rough her up too badly, okay?”

“If I determine she doesn’t deserve it, I won’t hurt her. If she doesn’t impress me…well, I’ll show her that she’s not top dog anymore.” Alice stopped, scanning Tess’s expression before continuing. “With a Gauntlet of Challenge, of course, but I’m not going to make the experience pleasant.”

“If you insist.” Tess said. “But that aside, did Gramps and his party finish their run of the dungeon yet?”

“Yeah, they got back an hour or two ago.” Alice said. “Ker and Jin are in the lobby talking with them. Once you got here, I was gonna let them know you were back and we would finish off this run. Uh, if you’re not too tired, that is.”

“How many floors are left in the dungeon again?” Ellie asked.

“Thirteen.” Maven responded. “And the final floor is just the boss, so we should not have to worry about it.”

“Then I’m fine.” Tess said.

“Ditto.” Ellie added.

“And me as well.” Maven finished.

“Good, good.” Alice said. “You guys will be fine during the boss, right? You could get hit by stray AoE attacks or something.”

“I will make sure the boss does not target us, and will coordinate with them to keep us out of any area of effect attacks.” Maven said. “Do not worry about us.”

“Good, just making sure.” Alice said. “Now, let’s go get this show back on the road!”