Vitmori POV

Yeah... That was a voice alright. 'Oururu? Is everything alright?' I ask as I draw my perspective closer to his den; as much as I want to just look inside to see what is going on, I do want to respect his personal space.

"Yes... No? I'm... I'm not entirely sure... While I'm completely fine with tight spaces, I'm afraid things are just a little too tight right now..." Even as he was saying that, I could sense a rather intense spike of anxiety rushing through his mind as I heard him shifting around a little bit before hurting himself somehow.

'Alright, alright. Just stay still and do your best to relax as much as you can; I'm gonna take a look and see what's happening.' I do my best to console the guy as I look closer, entering his den before being met with a wall of scales. That is a lot of snake... Moving around to get the whole picture, it seems Oururu had a major growth spurt, almost double in length, getting to be about thirty feet long as well as an extra half of his original width thicker. He definitely wasn't getting out on his own, though I'm worried about trying to pull the stone away from around him while there was so much pressure against the walls of his den. Though as I look at him, I can see his mana still swirling around rather actively, as if he were exerting himself somehow, not to mention how agitated he seemed. 'Okay, so you're pretty packed in there, buddy, and your mana is going pretty wild too. I'm gonna need you to close your eyes and calm yourself; try taking some slow, deep breaths before exhaling slowly. Time your breaths to be around four seconds; think you can do that for me?'

"O-okay, yeah, I think I can do that..." He replied while offering a nod, though immediately regretting it as he smacked the top of his head against the ceiling of his den. I watch as the serpent writhes for a couple more moments, doing his best to adjust to the cramped space before huffing as he finally attempts to relax. It takes more than a few minutes, but I can see that he finally gets into the rhythm of things as he begins to relax. When that happens though, his mana starts to condense more and more the less stressed he appears to be. I almost don't believe my eyes, only to remember that I don't actually have eyes, as I watch Oururu shrink and shift, his very flesh moving and adjusting in shape as he seems to develop a slender torso, complete with a torso, arms, and hands. The transformation doesn't seem painful, more slow, and perhaps uncomfortable to experience. He looks smaller again, his body going back down to around fifteen feet in length; however, the part of his body that now makes up his head and torso appears to be about six feet long. Looking him over, he seemed somewhat similar in shape to the snakekin woman that I saw in the photo back in the other core's bedroom. However, he appears distinctly masculine, and his colorization is not the pure white the snakekin woman was. His intricate black and white pattern was still decorated across his entire body, the pattern even accenting his previously expressive face, allowing him to emote more easily, the confusion being rather plain on his face as his black scaled brows furrowed.

'Oururu? How are you feeling? Better, worse?' He certainly doesn't look or even feel stressed anymore, just confused based on what I can feel. Hell, I'd be confused if I suddenly sprouted arms too.

"I... I feel strange." He said after another minute or so of just laying within his den, apparently coming to terms with something or another.

'Yeah, I bet. It looks like you're not just a snake anymore. Come on out into the light, and let's get a good look at you.' I offer, reaching out and carving a broader entrance to his den in order to accommodate his new shoulders.

Oururu moved soon enough after I prompted him, doing a mix of crawling and slithering as he pulled himself out of his den. Now bathed in the light of the sun and my core, he slithered through the stony stand before pushing himself up and looking himself over. "W-whoa... I'm... I'm different." He murmurs aloud, his forked tongue flicking as he speaks, and starts to examine the rest of his body, twisting and contorting in ways no average human could ever manage, his torso displaying the same flexibility as the rest of his body.

'Yep, it seems you're now something along the lines of a beastkin, more specifically, a snakekin perhaps. Though I have a feeling you're not stuck with that shape.' I'm speculating here, but his mana is much denser in his body right now, at least compared to earlier when it was coursing wildly through him.

He tilted his head curiously at that idea, relaxing his body as he stopped twisting around to look at me. "Really? Hmm... I think you might be right." Oururu considered as he blinked, now staring at his scaly hands, curling and flexing them curiously. "I was much bigger just now, wasn't I?" He considered with a smile as he looked to my core before starting to experimentally roll his shoulders and flex his arms, just messing with his new limbs now.

'Now that I think about it, if you're a person now, you're probably gonna need clothes; it wouldn't be proper for you to be running around naked now.' I think I'm going to have to come up with some way to compensate the tailor at the Haven; this is already the third person she's had to make clothes for.

He blinked a couple of times before looking back at me. "I have to wear clothes now? Those things look too snug and uncomfortable... I'd rather just be a snake." He mentioned with a sigh.

I couldn't help but be amused, chuckling internally as I looked through my storage before finding some kind of battle skirt that one of the bandits wore before setting it out in front of Oururu. 'Here, at least wear one of these until you get some proper clothes. As a person, and as a man, you have to cover your middle region at least to keep others from being uncomfortable.'

Oururu picked up the brown piece of leather, looking somewhat skeptical as he furrowed his brow before sighing and nodding. "I understand; fine, I'll wear it." He relented after a few moments as he went about pulling it on.

'Good, for now, go and meet up with Dread and the sinners; I want you to get familiar with hand-eye coordination. While I don't expect you to be doing a lot of fighting, it's just a good skill to have, hopefully letting you be less clumsy. I'll reach out to Zasutir later to ask for the tailor to come up and take your measurements; that way we can get you some proper clothes made for you; who knows, you might like them.' I offered reassuringly.

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Oururu was still fiddling with one of the buttons as he glanced over at me, looking very skeptical about the whole thing already. "Sure... I suppose we'll have to see." He said, finally managing to get the button as he smiled to himself.

'Oh, and don't worry about your den; I'll redesign it so that you can fit in it more comfortably.'

Oururu perked up at that, flashing a warm smile as he nodded. "Thank you, Vitmori; well, I'll be off now." He said as he began slithering forth, going on his hands and stomach at first and stopping after a moment and deciding to slither with his torso upright as he made his way out of my chamber.

While he's gone, I go ahead and reach out to Zasutir about arranging clothes for Oururu, the Shepherd responding dutifully as he said he would handle it.

Afterward, I decided to go about collecting things from the forge room from the old dungeon and bringing it up to the simple little smithy that I had going on the top half of the mountain. I put quite a lot of work into it after all, and I don't want it to go to waste. On the other hand, there was a lot of modern equipment and machines in that room that I don't want to explain just yet, not to mention I needed to examine all weapons and armor that was left in there. So, for now, I set up all the equipment that didn't look overtly modern in my smithy, even taking one of their anvils since it looked much nicer than what I cobbled together. All in all, it looks like a proper workspace, probably because a lot of the equipment came from a much nicer space than this one, but Trisha doesn't need to know that yet.

Now that I think about it, I know exactly how to compensate the tailor, as well as fulfill Trisha's current orders for tools. I make my way back down and enter the workshop this time as I go from station to station and proceed to pack up toolkits with the stuff I find, save for the modern-looking tools and machines. Everything from the carpentry stations, most of the things from one of the workbenches with the tailoring equipment, as well as several bolts of cloth and a few spools of thread. I'm pretty sure Zasutir has been wearing a vest made out of deer hide, so there might be someone who is good with leather, so with that in mind, I grab a set of tools from the cobbler stations and some leather working tools from the forge room. All in all, it's a large haul of things that I'm sure will make things a lot easier going forward for those people.

I must have taken longer than I thought after going around and setting these things up because I was suddenly aware that Historietta was making her way into my chamber.

"Hey there, Vitmori; I hope now is not a bad time?" She called out, tapping her knuckles against the stone of my entryway. She stepped in further, looking around at my murals of Basti and the cubs, Oururu with the recent addition of Frisby, Jack with some of his birds, and finally, Dread with his Sinners. That particular mural section is still being adjusted, considering Dread and Gluttony's new forms. As for Legosi, I haven't gotten started on his part of the wall, though maybe I'll incorporate Grimm's mural with his since they joined around the same time.

'You're good; I was just elsewhere for a moment... You wanted to talk, right?' I spoke up after she took a few more steps into my chamber.

She seems to smile at the sound of my voice before turning to address my core. "Yes! It's been forever since I could just... Ya know... Talk openly, freely, like I'm just a person and not some noble or something." She mused excitedly as she cheerfully began walking around my pedestal. "I know you said you probably won't be good for conversation, but that's fine; I'm just hoping you'll let me be a little selfish and listen to me talk..." She mentioned as she slowed to a stop before looking at me, anxiety plain on her face as she seemed to wait for my permission.

'By all means, I really don't mind at all.' I offered; she seemed like she really needed it after all. 'Do you want a seat?' I ask since it felt like the hospitable thing to do after all.

She seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the offer but smiled cheerfully at that. "O-oh? Yeah, sure, please, and thank you." She enthused.

'No problem, just give me a moment.' Well, alright, now there's just the matter of procuring a chair... I did eye the bench that I made for Grimm, which was now in my storage, but I decided against it. If I remember correctly, a nice-looking chair was in that other core's bedroom. I'm sure she wouldn't mind me borrowing it for Historietta. Sure enough, it was where I remembered, and it was a padded chair made with a purple fabric that was embroidered with black flowers.

In the next moment, I set it out in front of my core, Historietta looking it over with a broad smile as she took a seat before sighing with delight as she slumped into it, looking anything but the proper lady she was supposed to be. "You know, I'm so jealous that you have such a huge inventory space; all I've got is five slots for things." She mused, smiling now as she sifted around before laying back against the armrest with her legs hanging off the other armrest. "I've got a couple of potions, an emergency coin pouch, and a dagger. I can only imagine how convenient it would be to have an entire chair in there, especially my favorite chair, gosh... Well, it wouldn't be that convenient..." She seemed to admit after thinking about it, though she then chuckled a bit. "Oh, but it would be such a fun power move to whip a chair out of nowhere like that." She mused, chuckling now.

'Ha, well, I don't actually know the limit of my storage; I have a quarry's worth of stone, dirt, and ore in there, a few trees, and a bunch of other things.' I mention, not really wanting to explain the hundred or so humanoid skeletons I've got stashed away, among other things.

She smiled some more. "That's awesome..." She chuckled a little more, though she started to look somber as she considered something, shifting to lay on her side now as she stared into my core. "When... When did the zombie apocalypse start? I know you said it started when you were nineteen, and you were in your fifties when you died. Doing the math, well, I've been here for twenty-six years, and I died around 2028, got killed in this wild bus accident..." She mentioned, snickering for some reason despite her mood. "I'm sorry, it's just... It's silly now that I'm saying this out loud... But stories about other worlds usually start with a bus running over the protagonist... It's kinda a sort of trope in manga; I just never thought it would apply to me."

I couldn't help but offer a little smile at her tangent, even if she didn't see it. 'I think I remember that, I never read manga for myself, but my beloved would always talk about that thing whenever we had a moment to relax.' I think it's safe to say she probably doesn't know what l know, and that little face she made spoke volumes about how much the idea of an apocalypse is distressing her.

"I just want to know how things went down... How close was I before the end came for everyone else, my friends, and my family..." She spoke softly now, her eyes watering as the woman curled in on herself, shifting to at least sit upright before bringing her knees to her chest.

I take a moment to gather my thoughts, thinking hard on how to phrase this... But in the end, I decided just to be direct. 'Well, we were deep into the apocalypse by 2028, especially since it started in 2020. So I don't think you have much to worry about; we're from different worlds after all.'

She blinked with surprise, raising her head from her knees as she sniffled. "W-what? Y-you're not pulling my leg, are you?" She asked, the energy returning to her as she wiped her eyes. "S-so, that means everyone I knew is fine; they didn't suffer or die in a horrible apocalypse!" She exclaimed, tears of joy rushing down her cheeks as she jumped up to her feet. She paced back and forth in celebration before rushing up to me and giving my core a big hug.

'Yeah... They didn't.' I reply a little blandly. I completely get where she's coming from; I would have loved to grow as an ordinary man and live in a relatively peaceful world, grow old, and have grandkids... But that didn't happen, and I had to do many things to survive.

She seems to realize her faux pas and pulls away rather sheepishly for a grown woman. "Right... The apocalypse was still a very real thing for you... Not like the movies or on TV, but real..." She wipes her cheeks, taking a shuddering breath before sitting back down, bringing her knees back up to her chest. "Could... Could you tell me about it? If you don't mind... I still wanna hear." She asked curiously, her tone sounding rather sincere.

I'm pretty surprised, but I don't think I mind at all. 'Sure, I suppose that's fine. But where should I start...' I thought to her.

She offered a small smile. "I'd say the beginning would be a good place." She said as she settled into the chair.

'Hah, well, alright then... I was enjoying a nice cup of tea at a cafe in Seattle, just reading the news on my phone...-'