Lenyet and Harron put their loincloths back on. Arrjee said for such a teen-looking guy, Harron wrestled surprisingly well against Lenyet, clearly in his mid-twenties. So was Harron, though, until the database recontextualized him as ‘youthful’. Lenyet won all three rounds, but from their smiles, I think they both enjoyed it. I got the impression that they would both be enjoying other things later.
“Here we done?” || We are done here, right?
Arrjee responded, “We better be, Sun. I’m tired, and it is approaching midnight. || also horny
“I’m also ready to head back to our cottage,” added Ferret. It turned out everyone was tired. I wanted to get some meditation in as well as fully investigate the ramifications of Arrjee’s thoughts.
Harron told us, “The builders say the first student apartments should be ready in a few days. I expect you will be able to move in before Forrest’s next Tuesday. Lenyet, if you do not want to walk all the way back to your cottage, you are welcome to stay on campus tonight in my apartment.”
The offer surprised Lenyet, and apparently pleased him. “I’d like that. The gang can handle a night without me. Once they move to campus, they will be living on their own anyway.”
We all headed out of the cavern. Looking at my friends, I was thinking I was overdressed. I have been wearing my leathers virtually full time since I got them. But with their climate comfort and self-cleaning charms, they are just so darn comfortable and convenient. None of them are in armor now, and unless we are outside of town or campus, they are almost always just in loincloths. Well, except for Odd, who doesn’t wear anything at all. Except for maybe a belt or shoulder strap to support anything he wanted to carry around, he probably does not need to.
“Interface, since I started wearing these leathers, how often have I worn anything else?”
Outside of bathing, wrestling, sleeping, or other intentionally nude pursuits, you wore a loincloth once for several hours.
“That makes me an outlier with everyone else, right?”
Yes, if by ‘everyone’ you mean those in Cottages and on campus.
I no longer have to worry any more about making it from the woods to town after my sixdays. Loincloth it will be unless we go on a hunt or something.
When we left the administration building, Lenyet and Harron headed for the latter’s apartment. The rest of us continued into town. I let them know, “Guys, I want to stop by my house for a minute and change out of these leathers into a loincloth. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about bears or zebors when I spawn next Tuesday.”
Arrjee told me, “That is a good idea, brother. I will stop by the house as well, and put on my new vest.”
Kossa joked, “Are you sure you can do that, Forrest? I think those leathers might have bound themselves to you by now!”
I grinned, “Well there is one way to find out. If I am still wearing these when I get to our cottage, you’ll know the leathers are permanently attached. Fortunately, they are very comfortable. So is the loincloth, so whichever I end up wearing next Tuesday is fine with me.”
“And next Tuesday, I’ll be Level 2!” Onre reminded us. “I won’t be able to make 3 until noon the following day, though.”
“Too bad I won’t be here to congratulate your ugly Level 1 ass. That -4 charisma penalty is brutal upfront. Hey, would you like to borrow the charisma earrings I got as loot earlier? They will add two, but only one will count.” I added with a smile, "They won’t turn you into an Arrjee, but it might be enough to stop you from scaring kids on the street.”
humor
Odd continued the humor. “One Arrjee is sufficient. My eyes could not handle the glory of two!”
“Forrests eyes handle?” || “Will your eyes be able to handle two Forrests?”
“You guys are a riot. There won’t be two mes or two Forrests, just one Onre with temporarily low charisma. Remember Onre, that will give you a low temperament too, which made it easy for Forrest to get grouchy.” || he:handled well
“Interface told me to be aware of that effect, and I could keep it under control. He was right."
thank you
At that thought, I received another report. “Hey, Sun and Arrjee, my Group Mind just ranked to D. Maybe my focus-thought thing will work now. Arrjee, you said just to focus on the specific people I want to think to, right? Anyone else will hear it as more of a whisper?” || Is this doing it?
Sun replied, “Yes. Now Forrest focus-think.” || Yes, Forrest, you are focus-thinking now.
“Matter three do not.” || With just the three of us it doesn’t really matter.
“Habit good it.” | But it is a good habit to have.
Ferret said, “Congratulations Forrest. I don’t believe it matter to us single-minds, but I glad you can do it now.”
“Thank you Ferret. I don't think it will affect anyone who does not hear the group mind. But I was feeling a little bit like you probably did when you first got here. You could talk and people understood you, but you knew you weren’t doing it like everyone else.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yeah, that was it,” he confirmed. “I still not that good.”
“Ferret,” Kossa encouraged, “Believe me, please. You speak very well. Sometimes you leave out an “is” or an “am”, but so does Sun. No one is perfect.”
“So, I should have said, ‘I am still not that good’, right?” Kossa said yes, but it didn’t really matter. “I am happy to speak well,” he cheerfully concluded.
We had reached the intersection where Arrjee and I needed to go a different direction than everyone else. We told them we would see them soon, and headed home.
----------------------------------------
Mom, Dad, and Carrie were still up. I think they usually go to bed earlier, but the excitement of the troll battle kept them up. They greeted us, not really expecting us back this evening. I let them know that I had ranked both Claw Strike and Group Mind to D.
Dad asked, “What are you planning on doing next Tuesday, Forrest?”
“Today was the first day I actually set out with a plan, and, even with some unexpected additions like unfriendly neighborhood trolls, the day went as I had expected. Next Tuesday will be Eightday, so I think my plan will be pretty much the same. I already arranged with Dorra Marson to introduce First Aid in a half hour session. Onre will be Level 2 by then, and we might want to spend some time together talking about Ki Healer stuff. I’m also very curious about the other class he will be taking, Ki Prestidigitator. Oh, I also want to spend some of the morning at the Crafter’s Guild and get some practice on my Drafting and Sketching skill.”
Mom said, “Onre has talked about that. It sounds very interesting. I’m sure we will all want to be learning about it.”
“With the adventuring school here,” Carrie added, “I think we will be meeting people with all kinds of classes we haven’t seen out here in the sticks before.”
Dad laughed. “I like it here in the sticks. It was surprising to see us from Mowd’s and Corval’s viewpoint, though. Arrjee, I know you still have a couple months to decide, but are you any closer to knowing what class to augment your Swordmaster with?”
“Maybe a little. I won’t be taking a healing class. Forrest and Onre have that covered. I was very impressed with how both Orian and Asiel handled those bandits a few days ago. So Telekinetics, Aeromancer, and Empathy have all been added to my list.”
“This is a lifetime decision, son, not just a school decision,” Mom emphasized. “If you want to be a healer, I am sure it will be useful, both now and into the future.”
“I know, Mom. But I picture myself being active in battle with both melee and ranged capability. Healing is mostly after-battle. That is the main reason I am not considering it any more.” She said that was a solid reason to exclude it.
“Since I’m spawning on campus now, I decided not to wear my leathers into the void. We came by so I could change into a loincloth.” Dad said it was just about midnight, and I should get on with it.
Arrjee and I went to our room. I began stripping and so did he. “I thought you just wanted to get your vest?”
“You are almost naked; I’m naked. I think Lenyet and Harron are naked. I bet if we acted it out, we could probably figure out what they are doing.”
What could I do? I finished stripping. There was a play to perform.
It was a half hour play with a lot of improvisation. We had to practice some scenes more than once. But we were both quite satisfied with the performance. We probably didn’t get every detail of Lenyet’s and Harran’s presentation right, but they have had a lot more years of practice.
We used some of Grandma’s deodorant when we were done. I’m not sure what he meant by it being the plain jar, and I did not really care. We donned our loincloths, vests, and sandals. He had not removed his river stone ring so I matched him with my armbands. I even put back on my belt with the enchanted buckle and lucky coin. It felt a little strange being directly against my fur, but I wanted to be able to carry a coin purse and my knife. I remembered to put my earrings in the coin purse.
Arrjee told me I was still a little overdressed. “Maybe,” I replied, “but until they make a loincloth with pockets, I’m going to wear a belt to hold my coin purse. And as long as I have the belt, I might as well have my knife. Besides, the extra resistance helps make up for having no armor.”
As does Achievement: Boost Armor, D
“Great! Thank you. What is the new capability now?”
You now have resistance to chemical style attacks using basic and acidic substances.
“Pretty good!”
Yes.
“Arrjee, my boost armor just boosted itself to rank D. It now helps me resist physical, toxic, acid, and base attacks.” He congratulated me, and we headed downstairs. Everyone else had gone to their rooms, so we just headed out and walked over to the gang’s cottage.
The gang was still up, though Arrjee and I both found ourselves overdressed. They were all nude, just sitting and talking in the den.
We greeted each other, and Odd let us know, “Soon after we got here, we began speculating what Harron and Lenyet might be up to. Then when you two did not get back immediately, we added you to our group speculations.”
“We all played around, alright?” Kossa clarified. “Minor gods, I’m not sure Odd would have ever gotten to the obvious point. And with Corval here, able to cast Infertility on me, Onre was finally able to show a girl something he had told me he learned at his old school. I was dutifully impressed. Twice.”
Jacques would have thought that was TMI. But since Arrjee and I had both also just been dutifully impressed, twice, the activities of our friends were simply an interesting topic of conversation. We didn’t hold back on relating what we had been doing, either.
It turns out that during my sixdays, it was common for the gang to, well, exercise their options. Not every night, but there were pre-slumber activities every several days. This was the first time Corval had assisted Korra with infertility, though. Odd, as Erus, had spent decades perfecting certain skills. They weren’t directly useful to him now, but he had been sharing with Korra quite a few methods to avoid pregnancy and still have fun. Like apparently all teens on Heere, she already had techniques of her own as well.
After these eye-opening discussions, I remembered to loan my earrings to Onre. “You’ll find these very useful. You can keep them until your effective charisma is nine or so.” He thanked me.
After that, most everyone went to bed. Since I don’t actually need to sleep, I told them I was going for a walk, with maybe a bit of a run. I had already reached rank D on three skills today, and I suspected Dark Sight might be a fourth. I wished everyone a good night, and let them know I looked forward to rejoining them on Eighthday.
“Interface, query Dark Sight.”
Dark Sight: E + 249 / 317
Okay, that means about an hour and a half more. I’ll stop my late night exercise once it ranks, meditate for an hour, and sleep for a little while.
That was exactly what happened. Interface chose to wake me a few minutes before 4 with the Bee Gees Stayin’ Alive1. It woke me almost immediately, but he reduced the volume and kept it playing.
“Is that supposed to be funny?” I asked Interface tiredly.
No. That is funny, Mr. Immortality.
And dammit, he was right. Whether I’m a brother or whether I’m a mother, I’ll be staying alive. That ought to be Jacque’s theme song. As I dressed, I was really listening to the lyrics for the first time. Wow. Only difference is, I intend for our lives to go somewhere.
I had woken up my roommates as I dressed. I apologized and said I’d be gone in just a minute. A few seconds later, I faded away.
- - -
1 Stayin’ Alive, © 1977, Bee Gees. Released by RSO Records.