Becoming Monsters: in the Mirror

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

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Chapter 17: Pole Position

Over dinner, we described the results of our experiment to the others. Specifically, to Sarah. Whitney wished she had been there. I was deep in thought about what it could all mean. "Sarah, of all the people here, I think you have the best chance of figuring out more details about it. Maybe it sounds similar to one of your theories or enchanting techniques?"

She shook her head. "That's something I'm thinking about as I go towards my Greater Masterwork. Those Auras you talk about aren't something I can perceive directly. Maybe I can get something together to translate it? I don't know, but it helps." She trailed off a bit as she nibbled on the pancake in front of her. Gloria had declared a Breakfast For Dinner day. I could hear the capitalization in her voice when she did so.

"I don't even know how some of you would two-way synchronize. It makes a visible difference. You and Amber have stronger synchronization with Lucy than Whitney does. Even if we get the whole team networked, I still don't know what it will do or what it might be useful for. That's what I'm asking you to ponder. Same for the rest of you, this is something new. If you have any ideas, write them down." There was assent. "Awesome. Any plans for tomorrow? I've been kind of out of it, trying to catch up."

Gloria was the first to speak up. "I'm going to church, if anybody wants to join me." Emily raised her hand. Good, I really didn't want anyone going places alone.

Amber was next. "I think I'm going to go visit home. Dad must be worried sick, or think I'm dead. Even before I blacked out, my ex didn't like him, so I didn't get to go home often." Her head was down. "I don't even know if he'll recognize me at this point. That Wish has changed me a lot, but I have to try."

Hm. That was a big deal. "Lucy or I can go with you if you want. Should help explain things. We both know what was going on and helped with the rescue. Actually, thinking about it, I have a counter-curse ability I can use to rid you of it. I can at least try."

She shook her head. "I don't know what will happen if it's removed. I could revert to what I was before, or I could just be stuck as I am. Take a rain check? Let me finish this transformation. That way, in the worst case, at least I'm still in an end state. And... I think Dad will understand if I bring Lucy with me. A lot better than if he sees you."

Yeah, that tracked. "Sarah? Whitney?"

"We were headed to the Guild Hall. Whitney needs a sparring partner, and I need Alkahest if I want to integrate the Anticrystals right."

"Okay. Lucy, with your permission, I'd like to head to the Guild Hall as well. Might be able to win a few bets, but more importantly the other Officers need to know I'm alive. I promise that I won't fight unless I have to. Only bringing the unmodified baton for appearances."

"Fine, but bring Nibbles with you. If he can't kill it by himself, I don't want you fighting it. Got it?"

"I'll take it." Nibbles nodded, too, hopping over to my lap to snag a proper bribe of bacon. He'd make sure I stayed safe, and his harness meant that nobody would question his presence.

The rest of dinner was a happy chatter. It was crowded in the kitchen as we all sat, stood, or leaned where we could fit, but the physical closeness didn't bother any of us. What was bothering me instead was the feeling that I was making the wrong choice about what to do tomorrow. No, that wasn't quite it. It was the feeling that there wasn't a

right

choice to make. That there were a multitude of things in front of me that all needed attention, and all of them were going to happen in different places at the same time.

I guess all I could do was try to set myself up to react properly as they came. Get out in front and get the head start. Or, at least, make sure I wasn't so far behind this time. I let myself be caught off-guard one time this week. I needed it to not happen again.

By popular opinion, I got the bed again that night. Lucy seemed to sense that I was stuck in my own head, and decided she got the bed, too. We spooned there in bed, and she slowly inserted me inside of her. I thought that's where we would rest, and was happy for it, but right as I approached the line between waking and sleeping I felt it. Lucy's supernaturally dexterous internal muscles were milking me for all I was worth. If an outside observer (say, any of the other five people in the apartment) were to walk in, they would see nothing of note. To me? It was very near as powerful a pleasure as I got when she was in full orgasm. When I could peel my brain away from the cascading ecstasy, I could feel my wife focusing hard. She was putting a special effort into this, above and beyond what even she usually did. That, by itself, was amazing and special to me. As she continued to internally milk me, I made sure I was safe... and then gave her a little bit extra. I shapeshifted myself six inches longer, reaching into parts of her I never had before.

Her eyes snapped open, but she continued her pace. I could feel her hand come down to her own clit as she enjoyed it, and some minutes later we came together with peaceful sighs. The moment and tenderness we shared was higher than any orgasm, and still linked together like that we fell asleep.

Visions of terror assaulted my dreams that night. I could see titans dancing, an intricate step I had no hope of predicting or joining. I was as an ant beneath their feet, one they could obliterate without ever being aware of. I knew with certainty that if either ever paid attention to me, the best outcome possible would be my death.

I grasped my wife closer to me, her presence and body comforting. My nightmares faded into inconsequential scenes, and I regained my peace in sleep. The Sun greeted me with only vague memories remaining. Breakfast was leftovers from dinner, which was breakfast. It worked. The coffee was fresh.

The group split up, my team boarding the Guild Hall bus. We were each lost in our own heads, but it didn't last long. A few stops later, a couple of familiar faces got on, sitting near the front.

One was unable to hide. Ten feet of troll will do that. Ryan was headed out to the Field, and was absorbed in conversation with the much-smaller person next to him. Halo and wings shimmered, it was Aaron Christiansen again. What was he doing here? As best I knew, he wasn't Guilded. Maybe a Delver? No way to know, and between the noise of the bus and the chatter of other conversations I couldn't hear specific words coming from them. They seemed to be getting along, though, and that could mean nothing good. Both were armed and armored, though that was not exactly out of place given where we were headed.

I looked at Whitney. Given that she was uncharacteristically slouching down and had her eyes forward, I think she noticed. Sarah did not, but then again she had met neither. She was braiding something to pass the time and keep her fingers busy, the material looked black and plastic but I knew better than to assume it was.

They got off fast as we parked, transferring to the Dungeon Shuttle immediately. More and more curious. "Ladies, we have a quick stop to make before we do our errands. Scheduling station." Nobody argued. The station itself had the rolls for who was charged to enter the Seattle Dungeon, their target areas, and expected times. It also acted as both ticketed entry and insurance. The managers there made sure people didn't cross paths often down below, and teams that missed their return times would have others come looking if at all possible. Some Guilds had been known to leave Door Keys for rescuers, a practice which endeared them to their active Delver teams.

Most importantly, I could see exactly who was about to head into the Dungeon on this fine Sunday morning. A team of Freelancers, willing to form ad-hoc groups for their goals. Traditionally, this meant Unguilded, but not always. In short, no guild was sponsoring this trip. No way to know what the target was or their game plan. Frustrating, but good to know. I couldn't make it to the Dungeon Gate fast enough to catch them forming up, and would likely be spotted even if I could.

No dice. We'd have to just do our errands and hope other information came into view. Enchanter Row was the closest goal, and Sarah wanted to put the last couple of steps on my shield gauntlet. Something about wanting me to have a portable shield. Can't imagine why. The reagent in question was easy enough to find, the enchanter curious about her project. He even let her use his table to put the last few touches on it, locking in the Gold Battery in a network of hardened pathways.

"Try it, Jay. This one will be visible, unfortunately, but the anticrystals

should

dampen a little bit of the energy transfer due to..."

"Got it!" The gauntlet felt much more comfortable than it should have, given that I know for fact that Sarah had never taken my precise measurements. I flexed my hand into a fist, and light blue circle of energy formed, big enough to cover my torso. While it was weightless, I could feel it drag on the air like a solid thing.

Sarah whacked it a couple of times with my baton. I felt a bit of it, but not all that much. Granted, it was Sarah, and a baton, but still. The glove itself weighed way less than the shield ever did, and I didn't have to waste time pulling it on. The local asked to trade formulae, the technical terminology for the next five minutes entirely lost me and Whitney both but generated a lot of written notes from both of them. I think he was trying to flirt with her, she didn't even notice.

It was with this new armament that I showed up to the Officer's Lounge once more. This time, the room immediately got quiet as I walked in. Word had spread.

"I thought he was nearly dead."

"He was! I saw the pictures. Heck, the

videos

. Look at him, he's moving slow."

"Chased a freaking Glasya across town six hours after getting out of the hospital, with only two guild mates present for most of it. Clips of the fight are on every website I've been to in the last day. Someone put him on Delver Wiki."

I felt a hand on my shoulder, orange-red fur quite noticeable. "I was about to call you for support in a delve, but I got word you needed to recover." It was Gregory Grits.

"You could say that. It's been an eventful week, and I am beyond tired right now."

"You are here... why?"

"My Berserker and Enchanter needed to pick a few things up, and I needed information. You know where Vish is? Or Leah?"

"Leah? The assassin? Got a good payoff to accompany some Freelancers down to the first floor. Vish takes Sundays off, says he found a chiropractor who can work on Races with exoskeletons."

"Then maybe you know. I got attacked in my home, Grits. It's personal now. The Black Cat tried to kill me and mine. You know what that means."

He looked grim. Delver Code held that the home was off limits. We had too many threats to have to worry about being murdered in our sleep. Violate the home, and the best you could hope for was a complete blacklist and embargo from anyone who upheld the code. At worst, for proven crimes? Especially for trying to kill someone and destroying their home? A kill on sight declaration was not out of the question. "Do you think she's a Delver?"

"Hexer strong enough to plant a tank from near-full to dying in basically one attack? Allied to a necromancer skilled enough to drop those summoning portals, and backed by Mob? Yeah, she has to be on the rolls somewhere. You don't get that far just hunting people."

"Yeah, should have figured. I'll ask my guys, don't think you have an Archivist yet."

I shook my head. "No, and not really looking for one. Not at my Guild's size. I need to circulate some more. The whispers I'm hearing include some rumors I'd rather quash."

"And some you probably want to encourage. The fireworks from that last escapade were fairly dramatic, as far as I know you're currently going viral. No telling how long that will last."

I blinked. Social media was... not my thing. Too much to do to maintain them other than standard professional things. I pulled out my phone and opened one of those networking sites for the first time in a week. There were fifteen thousand notifications in my inbox. That was... not something I was expecting to have to deal with. "Um. Okay. Guess my next question is if you know someone I can get to be a social media manager. I do software, not... this."

Grits laughed, a booming kind of thing. So did a few others in earshot. One spoke up from the table next to us, a middle-aged Human man in blue-trimmed black robes. He had brown eyes behind wire-framed glasses, and close-cropped brown hair with a liberal dose of gray mixed in. On the left chest was an icon of a raven with one eye. "Jake Fischer, Archivist for

Munin's Wing

. I have a couple of newbies who might be able to help, relatively cheap. They've been chattering about it all morning."

"I'll take it. After I leave here I'll be at the equipment tents and dueling circle the rest of the morning, grabbing lunch with a couple of my team then heading home. We'll be easy to find, I'll talk with them when they do."

Jake's grin was wide enough that I suspected he might be Cheshire. "You've dealt with newbies before, I see. I'll shoot them a message that we have a subcontract opportunity, let them find out how good of one if they decide to take me up on it."

Another round of laughs as I shook his hand and left the room, a proud tradition upheld. Sarah and Whitney joined up with me as I left the building. She was stretching her right arm, an enormous grin on her face. Her Aura was noticeably stronger than thirty minutes prior. "Alright, spill. Do I need to be worried?"

"Nah, found that Ogre from the other day. We clarified some rules, I realized he was using a Class Ability against me, and this time I won the arm wrestling match. On a stone table."

I couldn't help it. I started laughing. I stopped walking, leaning against my knees in the middle of the walking path. It took me most of a full minute to get control over myself. "Okay, okay, I have to ask now. What was the bet?"

"Oh, he wanted a date after last time. Last time he wanted the sword."

I got serious really fast. "Kind of high stakes for you, what could make you possibly agree to it?"

She pulled out a small black pouch. Inside of it was a handful of silver... and a compass. "He said this points to Key Shards down in the Labyrinth, it'll work for 15 more minutes before breaking."

"Fifteen minutes? Not really enough to get anywhere unless you're close to one." Not sure why, but I was feeling... territorial? That was a new one.

"Maybe... but Sarah says she might be able to figure out the pattern. If we ever go down there, having a couple of these around might speed up our finds."

... oh.

"Yeah, the shopkeeper had a Lodestone thing he was tinkering with, to be able to find teammates that get lost or separated. This won't be quite the same, but I think I can make the concept apply. Like to like."

"Like to like? Sarah, that means your formula is going to have to include...

"A Key Shard. Yes. I'll have to expend at least one trying to make this."

Oy. That was a bit of an ask. Still, even if we didn't end up doing Dungeon Delves, that kind of pattern would be crazy valuable. The kind of income stream we needed desperately. "Alright. I'll see what we can do about it. Can't make any guarantees, just buying one would take most of the bonus from the chase bounty." She looked nonplussed. It was hard to remember that she had only been a part of this for a week and change, old habits die hard. There seemed to be a comeback about to form in her head when we were interrupted by a pair who were actively unusual even by Base Camp standards.

They were both dressed in wetsuits. Well, I guess

inverse

wetsuits would be more accurate, since both of them were clearly of a cephalopod Race. The suits would help keep their skin wet. Their torsos and heads were mostly human, but their legs and arms had been replaced by eight tentacles. They walked on six of them, but I got the sense that they were interchangeable. Everything but their heads were encased by the wetsuit, their coloration gray and their hair in many long braids down their backs. Cecaelia, if I was not greatly mistaken. Were it not for the difference in patterning of the skin on their faces, they would have been identical. "Man, I told you he only looked small because of the demon!"

"Alright, alright, you win. This time." The second one looked at me and offered an upper tentacle. "I'm Chaske, from

Munin's Wing

." I shook it.

His twin offered one as well. "I'm Misun. We're new here, just turned eighteen and got our licenses. One of our officers tells us you want to subcontract us?"

I shook his tentacle, too, and smiled. For some things, you wanted long experience and patience. For being on top of a social media blitz? Couple of younger folks would be perfect. "I was wondering which would get to me first, and both arrived simultaneously. I'm Jeremiah Kithkin, Guild Leader of

Shield Against Shadows

. The tall Berserker to my left is Whitney, and this is Sarah, our guild Enchanter. Both also participated in the events you probably know us from. Whitney was part of the pursuit team, Sarah helped on the bridge ambush."

Misun looked so excited he was about to faint. "Yo! That wingbeat rush you pulled to smack around the demon was amazing! Never seen a Berserker using a baton, what's your build?"

"Uh... Two-Handed specialization. We were in an apartment at the start, my main sword," she indicated the enormous saber on her back, "would not have been usable there. We didn't expect to encounter it."

Chaske's eyes went wide. "Hold up, that was

improvised

? Just knowing that piece from the horse's mouth is worth this entire thing! So, what do you need us to do? Going to be Delving? We're both low-level Technopath Tinkers, working on getting combat applicability options."

Freaking PERFECT, I owed Jake big time. "Just the opposite. I am a software developer, but have no real ability on the side of technology that I suddenly find myself needing. Specifically, I need social media managers. I wasn't ready to go viral, and I need good messaging going forward to make sure our mission keeps going."

Both of them looked like the gates of Heaven opened before them. Both of them said "I'm in" before I could bother detailing specifics.

"Hah, alright. Enthusiasm it is. Let's go over to Legal, get contracts drawn up, and then I can outline my intended strategy while you two poke holes in it."

NDAs under Binding Contract were themselves as expensive as retaining three months of their work, but worth it. Minimum goals, incentives, websites, time slots, the works. Oh, and a promise that they could come along on at least one Delve per quarter if they could prove themselves to not be a liability. I would be the final arbiter of THAT one. Lunch was the usual fare for that place, always enjoyable. By the time my team got on the bus to go home, the twins had already gotten accounts started for the Guild on more social media sites than I was aware existed. Some signatures and pictures, a couple of short video clips, and other esoterics were a part of this "to make sure we can get you verified, man!" They promised the rest of my team would get a similar treatment soon, we traded addresses and contact information under NDA to make sure we could keep this up. Their simple joy that Nibbles was present to provide an adorable mascot was one I was not anticipating, either, but Nibbles thought it his just due. He accepted head pats with dignity. I also received an INTIMIDATING list of newly-made social media handles and passwords so that I could check in on them, swore not to actually post on them until I cleared it with my strategists, and handed them the keys to my existing ones until they could sort, filter, reply, and redirect the flood I had already received.