Blood And Chlorophyll Ch 11

The "Becoming Monsters" LitRPG setting was originally created by AiLoves, and is now managed by OtterlyMindblowing.

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After watching Alicia disappear into her Heart Tree, Katrina walked downstairs and settled onto the couch in the living room. She'd only been up for a few hours and had the rest of the night to herself, but wasn't entirely sure what to do with her free time. They had their Delving Licenses, they'd found another Delver to help them with the Key Dungeon, and they'd even committed to being partners.

In less than a week, Katrina's entire life had been turned upside down. It was a twist of fate she'd never so much as dreamed might be possible for her, and yet here she was. A promising relationship, a Delving party, she'd even met a bunch of new people in her recent travels.

I wonder if any of them would be interested in staying in touch. Especially Elias, the Mermaid, he seemed really excited for a change of pace. They were all really nice, and I bet Alicia would appreciate some extra company now and then.

Katrina decided it would be worth sending follow-up messages to everyone she'd met the other day. With her focus turned to thoughts of productivity, she ended up with a small list of tasks that she would need to take care of before they started delving in earnest. Unfortunately, everything she could think of required her to be at home. With a regretful sigh, she texted Alicia a quick explanatory text and made her way to the train station.

Although she'd previously been flying between her home and Alicia's, flight required a small amount of mana. With the threat of combat in the very near future, she knew she needed to conserve her resources as much as possible. As a Regen Bard, she was their only source of healing, and running out of HP Regen in the middle of a dungeon would be catastrophically bad.

Thankfully, this far from the city, the trains were pretty empty. Katrina was able to find a corner seat, and settled in to wait for her stop. She briefly wondered how much mana she'd used to keep Alicia's SP up, when another realization dawned on her.

I've been using Class Features! That means Class Progress!

Calling up her Status Screen, Katrina quickly checked her Level Progression. For the last several years, she'd been stuck at 5% through Level 2. After the last few days, however, she was now at 61%. Her MP, however, had fallen to 72%.

Wow, that's more than I was expecting. I guess Alicia needed a lot of help, though; I was playing for quite a while yesterday. Still, my MP is lower than I'd like, especially given that we haven't even started training or delving yet. Once I hit Level 3, I unlock Bardic Spellcasting, which will be a huge help in the Dungeon, but how will I sustain all that mana usage? I need to keep Regen up on Alicia and Tabitha, but also have enough for Spells when necessary. I can't cast anything until I practice and codify my spells, though, which costs even more mana...

Katrina's excitement over her Level Progression faded quickly as she started thinking about her mana problems. She'd always hoped that, when she joined a Delving team, she would be something like a flex support, adopting her tactics to suit whatever problem came her way. With her current party, however, she was being forced into the role of a main healer, despite how ill-suited she was for the task.

I probably shouldn't sweat about this quite yet. We haven't even had our first official planning session with Tabitha, so I'm not sure what she's capable of.

It wasn't long before Katrina made it home. She felt strange walking up the stairs rather than flying to her window, but her SP was the most disposable of her stats. If nothing else, the fresh blood she grabbed from her fridge tasted all the sweeter after the long hike.

She moved to her desk, turned on her computer, and got to work. She sent emails out to everyone she'd met with the other day, thanking them for their time, but also extending invitations for continued communication. Next, she started digging through lists of different vendors that worked at the Dungeon Camp, and finally found the contact information for the lovely Alchemist that had sold them a Stamina Potion at Camp: Kevin the Owl Beastkin. She thanked him for his kindness, and shared that they'd made it home safely because of him.

Once she'd finished all her messaging, she returned to the folder with all her delving resources. It was currently saved only to her computer, and she wanted to change that. She uploaded everything she had to the cloud, but also saved extra copies directly to her phone. It took some creative reformatting to get everything to make sense on a smaller screen, but eventually she had an easily readable plan for future Class Levels and Features.

Her work at the computer finished, she shut it down and started cleaning her apartment. She'd been spending much less time at home recently, and yesterday she hadn't even come home. In weeks and months prior, her existential exhaustion had made it difficult to care about the state of her house. Now? She felt oddly motivated to put everything in order.

She put new sheets on her bed for the first time in months, threw the old sheets in the laundry pile, then ran downstairs to put everything in the wash. She also finally sorted through the clean clothes from earlier in the week, taking the opportunity to organize her storage while she put everything away. Some shirts were meant for hangers, others needed to be folded, and she had an entire drawer just for her jeans. It was in the middle of folding a pair of socks that she paused, taking a moment to examine what she was doing.

When was the last time I folded socks? Or cared about how neat my closet was?

When she'd first moved to the city, Katrina had instantly fallen in love with this apartment. Sure, it was small, and it had been difficult to comfortably invite all her friends over, but it was hers. She got to live in the heart of civilization, to work and strive alongside millions of other people just like her.

After the Change, she'd routinely spent months away from home. Traveling from town to town, doing everything in her power to stay out of sight. When the city had been reclaimed, and the blood rationing program had been instituted, she finally had the chance to return and try to rebuild her life. But she hadn't returned home, not really. Any positive emotions this apartment had once held had vanished the night of the Change.

The laughter of friends no longer blessed these halls. The smell of home-cooked meals no longer filled the air. Whereas once this apartment had held the vibrant life of Katrina the Human, the Change had turned it into a cold prison for Katrina the Vampire.

Every single day that passed had been filled with long, agonizing stretches of painful hunger. Powerful, haunting reminders that she could lose control at any second, surrender control to the murderous instincts inside of her. She'd felt trapped, unable to do anything but go through the motions of the desiccated facsimile of her prior life. It was no wonder she'd never cared about cleaning up after herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted when her phone vibrated; Alicia had just texted her.

Why is she awake?

It was a simple text, just an acknowledgement that she'd received Katrina's previous message about possibly not being there in the morning. It had also been an answer, not to any specific question, but to Katrina's wandering train of thought.

Why did she care about her apartment now? Why was she bothering to change her sheets and fold her socks?

It was all because of Alicia.

Katrina smiled. She had someone in her life she cared about, who cared about her back. Someone she felt comfortable around, who knew how hard the Change had been for her, and still wanted her around. Before putting her phone back in her pocket, Katrina paused while looking at her lock screen.

A picture of herself, taken about a year before the Change, stared back at her. Her Human self had sported unreasonably large glasses, bright green eyes, and vibrant red hair. Her life hadn't been perfect, but she'd been happy with herself.

Katrina had never bothered to change the picture after the Change. Why would she? She hated the person she'd become, the things she'd done because of her Race. As small a thing as it was, the picture on her lock screen had been a constant reminder that, at one point, she'd been excited about the future. She'd made vacation plans with friends, wrestled with what she wanted to do for a living. She'd been alive.

Not anymore. As a Vampire, Katrina was quite literally dead. Undead, specifically, but she never bothered to care about the difference. Over the years, she'd learned through various forum posts that many Undead Races saw significant decreases in their ability to feel emotion, with some claiming that their feelings had vanished completely.

The thought had always scared her. Without her feelings, without the specter of her guilt hanging over her, how many more people would she have hurt?

For the longest time, she remained unsure if her Undead status had affected her emotions. After all, ever since the Change, she'd only had one tiny sliver of happiness in her life; the month she'd spent with Sera. Even that time had been tainted, though, as she'd been keeping the nature of her Vampiric Curse a secret. It had been a hollow emotion, forced contentment only surviving through the denial of who she really was.

Because of Alicia, Katrina now knew what the answer was. She knew that the Change hadn't stunted her ability to feel happiness, empathy, or love, because her heart was filled with it. For the very first time, Katrina the Vampire had hope for the future.

---

The first thing Alicia did after waking up was buy a bed. Despite Katrina's insistence that the couch was comfortable, Alicia suspected she was only being polite. Besides, they were dating now! Shouldn't two girlfriends have a nice, comfy bed all to themselves?

A fancy, plush, Queen-size bed; complete with bamboo linens, a thick down comforter, two fluffy pillows, and silk cases to dress them in. She was so excited she almost forgot to measure the free space in her bedroom. Her Heart Tree took up much of the floor, as it had grown around her the night of the Change, but thankfully there was enough space for the mattress.

She clicked the option for expedited delivery, giggling happily to herself, and immediately started daydreaming.

Above all else, she wanted to keep her expectations in check. Kat had requested that they take things slow, after all, and Alicia was more than happy to oblige. She could still barely believe that someone as gorgeous as Kat was even interested in her. Granted, if Kat had said the word, Alicia would have jumped her without hesitation, but she'd also been truthful about being willing to wait.

In all honesty, Alicia was still processing everything Kat had told her. The Change had been terrible for her, and she had done so many things she regretted, but Alicia had focused on the attacks, the hunting, the feeding. Without Kat mentioning anything, Alicia would never have pieced together that her experiences had also distorted her feelings about sex.

I'm going to do this right. It's not about sex, it's about her. It's about giving her a reliable partner, one that understands what she's been through and sticks around to help her heal.

Of course, now we'll have a place to cuddle and fall asleep. That certainly won't hurt.

After finalizing her order, Alicia checked her email and was surprised to find an unread message. Before opening it, memories from last night returned to her. She'd woken up in the middle of night, wandered outside to grab a drink, and responded to a text. Katrina had told her that she'd run home to grab some things, and might not be back until the next night. The conversation had continued briefly, and Kat had asked if she could share Alicia's contact information with the other delvers that hadn't been able to join their expedition.

Alicia had been confused initially, but Kat had explained that it might be a good idea for them both to make some friends. It seemed like such a simple solution, Alicia was almost mad she hadn't thought about it herself.

As such, the unread message sitting in her mailbox was from the Geomancer Mermaid, Elias.

It was very well written. He shared his regrets that his Race precluded him from assisting with the Key Dungeon, and expressed his sympathies that Alicia had been forced into this situation. He mentioned that he'd quite enjoyed meeting with Katrina the other night, and that he was interested in keeping in touch as she had suggested.

Surprisingly, the thought of having more people to talk to made Alicia so excited she almost stopped thinking about Kat. Almost.

She responded with a message of her own, sharing her contact information and her general hours of availability. She wasn't sure what the protocol was for meeting new friends after the Change, but she always included her hours when she signed off work emails; so many people had strange schedules now, it made communication much easier.

After hitting send, Alicia finally shut down her computer. She grew a pocket for her phone, then had to stop herself from merging with her Heart Tree to leave the house. She knew from experience that the phone wouldn't come with her, so she instead walked down the stairs to use the front entrance.

Thankfully, after having stayed up so late last night, she'd slept in quite a bit today. She was trying to push her schedule as late as possible, despite the protests of her body, so that her schedule could align with Katrina's as closely as possible.

It was refreshing to be out in the sunlight again. Its warmth filled her body, and the calm summer air filled her lungs as she took a deep breath. Grabbing her watering can, she took off towards the river for a morning drink. Though it was strange taking this walk later in the day, rather than the crack of dawn, she quickly found her stride as she began visiting all of her plant neighbors.

She noticed that, compared to everything that had been happening in her life recently, the various flowers, trees, and bushes around her house seemed to be growing slower than usual.

Is that because I'm living a more human-standard life now? Thinking back on it, everything before last week is kind of a blur. Like, I know it happened, but I just did the same thing, all day every day, for years. I always knew that time was weird for me, but it's strange seeing it so clearly. Being a plant is weird.

When Alicia reached the river, she happily sat on the bank and sank her feet into the riverbed. She felt strong roots extend from her feet, slowly beginning to absorb all the water she needed so she could continue her day.

She'd only just gotten started when her phone went off. Her first instinct was that Katrina was texting her, but it was barely noon; no way the Vampire was up yet. Checking her phone, she found a text message from an unknown number, though reading it quickly dispersed her confusion.

???:

Good morning, Alicia, this is Elias. We recently exchanged contact information, and I wanted to reach out to confirm that I have the right number.

Goodness, he's so professional!

Alicia:

Hi Elias! Yes, this is Alicia :) How are you? What are up to today?

Elias:

Whew, thank goodness. Always paranoid about getting the number wrong XD

Elias:

I did a bunch of work this morning, and now I'm just kind of hanging around. Random question, but would you be open to video chatting? My phone isn't 100% waterproof.

Alicia:

Of course! Just call whenever you're ready

Her phone started ringing a moment later, and just before answering, Alicia remembered to cover her body with an appropriate amount of clothing. With a swipe of her finger, she picked up the call.

On her screen, after several seconds of pixelated, buffering video feed, appeared a younger man with short brown hair. It was clearly soaking wet, and water dripped down his face, running over the beginnings of some facial hair before landing in the water. His entire body, save for his head and shoulders, seemed to be immersed in a body of water of some kind, though Alicia couldn't tell what from this angle.

"Alicia! Hi there!" Elias said.

Alicia quickly grew a small collection of sticks and bark, forming a makeshift phone stand on the opposite side of the small river. She put her phone down, adjusting the bark slightly, before responding. "Hey Elias! Sorry for the wait there, I haven't video called anyone in... four years? Honestly, probably closer to five at this point. I had to make myself a little phone stand, can you see everything alright?"

"Everything's good on my end. I've already got a phone stand mounted to my wall here."

"Oh, are you inside?"

"Yeah, my house is mostly water. There's a small floor and some furniture for guests, but obviously I don't use that much. Getting settled in a house is a strange process when you're an aquatic Race."

"I can imagine! I got pretty lucky, I already had a home, and my Heart Tree just took over a corner of it. I can still like, walk around and everything, so nothing too much had to change for me." Alicia paused for a moment, not entirely used to small talk. "So, um, what inspired you to reach out? I can't imagine it's very lonely out in Lake Michigan. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but it seems like we're in pretty different situations."

Elias paused for a moment, thinking about Alicia's words before responding. "It's not that I'm lonely, but I guess I just fell into a rut? Even though I have a bunch in common with other aquatic races, it's not like the Change magically erased my fear of approaching strangers. I was just going to work, coming home, killing time, I think it had all gotten a little old and I hadn't realized it. When Katrina reached out about the Dungeon thing, I got really excited about a change of pace, though it's a bit of a bummer I can't actually help out. Still, she emailed me basically saying that you two were interested in staying in touch, and she seemed really nice!"

"She's pretty great, isn't she?" Alicia said, blushing.

"How long have you two known each other?"

"Like, a week. She flew into my tree without realizing it was a Heart Tree. We got to talking, found out we have a lot in common, and I decided to show her the Key Dungeon 'cuz I realized she really liked delving. That's when she explained that, if we didn't do something, every Guild in the city would be hunting for it."

"And you two are...?" Elias didn't finish his question, but Alicia knew what he meant.

"Oh! We're together. Like, partners, I mean. As of last night, actually!"

"Omigosh! Girl, that's so exciting! How did it happen? Who asked who?" Elias swam closer to the camera, resting his arms on a small ledge.

Alicia was more than happy to share what had happened between her and Kat. She left out quite a few details, glossing over most of the more personal stuff, but Elias didn't seem to mind. Strangely, Alicia noticed that talking with him felt incredibly easy, as if they'd already been friends for years. Each hour they talked passed in the blink of an eye, and it seemed like they had no shortage of things to talk about.

They talked about their daily lives, about their Classes and Races, and swapped funny stories about their strange physiologies. They also talked about what happened the night of the Change, and Alicia learned that Elias had initially spent several weeks in a bathtub. Afterwards, a friend had helped him move to a local pool, and that had been his home for the better part of a year. He'd eventually moved into Lake Michigan proper, but he didn't have an actual home until the city government regained control.