A friend?

Yulia stares into the ominous room twiddling her fingers nervously as she listens to the voices. Most of them seem to want her to head back for now and she's more than happy to oblige. The ominous room fills her with dread.

Her fear of the ominous room is suddenly pushed to the side, however as the nightmare voice has returned. She trembles trying to discern meaning from it's words. She steps back from the room and looks to the silver door, seeing that it's indeed closed. She feels her heart beat beating fast in her chest as she wonders what she's supposed to be running from.

While pondering that another voice speaks. This one claims that she's not real and that it's not like the other voices. She ponders this for a few moments as well as the suggestion it made, "I... Find myself doubting your words. I'm not... Unfamiliar with the existentialist theories about our existence, but I've never put much stock in them. Whether I am real or not does not change that this is where I exist and the people and things I care about are here. There are people I want to save and whether they or I are real doesn't change that fact... If you are just trying to help, then thank you, but I'm afraid I must decline to accept your suggestion. Especially since that would be the second suggestion so far that has told me to remove my bra and the last one at least had a slightly more sensible reason why I should," she responds having moved back into the main room, shutting the wooden door carefully as she does.

"Also you are mistaken about the goddess. The teachings of the church are that we were created by a wicked god who sought to use us as toys. Erimalia, our goddess, was the offspring of this wicked god. Her power is limited, but she taught us ways to thrive even in the face of the sadistic whims of our creator and used what little power she did have to restrict his ability to interfere with our world. All bad things, such as the plague that took my parents come from this angry god, but the teachings of Erimalia allow us to survive. The scripture also says that her father punished her, tearing off her limbs and burying her beneath the ground of my world. Still alive, but suffering terribly beneath the ground, the church singers, sing to her to ease her pain," she says and then coughs, "Sorry... I er... Imagine you don't care about the church or it's teachings. None of it is relevant to you or this tower. The tower is outside the control of any god anyway according to the legends surrounding it,"

She realizes she had talked over some of the voices during her speech about her religion and tries to remember what they had said.

The nice voice had suggested poisoning her new club, an interesting concept, but the poisons can't be absorbed through the skin, making them not very useful on a blunt weapon.

At least one voice did mock her for her unfortunate episode with the chair and she blushes behind her mask.

She feels cheerful after one of the voices praised her for disarming the trap, "Thank you. I'm actually pretty good at disarming quite a few different types of traps. The spread of the plague has left many areas of the world destitute and it's become common for bandits to set up on a lot of the roads or in otherwise abandoned towns, well I say bandits, but mostly it's just **** and sick people. Many church travelers such as myself have therefore been **** to learn how to deal with the occasional trap rigged to catch unaware travelers," she explains then goes quiet as she listens to the rest of the voices words.

The voice suggests going back and trying to break the frosted door with the remains of the chair which doesn't seem like a terrible idea, though she's not sure how she'd close the door after if she breaks it. She also approves of the idea of trying to set off any trap in the ominous room with the broken chair as well. The mean voice also seems to approve of this idea. The mean voice of course also insults her competence and rambles about health and mana, confusing Yulia slightly. She gets the idea that the voices can apparently tell her current state somehow and that the mean voice seems to be telling her to rest a bit longer before moving forward. The mean voice also seconds the suggestions of the previous voice which they also refer to by the name Moonblack for some reason and also suggest stocking up on supplies from the rest room which is an idea Yulia definitely agrees with.

She goes back to the rest area and checks the supplies available. The supplies are about 10 days worth of simple, hardy foods and water jugs. She takes as much as she can carry while also responding to the last voice who apparently decided to lecture her about her mask and outfit. She rubs the beaked nose of her mask a little nervously, "Th... this mask is part of the uniform of The Erimalian healers... It's got special enchantments insider to protect me from harmful pollutants in the air such as diseases, poisons and bad smells. It's very useful... I mean I don't know if it would say... protect me from inhaling one of my own poison grenades, but I imagine it would be better than if I didn't wear it," she says a little defensively. She quite likes the mask, she likes that it hides her face, she feels safe behind the mask.

After gathering up some food and water and taking a few minutes to lie down and rest she grabs a piece of the chair and approaches the frosted door. She swallows nervously, half expecting her swing to bounce off and hit her, but luckily it does not. She swings and the makeshift club impacts the door which shatters like glass, on the other side of the door Yulia and the voices can now see beyond. There is indeed a desk in the room and at the desk is a woman. She is wearing a hooded black cape and seemingly almost nothing else. Her lithe, but curvy form hidden only by a black half-cup bra that only barely covers her quite large breasts, giving a quite tantalizing view of her areola while just managing to cover her nipples. Her lower body is hidden behind the desk, but the viewpoint of the voices lets them see that she is only covered below by a simple black thong, the front band of which is only barely covering her leaving her plump labial folds almost fully visible. Her skin is tanned and she has short ear length, fiery red hair and red eyes with snake like slit pupils. Her delicate looking hands are steepled on the desk and she curves her green painted lips into a smile as she spots Yulia.

"Welcome! Welcome! You must be the chosen! I'm Alide, a denizen of this tower. It is my job to aid you. I can offer you various services, but each time we meet you can only avail yourself of one such service at a time. You can find me at least once on each floor of the tower," she says. Yulia hesitates. The rest of the room is covered with shelves filled with all manner of weapon, armor, potion and assorted other goods, including a few of a quite sexual nature that make Yulia blush beneath her mask. There is also, she notices a quite lavish looking bed set off in a corner of the room.

"Let me explain the services I offer. I can give you, for free, one piece of equipment, armor/clothing, a set of various types of potions, support, offensive or defensive, I can teach you a single spell from a category of, Offensive, Utility or support or if you're feeling down I can offer you some fun to perk you back up and get you ready to face more challenges!" she explains.

Yulia seems dumbstruck, by the cheerful figure.

The voices however are met with a screen. It looks like a classic pop-up screen.

(Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Equipment: Ceramic Beaked Mask, Monastic Scapular, standard bra, Standard Panties, 5 poison gas grenades, 3 healing kits, 2 syringes of poison, 3 syringes of adrenaline, 2 syringes of poison antidote, 1 sewing kit, 1 key, 1 vial of unknown liquid, 10 ft of trip wire, Makeshift wooden club, 10 days worth of rations, 4 two liter water jugs.

Spells known: Great Heal, Cure

https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/the-tower-of-voices-voting-thread.3460/ )