After action report.

John grabbed his phone and called Moira, hoping that she would pick up before leaving his kingdom. On her fast bike, it would only take her a couple of minutes to get back to the castle.

While waiting for her to answer the call he walked around Sylvia's tree. What he found there made him shed a few tears...

She had grown a whole plot of beautiful flowers of magnificent colors and written "FOR ANNA" on a flat stone with some sort of pigment.

"Newman?" asked Moira once she finally answered his call.

"Moira, I have to go home, I don't even know where we entered the kingdom..." he explained.

"You made me lose 20$, I really thought you would have forgotten that and that I would have to wait for you... Well, put some clothes on and meet us at your place." she instructed.

John turned toward the two elves hugging each other on a stone slab and crying. Ferulia's tears were slowly evaporating as they flowed on her cheeks.

"I have to leave you here for a short time, I'll be back soon to help you settle here. Here take this. You can drink from the fountain, please don't touch the trees, some of them are special." he told them. He left some packaged candy bars in front of them and mounted his bike.

John arrived at his castle a few minutes later, only wearing boxers and riding his electric bike. He walked inside toward the storage chest and a second later was wearing a set of dry, clean clothes.

Tricia had looked at him carefully during the process and seemed appreciative of the way he dressed from his inventory.

John got closer to Moira's bike that she had driven inside, dragging mud on the ground. He took one hand from Moira and Tricia each and had Tricia hold her suitcase with the other. He focused for a moment and all three found themselves on the same sidewalk where they picked up the healer.

She dismounted and very awkwardly waved the others goodbye. John took her place behind Moira and held tight on the muscular body of the stunning Warden as she brought him home in record time.

Tricia opened the metal door of the small building. It had been a workshop once and later was gutted to become a small warehouse, it was now empty except for a strange structure at the center of it. A cubic cage of mesh wire, acting as a Faraday cage was covered in small badges each sporting a single rune.

The building was dirty and littered with small debris, except for a pristine path from the door to the cage and an area 2 meters wide around it.

Tricia stripped naked and put her clothes on the small chair near the door of the cage.

"Environmental blending deactivate" she said. Her skin flickered jet black for a second before taking a sickly white color.

She entered the shielded room and sat in a very comfy leather chair, looking up where a number of virtual screens appeared. She removed a small SD card from the choker collar that appeared around her neck and inserted it in a small hole on the seat's armrest.

"Tricia Gorbachev, research log 17/213-89: experiment on the SL protocol, controlled environment test number 5.

Today's test had to be aborted after only 27 minutes due to an emergency unrelated to the test. As usual I had lifted 12/24 limiters and engaged my custom protocol. Exposure to the usual stimulus didn't raise the risk of Eye activation above 12% probability while maintaining a great range of emotional responses. I've come to believe that the members of the clan have lied to me or don't know as much as they pretend to about the risks.

I had to interrupt testing and intervene in the outside world without deactivating the SL protocol. At this point transition in a way that wouldn't damage the initial settings of the nanosuit can't be attained in less than 73 minutes.

A pact has been called upon, the Golden Rose needed me to heal one of their allies.
This activity yielded more interesting results about the SL protocol than all previous tests combined.

A John Newman, late bloomer mage with a video game themed power set was deeply injured alongside with a few abyssal creatures he had gathered in his following. He strangely is in possession of a fully activated infinity gem and built a complex kingdom in it.

A research partnership agreement has been negotiated with him for the study of the lifeforms inhabiting it. He is himself at least partially a biomancer too and managed to deeply alter his body and those of his subjects. This will prove a great source of data and a possible source of various materials." she recited, everything she dictated writing itself on one of the virtual screens. The other ones were filling themselves with videos taken by her drones of various events that happened in Arcadia.

"I have witnessed a cleansing ritual practiced by Moira Brighton, data record will be found in appendix 12/7.
This John is a very charismatic person and seemed to deeply care for creatures most mages would only consider slaves or pets. I have to admit that conversations and interactions with him raised my emotional responses to 11 on the Mr Fluffy scale. Sylvia, a dryad (homo sylvanis) who had been deeply injured, kissed me, believing it to be a normal expression of gratitude and appreciation." Tricia touched her lips and blushed as her screens showed the sensual kiss.

"It was... Unexpected. I would... I... more data would be necessary to fully analyze this phenomenon. I will now resume the initial test to its completion, more will be ascertained once I visit this place again, when the research partnership truly begins. It seems though, that even in this intermediary state the SL protocol fulfills its role.

I'm now able to start having a social life!

Launch test sequence 4, Kittens Shenanigans, Funny cat videos best of number 6, Frolicking puppies galore." she announced.

Her screens filled themselves in a pure cuteness overload and she lost herself in the delight, only keeping an eye on the meter on the side to make sure it never went above 30%, twice today already was greatly enough...