Andromeda Date 1, Part 1: Beginning Phase

Andromeda

After dealing with fan-mail and replies, Andromeda went out to work on her date with Mona. She is going to take the Leyline’s teaching idea and run with it. Funny enough, there is a card shop in the amenities floor: “Esme’s Epic Topdecks!”

“Hello, adventurers! It is I, Esmeralda #132! Dueling time has a-a-a-a-a-a-arrived!”

Andromeda stares at the green-furred bunny-girl, bedecked in piercings and a fade haircut. “Uh, hi? You are very enthusiastic?”

The bunny ears on Esmeralda are fully erect. “Thanks!”

“I was wanting to schedule a vintage or legacy tournament. Something I could use to teach Mona the game?”

The bunny is laughing so hard she is bouncing slightly. “Silly gamer. You want to start with a format that requires a buncha people that know 50 years of game rules well enough to handle getting that sweaty? And drag a noob in? Nah, girl. You need something casual. Easy. Perhaps Mama Tina’s favorite / only deck?”

Esmeralda directs Andromeda’s attention to a 40 year old DDH Mystra pre-constructed deck. The bad DDH Mystra that sacrifices itself to cast a spell costing exactly 9 leylines for free without haste or any sort of protection. There is a whole display of them. A few look like they have alternative art of Tina in place of Mystra. Ugh. DDH. Really?

“No.”

“No because you don’t like the format or no because it’s a garbage deck 40 years out of date?”

The arcanist android offers, “Both?”

“Well, you are probably going to need to get over the format issue. About half of my Mamas play, but all but one of them really only play DDH. Queen Mama prefers draft? She has a DEcipher cube at the ready, if you want to try that.”

Andromeda shudders. Draft is for Pro-tour eliminator rounds and there is nothing more obnoxious than having to play attention to standard sets filled with garbage cards unworthy of my formats for Pro-tour purposes. And DEcipher? That’s literally a joke set full of ineligible garbage cards. The entire RoI from a DEcipher pack is the full art Avon basic land in the back.

“So, if I want to teach Mona how to play Leylines, I’ll have to play the ultra casual format build around silly unoptimized play?”

“We have Welcome Decks? Those are free! The red one comes with a Stormwreck Isle Dragon as the rare!”

Seriously, the 6 leylines 5/5 dragon with flying and firebreathing? It’s been downshifted to uncommon years ago. Mona should get to see cooler cards than that to start.

Andromeda sighs, then asks, “You think Tyalangan has some decks I could borrow?”

The Host appears behind her. “I do have some slightly better teaching decks, or we can do some DDH. You have a preference?”

“You have a BUG control teaching deck?”

The Host shakes her head, “You remember that set with the dinosaur vs. mermaid vs. vampires vs pirates theme? I got the decks from their weird board game sleeved up.”

Andromeda sighs. Fine. If I have to play DDH, I will deal with it. “You have a BUG control DDH deck?”

“I actually do. Remember morph?”

Caoimhe

Caoimhe had a lovely dinner, but she was a bit distracted during it. Not that she was attracted to Gaia or that strange Prudence, but the IDEA of whipping a sub stirred up feelings she wasn’t quite ready for. There is this warmth in her lower abdomen, a dewiness between her thighs, that she isn’t used to. She squirmed as she ate.

Her sub knew what she needed, but the maid decided to act bratty and not offer a remedy over dinner. This irked her a little. On the one hand, she knows her male form is still a little unsure about his relationship to the maid; he feels like it is too early to be doing anything too drastic. He definitely doesn’t want Winter marred with whip marks; if she is honest with herself, she doesn’t want that either, at least not permanently. Caoimhe does not want to sabotage her Kevin form. On the other, she knows EXACTLY what her relationship to Winter should be. The maid should be on knees, worshiping the sometimes drow like a good submissive should. Needing to tiptoe around the fact is annoying.

So, she tolerates the maid’s bit of insubordination. Winter will feel the sting of funishment once Kevin is okay with it.

Of course, her pride was injured in another way and, now that she has nothing better to do, she aims to rectify that. She is back at the arcade, specifically returning to the Skee-ball section. The lane he used on his date has had the fencing repaired.

Her male form was defeated by the change in body size and musculature. She will not be.

Kevin: -5 BP (Skee-ball game)

She takes her time, saying little prayers to Eilistraee between each roll to cast Guidance on herself. The green-furred bunny-girl doesn’t care. She bowls. She does much better. A few attempts at the big 100 results in falling into the 10 point bucket, but she nails the small center rings well enough to make up for it. The tickets spit out and Caoimhe hit the arcade high score leaderboard. Not the top spot, but high enough to knock Daphne off the list.

260 points. Not bad. Could be better, though...

Somewhat satisfied, Caoimhe heads upstairs. She is going to figure out how to relieve the warm ache in her stomach somehow.

Mona

After confronting Craig, Mona did her walking on the treadmill, a solid 30 minutes. Ophie pulled up some more Harem Hotel for her to watch. She decided to watch some of that Genesis Response season, since Van wrote to her and she wanted to know more about his situation. That Riot girl blowing up Van’s shirt was very sexy. While she didn’t get all of her steps in, she feels okay about it.

Ophie then once again made dinner for Mona. The gamer girl supposes that it makes a certain amount of sense. Tessa didn’t plan on dinner last night and Andromeda doesn’t eat anymore. At least Mona is getting used to her new diet. Dinner is some roasted broccoli and a nice little steak. Ophie gave her a dirty look when she ordered it well done, but the steak was cooked all the way through.

So, dressed in a cute T-shirt and skirt combo, make-up made up, Mona waits at the door, wondering where Andromeda is planning on taking her.

Mona: Daily tasks complete! Walk for 30 minutes. +5 BP

Mona: Daily tasks complete! Follow Diet Plan (Before the Date) +10 BP

Mona: Daily tasks complete! Fully Prepare for Your Date +20 BP

The door opens and Andromeda is there. The arcanist android is serene, wearing a blue leylines shirt and a pair of jeans.

“Hi, Mona.”

“Hey, Andromeda! You look cute!”

Andromeda gives her an odd look. “I look like I usually do.”

Mona smiles, “Well, you usually look cute!”

The android’s face lights up with what looks like embedded LED lights in her cheeks. “Well, shall we head downstairs?”

Mona follows and they soon find themselves in front of a nerd shop? Tyalangan and a new person is sitting side-by-side. The new person is teasing Tyalangan and the bunny-girl behind the counter. When they see Mona and Andromeda come in, Tyalangan gives a slight wave and new girl spouts out, “Hey, Almach, hey NEET-girl! C’mon over.”

Andromeda is super annoyed, but walks over anyways. Mona feels the urge to stand up for her sexy robot-girl, “Andromeda doesn’t like nicknames. If this is some sort of double date, I expect you to respect her.”

Tyalangan gives the new girl a look, “Mattie, no nicknames tonight.”

“But Sarge...”

“No buts.”

The new girl, this Mattie, holds out a hand to Mona. The elf rolls her star-irised eyes, smile reaching them regardless, and greets them, “Fine. Mattie Copse-Wood-McMattersen. Royal Spymaster. Shush. Don’t tell anyone. Sarge and I are your opponents tonight.”

Mona starts to put two and two together. She sees 4 decks, each with some little plastic card holders to the side, placed on 4 place mat looking things. Tyalangan’s mat is, at least according to the label on it, a map of Faerun. Mattie’s mat is definitely one of herself, posing like Jacob Trammel from the opening of those really old Sean Connery spy movies. A bunch of big dice are between the place mats before Tyalangan and Mattie. The same dice are between the empty spots.

“Ooooh, are we learning how to play Leylines?”

“Well,” Tyalangan says, “you are learning. We are playing.”

Mona is actually excited. She’s seen people play the game before and she wants to get why Andromeda likes it so much. They start with Tyalangan pulling out a fifth (much smaller deck) and lays out a bunch of cards to introduce the rules. The Burning Sun’s Avatar is soo cool! It’s a big dinosaur that deals 3 damage to another creature and an opponent when it comes in. Is that a bunch of damage? Sounds cool! Oooh, that Hunter’s Prowess makes your creature bigger and, when you hit an opponent with it, you get to draw a bunch of cards? That also sounds cool! Quicksilver Amulet lets you tap it and spend four to put any creature onto the battlefield. Neat! That makes Burning Sun’s Avatar two leylines cheaper! That Path to Exile card seems bad? I don’t know what exile is, but I know enough that giving extra leylines to your opponent is bad. And I don’t get Vow of Wildness. Why does it have that bit about the creature can’t attack me? How could one of my creatures attack me?

Then, the Host starts to explain things. Ooooh, this is going to be complicated, isn’t it?

Tessa

Gaia and Tessa both head to the library after dinner, for different reasons.

Gaia: -20 BP

Tessa: -20 BP

Tessa wants to wrap up her Performance skill. Tina is apparently unavailable, assigned to assist the date, which feels odd. Why would Andromeda need Tina’s assistance during her date? But, another staff member, a girl called Alex that Tessa hasn’t met, is a semi-professional musician. The chord progression practice emitting from the library indicates that there is some merit to the claim.

The temporary honey badger girl is looking for some Nature skill training. As much as she wants practical instruction, with the sun set, she really can’t get it. So, she grumbles to the library.

They enter, seeing a goth girl strumming on a big ax on top of a bookshelf. The idea of playing a weapon as an electric guitar is odd.

“Hey, dudettes! You ready?”

Black wings appear, unfurling, slowing her descent. Gaia blurts out, “Another angel? What’s with today being angel day? You know Janessa? And Prudence?”

While Tessa is shocked at the revelation, Alex is amused. “I am a valkyrie, yes. I wrote to Janessa, but haven’t met her. Prudence is Tina’s and Josie’s talent agent. She keeps bugging me to sign-up, but I don’t want to sacrifice my artistic integrity to appeal to the Insta-Thot crowd.”

“Wait, a valkyrie? Like in Norse mythology?”

“Not exactly in principle, but pretty much in practice. Still, neither of you signed up for a Religion lesson. Let’s focus, shall we dudettes?”

While Alex sets up Gaia with a few books, Tessa has a few moments to think. What does this mean about the greater cosmology of the multiverse? Cosmic horrors apparently exist, but gods do too? If that’s the case, why are WE being sent to deal with the unknown thing in the Earth? Shouldn’t the gods be able to handle it on their own?

Alex boops Tessa’s nose to get her attention. “So, dudette, you wanted a performance lesson?”

“Oh, yes. Sorry. Lost in thought.”

“Alright. I getcha, dudette. So, you don’t play an instrument like me, but there is always talking about stage presence, how to sell yourself. Let’s jabber and practice.”

Alex has this swagger about her, a way of carrying herself that says “ignore me at your own peril.” She has Tessa use an aisle in the stacks as an impromptu catwalk to strut, to project herself through. Tessa slips on her eel skin scalemail armor and tries to project confidence she doesn’t quite feel herself.

This isn’t me, but I kind of understand it. I need to be authentic; it’s just that the professional performers in my sister’s harem are not near enough to me to instruct me right.

The lesson, for what it was, sticks. Tessa needs to figure out how to be herself in all of this, but she gets the technical aspects of the craft.

Tessa: Performance skill training – Mixed Success

Tessa: 3 XP, Performance skill proficiency (Training Session)

When she gets upstairs, Tessa checks her character sheet. She sees that she finished her proficiency training to both of her skills today. She applies her free expertises to both Stealth and Performance. And her mind expands.