Careful Considerations

Flyx flopped backwards onto her bed - such as it was - and groaned. A solid day of trying to hawk what she’d made with the ingredients she’d gathered from the park before she’d almost died, and she’d just about managed to scrape together enough cash to pay to replace the attack potions she’d used and keep renting her tiny room for another few days. With the cost of getting her concealment amulet charged up, she was barely breaking even - she’d hoped to be able to take a couple of days off over the weekend but that didn’t look likely.

“Didn’t even get laid. Stupid fucking humans asking stupid fucking questions instead of asking for the obvious…” she grumbled to herself, drawing her knees up and wincing at how sore her legs felt from walking all over town. “What am I gonna do about this situation?” she groaned, staring up at the ceiling.

The room she rented was in actuality a tiny cupboard at the back of a shop run by a group of only somewhat suspicious mages. She longed - oh, how she longed - for a place large enough to actually do her alchemy in; as it was, she basically only used the room for sleeping, her craft supplies buried in a disused fox den on the edge of town. The trek there and back to brew up potions didn’t help with her tiredness either, but she was pretty sure if the mages saw any of her stuff, she’d rapidly find her equipment getting appropriated for one or another of their projects.

Wincing as she adjusted her position, she considered her options. Right now, she had little in the way of supplies - another trip to the park barrier while the dryadrones were dead seemed like a sensible option for Thursday, maybe Friday too if she could flog a healing potion or two on the way back through town. There were a couple of shops that occasionally wanted a small top-up to their stock that were on her way…

Biting her nail, Flyx did her best to focus on the practical rather than what her body was telling her was a far more pressing matter. Sure, she hadn’t gotten laid in - her thoughts drifted for a moment as she tried to work it out, the constant need to keep farming up resources to keep this roof over her head putting a severe dent in her sex life. When she finally worked it out, she let out a frustrated whine. “Eight months?! Flyx, girl, you seriously need to get some,” she muttered, then slapped her cheeks. “No, focus. Gotta sort out a plan to get some income, then we can maybe take a day or two off and hit up a club.” Then she grinned. “Or maybe we’ll run into that cute human again, and he won’t be quite so preoccupied with… metal or whatever? I mean, it can’t be me, right?”

On the other side of town, John sneezed, blinking in the light of his monitor as he looked over the map of the town. “So, I’ve got good sources for all the materials I need for the altar now, Mal. Well, besides an icon for Gaia, and I’m hoping my ritual book will tell me how to make one of those when the time is right. The big question then is where should I build the shrine?”

Beside him on the desk, the chaplain shrugged. “Beats me, kid. Ya wanna build it somewhere ya ain’t gonna get disturbed, I can tell ya that much. But… build it outside a Barrier, ya risk pissing the boss off. Build it inside, ya can kiss goodbye to it if some goons find it.”

John nodded to himself as he thought over what he’d seen so far since he had entered the Abyss. “Yea. If I build it in one of the natural Barriers, the odds are pretty high that a monster will just crush the thing. So I open a Barrier of my own, clear it out and then build the shrine?”

Malal shook his head, tapping his fingers against the edge of the shot-glass of martini that John had prepared as an offering. “Won’t work. The Barriers ya make - that most folk who can create them make, as it happens - they’re not permanent. Start to decay once ya leave them. If ya tried to reopen the one ya made here the first day, it’d be a new one with who knows what’d be in it by now. Probably nothin’, not been long enough for stuff to build up to spawning anything like those goons ya whacked, but the damage to the house’ll be gone. Ya need a natural Barrier, if ya want things to stay permanent.”

Groaning to himself, John flipped the map on his screen to black and white and sent it to the printer. “Gonna have to try entering a Barrier as I walk around then, can’t use the junkyard or the park safely. Which is risky, given what you told me earlier about the sort of folk that are living in town - but if I drop in and out immediately and stick to the major landmarks I should avoid anyone too nasty. I hope. Fuck, I really hope that’s true.”

The idol of chaos winced at John’s suggestion, before nodding. “Ya could do that. Or ya could try finding another friendly local that wants in your pants and ask them to help ya find somewhere out of the way.” The two of them stared at each other for a moment, John trying to work out if that was good advice or just sarcasm before Malal’s mouth creased into a grin. “Ya should see your face, kid” the god said, chuckling as he did so.

Doing his best not to take advantage of the size difference by flicking the idol of a god across his bedroom, John gave what he hoped was a suitably irritated scowl and returned to staring at the map. “Got the park Barrier here, and the junkyard here. Major landmark wise, there’s the town hall, Ashcroft… There’s the old church too. That’s got a wall around it, but is right up against the road on the far side. I could try there - you said faith helps grant you power and stuff, right? So maybe all those people singing hymns every Sunday put out enough juice to form a Barrier?”

Malal frowned, pacing across the map now that John had spread it out on his desk. “Ya might have something there, kid. It’s power going towards something, but there’s always bleed-off when you get any kinda organized worship; folk worry if they’ve left the stove on mid-ceremony and what have you. It’s certainly better than just wanderin’ around hopin’ ya don’t get whacked dropping into some hoodlum’s base Barrier.”

John took the time to note a few other possible locations on the map for the next afternoon; his mom had told him over dinner that she’d be working late again, so despite the fact that his classes ran to the end of the day, he’d have time to walk home slowly. This would just be a scouting mission in any case - he’d not gotten nearly enough materials to complete the shrine. As he thought that, he glanced at the Quest log.

Scavenging a couple of old bedsheets from the back of the cupboard and a few candles from the kitchen drawer had been his final move towards completing his Quest earlier, after Brenda had turned in for an early night given she had a long day on Thursday. It wasn’t much - but it felt good that all he really needed to do now was a little hunting and he’d be all set to build his shrine to Gaia.

As John was debating the merits of Barrier hopping, a very different kind of deliberation was happening in the small cottage on the edge of town owned by Matilda Rivers. Her phone lay on her bedside counter, balanced between a book and a mug of cold tea as she held up different tops in front of the full length mirror.

”It is really, really dumb to be getting this excited about going to the park with a guy. Even if the guy in question is the cute nerd that you’re pretty sure is responsible for…” Her eyes flickered to the laptop on the bed, a range of tabs full of erotic fiction glowing in the soft light of her boudoir. Forcing her eyes back to the mirror, she bit her lip. “The red top is far too bold, but then the grey…” Matilda muttered to herself, before groaning and tossing both tops back onto a growing pile of rejects and returning to rummaging in her wardrobe.

“We’re meeting in the park, so maybe we’ll go walking? I could wear my gathering kit… but then he might think I’m too much of an outdoorsy nerd…” Her words echoed slightly as she bent forward, before pulling back with a grin. “Forgot I had this one. This could work - I’d need the darker jeans though.” Turning, she glanced at the message on her phone again - John’s request to meet in the park, then see where the evening took them glowing on the screen.

From there, her eyes drifted to the laptop, and she stood humming to herself for a moment before turning and slowly setting the top she’d selected down to drape over the mirror. “Need to see how it looks with the jeans before I fully decide, so I gotta take these off…” she muttered to no-one in particular, shimmying out of her leggings and hopping onto the bed. “And well, since I’m here anyway…” Matilda picked up the laptop and leaned back against her pillows, the fingers of one hand flicking over the touchpad to select a story as her other hand drifted downward.