Exploring The City 1

Getting out of bed in the morning is very difficult. It’s difficult most days, but on this particular morning, with the addition of Skylar, the process is even harder. This is mainly because she looks so damn peaceful that neither Mia, Ivy or I want to wake her up.

She’s sleeping with a wide smile on her face and it’s one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen. Last night, when we’d all had our fill of sex for the time being (it wasn’t a quick task for all four of us to be satiated), Skylar was just barely able to stay awake long enough for us to help her get cleaned up, then she passed out as soon as her head hit the pillows.

In the end, the problem is solved for us when the smell of Ivy cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast rouses her. Skylar takes a few minutes to wake up completely, then I lead her downstairs to join Ivy and Mia for breakfast. “How’d you sleep last night?” I ask her, a teasing smile on my face. The smile she returns is as earnest and happy as Ivy is. “Best sleep of my life.”

We walk into the kitchen, with Mia and Ivy already engaged in their own discussion. “I thought you were flirting, but no, you just really like cats.” Mia states, and Ivy giggles. “Kittens are cute!” She exclaims, and I can only agree to that. Before Mia can answer, Ivy looks up at Skylar, with the aeromancer following her gaze.

“Good morning love!” Ivy greets. “Morning hun!” Mia follows suit. “Morning babes!” Skylar replies cheerfully. We both sit down and begin to eat. “Can I just say, thank you all so much for everything.” The umbramancer says. “Of course baby. You’re one of us now, and we love you.” Ivy says simply. “Yeah, and that means last night was pretty regular for us!” Mia adds, giggling as Skylar’s face flushes.

“Every night?” She asks incredulously. “Every night angel.” I promise, biting into the delicious bacon that Ivy cooked for us. Looking at her face, I think that the only reason she isn’t smiling wider is because her grin is already stretched from ear to ear in happiness. “The things you did to me last night...” She shivers, her blush deepening.

“Glad you enjoyed it honey.” I tell her, kissing her on the cheek. The four of us eat in a happy, comfortable silence for a few minutes before Mia speaks up. “So today’s the day right?” She asks, looking at me. I nod. “Today’s the day. We go into the city and check things out. From what the bartender said, a lot more abyssals are concentrated there than there are here in the west.”

“So whereabouts are we going?” Skylar asks. “Like I know we’re going to the city, but any ideas as to which areas we’ll check out?” “Good question.” I reply. “I did want to ask you all what you thought of this. The general idea is that we’re going to try to find other abyssals of any kind. If they’re friendly, we talk to them and see how their living conditions are. If they’re not friendly, we do our best not to engage. Sound good?”

Nods all around the table. “I reckon we go to Central station first, see if there’s anybody who’s set up shop there. From there, we can get back on the train and get off at Town Hall station. We’ll check out Hyde Park and Darling Harbour, along with places in between. Good so far?” I ask. “I get checking easily recognisable places, but why are we checking the places in between too?” Mia asks.

“We want to get as much exposure as possible to the abyssal lifestyle there. It is going to increase the risk that we’re taking, being so exposed like that, but we need information and this is the only lead we really have.” I answer, and Mia nods. “As long as we’re careful. This sounds dangerous.” Ivy puts in. “It is dangerous. We’ll be as careful as we can be.”

“After we’ve looked through Darling Harbour, I say we go to Circular Quay. There’s bound to be something in and around that area.” Skylar says. “Good idea. We can look at the wharfs there, the Opera House, the Botanic Gardens, and around the harbour.” I affirm. Mia giggles, nudging Ivy. “Honey, it’s your home!” Ivy stares at her, confused. “Um, excuse me?”

I sigh, rolling my eyes at Mia and explaining. “Poison Ivy from the comics almost always makes her home in the botanic gardens.” “Don’t ruin my fun! I like confusing Ivy!” Mia pouts. “Don’t be mean! She’s too precious to be mean to!” I shoot back. “Mia darling, you do understand that you’re going to get punished for this later, right?” Ivy asks nonchalantly. The bratty aeromancer giggles. “I’m counting on it.”

After we’ve finished breakfast, we walk to the train station. Luckily Mia’s house isn’t too far from the nearest station, and it’s only a 10 minute walk. We pile onto the train and get moving towards our destination. It’s only about 8:30 in the morning, and we’re set to have a pretty long day, exploring the city and figuring out what everything is really like.

On the way there, our group of four turns a lot of heads. It makes perfect sense to me that people would be staring at my girlfriends, but I catch just as many people staring at me too. Thinking about it, I guess what Skylar said a while ago was right. Raising my charisma has changed my face and how I present myself.

Asking Mia, she confirms this, adding that my body language has also changed, along with my walking style too, both of which come as a surprise to me. I’ve always had a feminine face and the hormones helped exacerbate that even more, but the higher my charisma stat has gotten, the more feminine I’ve gotten. I don’t go out in public much, and it’s a really weird change to see people staring at me out of desire. Observe ensures I know that their stares really are out of desire, and I spend the train ride talking to my girlfriends about it, processing this information and trying to figure out what to do with it.

We arrive at the station and get off the train, and the atmosphere between us is palpably tense. None of us are sure what we’re going to find, and we’re all worried that we’re going to be running headlong into something dangerous. We have no other way of finding out what circumstances for abyssals in the city are really like though, and as we get to the grand concourse of central station, we all take a deep breath and raise our hands to enter a barrier.

Reading the window, I give a slight sigh of relief. “I think we’ll be safe here.” I say quietly, as we take a look around at the contents of the barrier. My optimism falls as I take in the sight before me. Ramshackle structures litter the now empty station. The underlying foundation of the station is still here, but it looks like the people living here have tried to build little houses and other structures.

It’s all in a state of disrepair, very much comparable to slums in the mundane world. The buildings themselves are made with an assortment of rusting iron, old brick and corroded stone. It’s a hodgepodge of living quarters and basic facilities that are shoddily put together by somebody who either didn’t know how to, or simply didn’t have the resources to build anything better. Many people have decided to forego the buildings entirely, with shabby tents dotted around the place.

The ‘sanctuary’ isn’t as busy and full of people as it’s mundane counterpart, but there are still a sizable number of people here, of all different races. About a few hundred, by my guess. Taking down the mana factory that Sarah owned and operated was my first real exposure to the magical races of the abyss, and this place is on a whole different level.

The sheer variety of different types of beings of all shapes and sizes is astounding. Harpies, goblins, elves, dwarves, gnomes, catgirls, pixies, and those are just the ones I can guess. I spot a man with half of his face replaced with machinery, an androgynous human(ish) person with only one eye in the centre of their face and no nose, an incredibly sickly looking centaur and what looks like a goblin but with three heads.

None of them look healthy or happy in the slightest. I’m not an expert on magical physiology, but their sunken eyes, their gaunt faces, their ragged clothes, their unhappy expressions, the general depressing atmosphere all build up a picture of a group of extremely unhappy, unhealthy and stressed people. Signs of malnutrition are obvious amongst the humans of the group, and some of the more magical creatures are exhibiting similar signs. Body shaming is never okay, but they do not look healthy.

Most of them seem uninterested in our appearance. We get a lot of heads turned in our direction, but most turn back to what they were doing after a glance. Card games, drinking, drawing, sculpting with magic, conversations or just sitting alone with a thousand yard stare, all of these activities take place with stone faced expressions. Not a peep of laughter is heard, and not a single smile is seen. The few who do take interest in our arrival, look at us with expressions that are a mixture of fear and resignation.