Letters and Lifting

Gaia

Gaia pops her way into Tina’s shop, only to see Airika drinking something out of a coconut instead.

“Uh, hi, Airika? Is the shop closed?”

“Nope. I’m the sub. Tina is on maternity leave.”

“Wow,” Gaia gushes, “I didn’t know Tina was pregnant. Her tummy looked super flat while pregnant. Do bunny-girls not get baby bumps?”

Airika shrugs, “Normally they do, but harem magic...”

Gaia pouts a little at that, “Awww, that’s sad. I mean, if Mona got magical pregnancy powers or whatever, I’d want to show off my baby bump. Do you think Mona and I would make a cute kid?”

Airika again shrugs, “No idea.”

“You know, you are supposed to say yes.”

“You buying stuff or are you just bustin’ my chops, toots?”

Gaia smiles, “Oh, buying things. One fun aphrodisiac transformation, please. And I was wanting an upgrade to my animal-girl thing to get rid of the whole I have to eat innocent animals if I roll a carnivore.”

Airika touches her earpiece and has a brief conversation. “Sorry, Gaia, no cheesy lines from me, but I’ll take your money. You should feel them set in now. Well, not the diet thing; rhinos aren’t carnivores. But now you can eat whatever. Hey, Cap’n, show the audience what Gaia just bought!”

Gaia: -280 BP

A television turns on behind Airika with Gaia’s purchases:

Conversationalist – Gaia has started to consider not burning the world down, instead building up nature. Let’s give her the tools to do that. Gaia gains the following proficiencies: Herbalism Kit, History, Medicine, and Poisoner’s Kit. In addition, she can use her Herbalism kit to safely extract aphrodisiacs from appropriate plants with successful skill checks. You know, for fun (Druid).

Time Keeps On Shiftin’ +1 – A shifter is a beastkin that has a case of lycanthropy, able to tap into a more primal, bestial state for a temporary boost of instinct. Gaia has been turned into one, but what’s the fun in only getting to be one kind of animal? Gaia’s base form changes every day at dawn (with her more bestial shifted form adjusting accordingly). Her erogenous zones expand to include many of her animal features. These features do not require Gaia to change any behavioral habits (such as diet, sleep patterns, et cetera) (Shifter).

Gaia stares at the improvement, confused, “You mean, if I rolled an animal that wants to sleep through the day, I would’ve been forced to do that?”

“Ask one of the magicky girls if you want transformation talk. I’m just a bird-girl with a sword and dreams of getting laid by my sexy girlfriends.”

“Well, do you know where Mineko and Tessa went at least?”

Airika rolls her eyes, “Check your phone, dummy? You can text them?”

Gaia sputters in protest, “But Mineko doesn’t know how to type!”

Airika stares at Gaia like she is a moron. “Then text the old lady.”

Oh. I am a dummy.

Tessa

Mineko has dragged Tessa into what appears to be a Washington suburban backyard, complete with a lawn of green grass, some decorative shrubbery, a big playground set, and a babbling creek on the other side of the fence. The nekomata looks disappointed, ears and tails slowly drooping. “The glowy butt bugs are gone.”

Fireflies? Of course my sister would add fireflies for the visual flair. “They come out during the evening, Mineko.”

Mineko moves towards the swings. She sits down in the seat and starts to pump her legs. It is kind of cute. Tessa stands behind her. “I thought you wanted to work on writing?” The former teacher gives the cat-girl a push despite her vocalized rebuttal.

From the angle she has, Mineko looks guilty. She sighs, “I had a lot of fun with M-Mona last night. One swing?”

Tessa lets “one swing” turn into half an hour of it. She is happy that Mineko actually wants something and isn’t feeling guilty about asking for it. Gaia texted in the middle of it and Tessa asked the (fortunately only temporary) rhino-girl to bring some writing utensils and paper when she comes. The cat-girl did not even register that Tessa gave her a couple of one-handed pushes as she dealt with the whines about the environmental wastefulness of practicing writing using paper and ink.

Mineko does a massive leap out of the swing as Gaia comes in. The girl seems unharmed as she lands on all fours, then scrambles to brag about her jump.

When they find themselves sitting around a patio table, Gaia summons some styluses and bowls of sand from her inventory?

“This is not what I asked for, Gaia.”

“No,” the former terrorist exclaims, “but this is better. The pointy stick will mimic a pencil and the sand can be moved around to make letters without cutting down any innocent trees!”

Resolving to get the girl some actual pen and paper once they get to the point of writing the letter that started this exercise in the first place, Tessa starts to show Mineko how to use the stylus. The nekomata’s hands, more cat-like than human, are not well suited for the task. Or it might just be that Tessa never had to teach a sixth grader how to hold a pencil before. She’s not a hundred percent sure.

Still, the girl happily chirps out the letters as she writes them in the sand. By the time they call a break for lunch, they are almost legible. I suppose Gaia was right; we would have used a lot of paper to get Mineko to the point of being able to write out her name in scraggly letters.

Ootah

Ootah looks at her ring as the two of them walk to Auntie Josie’s gym. It is nice to get the day started off right with a good workout. “So, how do I take care of this ring?”

Mona shrugs, “Dunno. Got it to sprout with magic and there isn’t any soil or anything like that. I guess when it runs out of minerals it’ll just shrivel up and die? Oh, wow, that is a terrible analogy for an engagement. I...”

Ootah gives her fiancée a big squeezing side hug, which short circuits her brain before she spirals too far down into the muck. “I put you on the spot and you improvised. So, how does the whole ring thing work in your culture?”

Mona has to think about it, but that’s okay. She answers, “The rings are supposed to be a public declaration of your eternal love and commitment and stuff. Something about circles and no seams? So a ring that is going to die...”

Ootah nods. She gets it. “So, we are supposed to exchange rings? I guess I should get you one.”

“I mean, if you want to, but the one who proposes is supposed to get them. Huh. Tegan demanded I get her a ring and you offer to get me one. She... I don’t... How messed up is that?”

Auntie Josie’s glare from the window of her gym helps to break Mona from spiraling again. “You forget something, Mistress?” she growls.

“Oh, ah,” Mona strains for a moment to pick up what Auntie Josie is implying, “That’s right... booking a lesson? Ootah and I were just going to do our own thing?”

Auntie Josie grumbles, mostly to herself, “About a week of training and you think you can do it on your own? Why am I even annoyed by this? That would mean I have to worry less about Hotel nonsense...”

Mona goes to get weighed and scanned after getting dressed for a workout. The results surprise her wolf-aunt. “Alright, according to the machine, you made several months of progress in the span of like two weeks by your reckoning, give or take. You really should thank my old lady for that. But, let’s check whether your reps match your numbers.”

“Do I need to pay if I am just here to lift with my fiancée? I don’t need your supervision.”

“Ootah, you see how much your body transformation translated to extra strength yet?”

Good point.

Ootah: -20 BP

The gym-wolf leads them through a series of free weight exercises and calisthenics. Mona does pretty well, all things considered. Some of her forms needed correction, but she manages to do everything she is asked. Not as much as a proper warrior of her age would be expected to do, but decent enough for a civilian. Auntie Josie is impressed. “Good job, kid. I will tell you that you will hit the wall without at least some spotting assistance. Keep up the work and don’t forget to schedule some sessions.”

Mona: Daily task complete! Walk for 30 minutes and cover 5 K steps +10 BP

Ootah, on the other hand, is a little disappointed. Sure, she’s lifting more, but not that much more. Auntie Josie doesn’t look too phased by it. “You were already supernaturally strong. I’m sure the old lady could talk about it in all of the biophysics nerd terms, but you are lifting more. It is just that there is also more of you to lift. Gaining height and muscle mass means you need to exert more effort moving yourself. You are pretty close to my baseline, though. That ain’t shabby.”

Ootah: Training Session Crit Success (6 XP / 10 XP)

Ootah: +6 XP (Training Session)

Mona quirks an eyebrow, “Baseline?”

Auntie gives a wolfish grin, “One of my transformations grants me super strength in proportion to how big an orgy I threw the night before. So,” she grabs the barbell Ootah was using for squats and starts loading it with more plates, “since I banged my bunny and kitty girlfriends last night, I should be able to squat this with no problem.”

Mona whispers, “How much weight is that?”

Ootah counts the plates. “A decent chunk over double what I capped out at. 1500 pounds.”

“Is that a lot?”

Auntie answers as she starts squatting with the bar over her shoulder, “The men’s record for squats the way I am doing them back in your dimension is around 1000 pounds, as a one and done. Magic makes the records here squirrelier. Ootah was squatting at around your world’s women’s record.”

Mona is impressed, looking at Ootah with a bit of wonder. The orc, of course, flexes her arms and watches Mona stare at them. Thanks for the assist, Auntie.

Andromeda

When Andromeda and Jenny arrive at the card shop, they see Daphne hiding in a far corner. The mermaid waves briefly, breaking the effect. Esme rolls her eyes at her fish-mom.

Andromeda nudges her head towards the transmuter, asking, “What’s the deal with Daphne?”

“Oh, she’s avoiding new baby duty. Mama Tina had a batch of newborns hatched this morning.”

Andromeda arches an eyebrow. Jenny provides a whispered explanation, “Tyalangan’s haremette with the breeding archetype is... a little different than the usual one.”

“Breeding archetype?” Andromeda asks, a little louder.

Esme answers, “The harem girl whose transformations meet the audience’s desires for pregnancy fetishes. You know, increased fertility, lactation, things like that.”

“Ah, so Gaia’s Nurturer pathway?”

Esme answers, “Yup. Anyways, what can I do for you two?”

Esme gives Andromeda “the hook-up.” While the arcanist android could manifest a couple of welcome decks using her card collection from Aurelia, it is so much easier to use the freebies at the store. Jenny gets the green one and Andromeda grabs the blue. The arcanist android talks Jenny through the rules of the game as they go. Esme is shuffling up a vintage deck of some sort while she watches, offering some over-the-shoulder advice to Jenny once they stop showing each other their hands.

Winter wanders in after they get a couple of welcome deck games in. Andromeda went easy on the dryad. She wasn’t wanting to milk her minor quest hard enough to crush a potential budding new player by knowing the rules of the stack or anything like that. She’ll show those off by playing Esme.

“Well, I have a bunch of new sisters, so most of my moms are busy helping Tina today. Oh, hey, Mama Daphne, wanna play a game while you avoid baby bunny duty?”

Daphne excitedly moves to sit at a table. She starts to shuffle up. Andromeda nudges Jenny and the dryad moves to sit between the two pairings. Time to talk about formats, I suppose.

“So, there are different formats with different deck construction rules. Esme and I are going to play a format called Vintage, which is the most powerful format. 60 card minimum. Generally, no more than 4 of the same card, outside of basic leylines. There is a list of restricted cards, where you are only allowed 1 copy of them. Mana Vault, that flesh cube card, is one of them.”

“Can you explain why it’s so good?”

“It’s an artifact that taps for mana in a positive fashion. You pay 1 for it, then it taps for three. Combined with a way to be able to untap it, like a Manifold Key, it’s like playing three leylines at once. Your tipper just assumed that the only way to untap it is the expensive trigger on the card.”

Jenny sits on that, nodding. “Okay.”

Winter pipes up, “Mama Daph and I are playing around with a different, still experimental, format using DDH decks. That is a format with decks that are exactly 100 cards. You get a special card as part of it called your deity. All the cards have to match the ‘color identity’ of the deity. Outside of basic leylines, only one copy per card. DDH is a popular, more casual format that is usually played in groups of four.”

“So, Esme and Andromeda are playing a hardcore format and you two are playing something more easy-going?”

Winter gives her a thumbs up. Everyone shuffles up and go through the pre-game rituals of cutting, determining who goes first, drawing cards and mulliganing. Andromeda explains what she is doing as she goes. Jenny watches and listens. And the games begin.