Pest Control and Power-Ups

Mineko

Mineko pounces on a grasshopper, her tails wiggling in the air. She carefully picks up the insect with her paws and shows it to Skye.

“Is this a nice bug or a bug needing squishing?”

The lilac-skinned woman giggles, then says, “If you will carry it to by the wall and gently toss it over, I will appreciate it.”

The cat-girl scurries over to do as she was ordered. There is something soothing about this Gar-den-ing thing. Being outside, listening to birds, catching insects. Is this what they meant by “fun?”

She tosses the grasshopper into the air with an arc. The insect takes flight to slow it’s descent to the ground. The cat-girl spins to try and catch the next potential pest. The buzzing of bees distracts her a little, but she learned not to pounce on them; they sting and Skye said they are good bugs. Good bugs stinging her is confusing, but she accepts it. Another grasshopper! Kitty pounce!

The insect hops out of range while Mineko was in midair. The cat stumbles into the ground, then scrambles to pounce again. Tricky bug! Kitty pounce!

This time, she caught it. Mineko takes a closer look; it seems to be the same kind of bug as the last one. So, she does the same tossing action.

“Good job, Mineko!” Jenny encourages. Mineko feels a warm tingling in her belly from the praise. She meanders over to the dryad, looking for head pats. They are given, and the world narrows down to the pets and Mineko’s rumbling purr. I am a good kitty...

Mineko longs for more pets when they stop, but doesn’t ask for them. That would be rising above her station. Instead, she listens to the conversation.

“Okay, Jenny, you did a very considerate job weeding the vineyard and Mineko, you did a good job with pest hunting. Lets move on to watering and checking for ripeness.”

Skye shows them where to get water and Mineko grabs a watering can. It’s pretty big and heavy! The nekomata needs to use both hands to carry it. She notices the weeds are in little pots and that Jenny has a tear in her eye. She murmurs, “You okay, Jenny?”

“The weeds kept begging for me not to kill them. I promised them I’d plant them outside the garden. Feels so weird to care about the feelings of weeds.”

Mineko looks at her, feeling confused. Then the watering lesson begins and Mineko tries her best. The can gets easier to carry as she pours out the water. Jenny is talking to the grapevines and listening. “This one is saying that these bunches would be okay, but the seeds will be most ready in about a week?”

Skye shouts back, “Oh, that makes sense. Good job! Keep going!”

Mineko sees a new bug on the plants. This one is red with spots on it. She gets ready to pounce on it, only for Jenny to grab her shoulder. “That’s a ladybug. They eat these tiny little bad bugs called aphids. Leave it be.”

“Can I pounce on this A-feds?”

Jenny asks the ladybug, “You know where the nearest aphid is?” Then, after listening, she tells Mineko, “It is looking for them. They are very small and usually the color of plant stems. See if you can find some.”

Mineko gets down on all fours, peering at the plants, looking for these a-feds. Oh, they ARE small. “Found some, I think!”

Jenny gently picks up the ladybug and places it on the stem by the a-feds Mineko found. The bigger bug waddles up to them and starts chomping down. Mineko watches with fascination, tails wiggling. Then some pets start and Mineko can only feel those strokes and her own rumbling purr.

Once the pets stop, she goes back to watering. She looks for more ladybugs and a-feds. The sun feels so warm on her skin; she’s tempted to lay down in a sunbeam and warm her belly while she naps. This is nice.

Mineko loses track of time, so she is surprised when Skye calls them over. “You sure you don’t want to buy a Nature lesson, Mineko? You did the work for it.”

I did? “Why would I buy things? O...”

Skye gets stern. “Mona is not your owner and you are not a slave. You can and should buy things that will make you happy, as long as you can afford them.”

Mineko looks down at her paws. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Now, are you going to pay for the lesson you took or are you going to forsake the XP you could earn?”

Oh, “fun” can get me XP? “XP! XP! XP! XP!”

Mineko: -20 BP

Skye asks questions and they both answer. Mineko thinks she is close, but not quite there. Skye waves goodbye, needing to get back to the kitchen to work on dinner.

Jenny: Training Session Mixed Success (3 XP / 5 XP)

Jenny: +3 XP (Training Session)

Mineko: Training Session Success (4 XP / 5 XP)

Mineko: +4 XP (Training Session)

“Hey, Mineko,” Jenny asks, picking up the small pallet of potted weeds, “Want to help me find a good place to plant these? We can look for more grasshoppers for you to catch.”

The nekomata excitedly nods, tails whipping behind her with glee. She gets down on all fours, ready to get the jump on a grasshopper as soon as she sees it. When Jenny starts to laugh, Mineko can’t help but join in. I think I understand what “fun” means now!

Winter

Winter and Andromeda play a few more rounds, having lighter conversation; it’s obvious she is thinking about how Winter can help her, but does not have an answer yet. It feels like a reasonable format, but his deck is not particularly suited for 1 v 1. He needs more time to set up his leylines. Kevin texted about setting up a delve after dinner and said he was getting up to Level 5 before it.

“My sexy bull wants to try a delve. You want to level up and go for it?”

“I finished my current stash of spell scroll scribing. I should go level at least.”

“Wanna come with me?”

Andromeda nods and they head over to Daphne’s shop. His mermaid-mom is busy typing; her side project as a smut reviewer is still going strong. Winter admires the stained glass until she notices.

“Oh, hey guys. Leveling?”

“Leveling.”

Andromeda goes first. Her level up to Level 5 is ultimately pretty simple, as are most odd wizard levels. A little HP, a little SP, a few spells. In this instance, she gets access to third level spells. She picks up spell scrolls for Counterspell and Dispel Magic.

“I might join you all tonight; it depends on what the others are doing. I need to try and work on relationships with everyone.”

As Andromeda goes to Identify the updated description of her arm cannon, Winter steps up to get his levels in.

“Hi, Mama Daphne. How goes the Masochist Mode?”

“Pretty good. Mattie and I had fun friendship pranking Gina! How many levels are you getting today?”

“Just two. The delve rules encourage us to stay at the same level. My sexy bull is going to take me on a delving date tonight. He’ll be around to level with some others after dinner.”

Daphne smiles. She likes being a dungeon mermaid. “Okay, Winter. Lets get you up to Level 5.”

His levels are useful. For his feat, he actually ignores Elven Accuracy for a moment. Part of that is stats. Grabbing Piercer now means that Elven Accuracy can boost a more useful mental stat when he picks it up. Piercer’s other stat option would be Strength, which is basically useless as a rouge. How often is he going to be forced to do an athletics check? The other part is that Piercer is really good. Triple crit damage as a rouge turns a sneak critical attack into an absolutely silly amount of damage. Getting to reroll ones on “to hit” checks could turn a miss into a hit, which is almost as good as advantage anyways. He’ll go work on rapier expertise to get a guaranteed advantage soon.

In addition to that, he gets more HP, more sneak attack damage, and Uncanny Dodge. Reaction halving a source of damage can be a lifesaver, giving his armor limitations.

Andromeda: Weekly Task Complete! Reach Level 5 +25 BP

Mona: Weekly Task Update! Ensure Everyone Reaches Level 5 (2/10)

Winter: Weekly Task Complete! Reach Level 5 +25 BP

Andromeda shows Winter her updated arm cannon description. “Not bad. Hopefully I crit more often now, even if I don’t get a chance to use the rest of it.”

Andromeda’s Mega Buster [Tier 2] – Arcane Focus. [+1] to spell checks. If Andromeda touches an opposing spellcaster, she can use her bonus action to store a spell of no greater than her tier in level in the Mega Buster, allowing her to cast it until she finishes a long rest as if it is in her spell preparations. She may do so up to [twice] per long rest. She can also use her bonus action to unprepare a spell from her Mega Buster, gaining SP equivalent to the spell’s level. This tiered magic item will increase in power as Andromeda increases in her tier level. Next tier level bonus unlocks at Level 10.

Winter reads, nodding along. “That is pretty good. An instant source of a little more SP should be nice. I bet you can grab something from a corpse. I think that’s how Mega Man power stealing thing works?”

Andromeda thinks about that. “Worth experimenting to try. Thanks for the suggestion. What now?”

After a bit of chit-chat (Mama Daphne wants in on helping with their minor quests), Winter pulls Andromeda into the canteen. Technically, it’s not open for dinner yet, but Mama Skye won’t care. She pokes her head out of the kitchen, almost instantly shattering that idea by lightly scolding, “Winter, sweetheart, canteen is closed.”

“We are here for a private conversation, Mom. I will clean up on the off-chance we make a mess.”

Mama Skye gives her son a glare that would have chilled him to the bone a couple of decades ago, but allows them to stay. Winter pulls a water bottle out of his inventory and takes a sip, waiting to see if the arcanist android will speak first. She must have some idea what this conversation is going to be about.

When she sits in silence for long enough, Winter breaks it, “You still haven’t answered my question. What can I do to help you seduce Mona?”

“I... honestly don’t know...” Andromeda finally answers, “I don’t even know if I am capable of it, at least the way you probably intended it.”

Winter watches the girl. She isn’t embarrassed or bothered by the question. If anything, she seems a bit frustrated by it. There must be something... The AEP?

“It might be rude of me to ask, but do you have access to a reader version of your Emotion app?”

The arcanist android blinks, thinking this is a non-sequitur for a moment. He watches the implication click, then she responds, “No. When Mona tried to show her version of it to me, I only saw porn of myself, too. The transformation doesn’t want me to see what she’s done. I have to trust her not to abuse it.”

Hmm... might be a security system on Mona’s phone in general. Might be a strange kindness to help Andromeda not resent the changes Mona makes; if she can’t be made aware of it, she can’t get mad... No need to speculate about it.

“So you get points when you level. You at least have an idea of how those points translate into changes?”

“I got 4 chunks of points and got 2 minor changes and one moderate one. I asked for 2 moderate changes and Mona could only afford one. So, I should have 2 chunks of points available right now, assuming hopping up in tier doesn’t grant levels more points.”

“Seems to be a reasonable assumption, for now. We can text Mona and confirm in a bit. For now, what changes have been made?”

“Mild horniness, then mild brazenness, which got boosted to moderate. Note that these are expanding the range of emotions I experience, not forcing particular emotions.”

Those feelings would help her perform the actions, but not necessarily help with her emotional state concerning Mona. Hmm...

“So, when you say you don’t know if you can seduce Mona, it’s more about whether you can form an emotional connection with her or not.”

“Exactly. I’m not great at being people.”

“Like I said during the party, you should talk with Queen Mama or Mama Skye for some of it. Mama Scarlet could help too, though her transformation help may or may not be appreciated. Reminding Mona that she has points to spend needs to be part of the plan. May I offer some emotions to expand for you to consider?”

Andromeda nods her head. Winter writes down some emotions that he thinks might help the gamer girl to make stronger emotional connections. When she finishes reading them, he asks, “Ready to rope Mona into this conversation?”

The girl is already texting. Winter doesn’t peek over to read it. He expects the arcanist android to summarize it when she’s done; the girl doesn’t disappoint. “So, tiers don’t have an effect on my app points. So, she can currently afford to make me capable of being moderately horny or two mild changes. All of your suggestions could work. She asked me to think about it, then ask her to make the changes in the morning. So, thank you for trying to help. I do appreciate it, even if I am not great at showing it.”

“You’re welcome.”

Mama Skye comes out, notepad in hand. Must be the very beginning of dinner service. When she approaches, Winter stands up and kisses his mother on the cheek. He smiles as he says, “Thanks, Mom, for letting us sit and talk. You mind sharing some thoughts with Andromeda here? I can go harass my bunny-sisters in the kitchen for my dinner, then take orders if the others come in.”

Mama Skye smiles back as she responds, “Very well, my sweet boy. Don’t cause too much mischief in the kitchen.”

Winter turns to do as he said; he laughs, “I’ll try not to.”