Uncovering the truth about Arcadia

Tricia wondered if she should change to another set of clothes, one that might be more alluring... Strangely it seemed that a schoolgirl uniform was one of the sexy costumes proposed by her algorithm; she had trouble figuring out why, but she decided that it would be adequate.

Once at her safe house, she loaded a bunch of mobile equipment into her van; she knew they would have a good autonomy, but she remembered that the place had electricity somehow.

It took her 32 minutes to be on position at the rendez-vous point. She had underestimated how long it would take to charge all of the equipment in the van. She had just parked her van on the edge of the parking lot when she heard someone tapping on the driver's window. John was there, wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a video game logo; someone was there with him, a girl that Tricia hadn't seen before.

"Even more competition? Just how many girls does he have around him? And what's with the 70's hippie get-up?" Lost in her thoughts, she rolled the window down.

"Hi! I brought some help to carry the equipment. This is Sylvia Sun-kissed a perfect normal nature-loving human girl," he said with a pronounced wink. Disregarding the tie-died clothes and the beany hat, her suit gave her a 98% match with the dryad for physical attributes. Nothing in the literature indicated that dryad possessed shape-shifting or illusion based powers, this meant one more thing to investigate.

"He... Hello! Sorry for being late..." she replied while getting out of the van. She had little experience dealing with Abyssal creatures that were neither hostile nor research subjects. The fact that all three were humanoid would help her consider them as the people which they obviously were to John Newman.

"Don't worry about it. Let's unload your gear quickly and get in Arcadia; we'll have more time to discuss once inside," he told her. Tricia was liking the way he was optimizing his time by taking advantage of his kingdom; time spent on explanations on this parking lot was wasted time.

With few words exchanged, the trio unloaded the long nondescript crates containing the collapsible high-tech research equipment. A quick observation revealed to Tricia that the dryad had physical strength superior to what one would expect from her appearance. John and his.... Familiar?... Concubine ?... Pet?... blinked in and out of existence while carrying three large crates piled on top of each other. For one endless second, Tricia wondered if it was a scam and if she had just been left there alone, losing her equipment, but her worries ended as they barely were forming in her mind; her research partner was back and lifting the rest of the crates. After a second trip he reappeared alone, this time he walked towards her. He looked around and Tricia realized that he was checking if the van had been locked and probably if anyone was looking in their direction.

He took her right hand in his own. The unfamiliarity of physical contact with limiters deactivated took Tricia by surprise, and by the time he got closer to the back door of the van and dragged her closer to him, she was almost sure that she was blushing. Before the shift she had the time to see a smile on his face.

Abyssal shift alert!
Warning: emotional spike at 14 on Mr Fluffy scale.
Recommend reactivation of all dormant limiters.
Manual override acknowledged.
Accessing FBI behaviorial study department: facial analysis software.
Facial analysis: smile, genuine.
Probable emotional origin: Pleasure 34%, Affection 33%, Empathy 23%, Unknown 6%, Mockery 4%.
Highest probability factors possibly concomitant.

As her eyes adapted to the change in luminosity of her new environment, Tricia was relieved that this blushing that seemed to happen to her wasn't making her ridicule herself. The fact that he actually seemed to enjoy it was something worthy of an extra note in John's file... No! Of a new annex to his file, listing his apparent likes and dislikes.

The camouflaged dryad put her hand on her chest and suddenly returned to her initial appearance, handing John a metallic disk that she had removed from her bare chest. The vegetal creature didn't seem to bother wearing anything, her clothes were also part of the illusion. Tricia wondered how much of this tendency was part of her natural instincts and how much was the result of John's orders or preferences.

"Arcadia benefits from a time differential, the time spent here is 160% of the time outside the kingdom in the real world. We have about one and a half hour real time left before our next class, that means that we have..."

"Two hours and four minutes approximately." John was surprised by the abruptness of the reply, and it looked to him like Tricia was regretting have spoken like that.

"That's exact, I think it leaves us enough time to eat lunch, set up your equipment and discuss a few things in order of formalizing our agreement."

Vocal stress analysis: hidden intent detected.

Tricia raised an eyebrow, what did he want to hide from her. A query for more details to the computer integrated into the nanosuit she was wearing gave no further information.

"Do we eat first, or do we have time to set things up?" John froze for a few seconds and seemed to be looking at something in front of him.

"We can do a few things, we have ten minutes at least before lunch is ready. I called for another pair of arms to help us carry these!" he said, pointing at the half dozen crates. Tricia recognized the individual who arrived from the basement level of the place through a flight of stairs. The dark skinned elf had been present during her last visit, she had been naked the last time and, this time, was wearing a strange outfit of a very revealing nature. She was only wearing what looked like a bra made of snake skin, except for the fact that there weren't any straps to hold it in place, and two strips of the same scaly hide fashioned into a loincloth, staying in place without any visible means of doing so as well. The lack of belt and straps was as perturbing to Tricia as was the large amount of skin exposed. This Cali, contrary to the dryad, had a skin tone present in humans, and it was even more obvious that a nearly naked woman walking around didn't seem to be a noteworthy event in this kingdom. John, despite being a male teenager, didn't seem to pay any particular attention to her, despite the fact that her stride was making the front of the loincloth move in ways that gave an attentive observer glimpse of her bare groin.

"Greetings, Healer, I want to thank you again for helping my sister and our saviors on your last visit. This is something that I will never forget!" said Cali. Suddenly, Tricia found herself hugged by the very strong and nearly naked woman. She was uncomfortable, not knowing what to do with her hands as all that was offered for her to put them on was bare skin.

"Cali! Let the poor girl breathe!" ordered John. Tricia was relieved that her red face and breathlessness had been attributed to the strength of the huntress rather than the contact with her breasts and naked body.

"It...it's alright, let's set up a few machines..."

The place looked bare and primitive: the walls of stone, the metal beams, the lack of any decoration or floor covering, there were even rats running around. The room they brought the equipment to was like the one under it, roughly circular made of ten flat walls. There was a set of tables and two chairs. Tools, a chemistry set and a few items of an arcanic nature were laid on these.

"It isn't much, but I planned to use this room as a laboratory at some point; I already have an enchanting table and an alchemy station here." he explained.

"Will this floor be the last one?"

"No, I can build more if I gather ressources. Why?"

"There will be delicate equipment and a need for calm once this will be operating. Having people going through this room to get to other places would be disruptive and dangerous. I also noticed that there are no doors and that it would be impossible to seal the place if needed, more so if you put something above it."

"That is something that I didn't think about, honestly. I think I will be able to set things up so that we can seal it, but you should know that there is a way to displace the content of entire rooms of the castle if need be. Or I could just build another floor; I was saving the resources to do so for the moment I would need the extra space."

"In this case, we should just start here and move it later; no need to invest resources that might be needed for something else."

This equipment was designed to be mobile and as such was easy to set up. Just like the field medical unit she had brought on her first visit, the content of the crates began to unfold and extend the second they were open.

The machines provided a great array of sensors and scanners to analyze live specimens, a biological analyzer for smaller samples, and a device that would help process various chemicals to produce a number of serums which would help or enhance the creatures of the kingdom in many ways. John ignored everything about how these machines were operated, but he was very glad to have them as well as someone to operate them.

Tricia heard some very light steps behind her. She turned around to see something strange. A very big rat, more than a foot tall, walking on its hind legs and wearing some sort of skin suit made of a translucent material with armored plates of an unknown substance stuck in it.

"Ultimatissim leader, gladening to be had, truly in quantity! Self was on the way to a meetation with you Augustness, the pack brings word from the down below. Riches stashed as foretold have been uncovered, twice around. Blood of my blood Nashin has prouded self and the pack again. Self was investigated with a missionement of topmost urgementcy. The brood mother is calling upon you and your somber guest. Food aplenty of the most bewildering variety and salivious scent is readened. Feast of feasts, waitening eaters," declared Algernon, standing proud from having accomplished his task.

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