Rain Harlow

Chapter 15: A Respite From the Craziness

Added 2023-07-19 05:02:53 +0000 UTC

“Yes, Transplant,” Orswyth repeated. “People from another wor-”

“I know, I know, ah, which world? Did he say?”

Orswyth seemed to consider this a moment, nodding vaguely. “I believe he called it Beraku. Some sort of wasted world that had fallen from times of great advancement. He lived in some sort of desert. He’s obviously a transplant due to unusual ashen gray skin and orange eyes. He was dropped into my lands with an estate.”

Sammy deflated a bit and leaned back into her throne’s seat. “Oh.”

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the first other Transplant I hear of isn’t an Earthling. I wonder if there ever has been, if they record such things. Guess I should ask Dax or Bast about that one.

“He was dropped into my lands clueless and vulnerable,” Orswyth continued, “with an estate even, but the System doesn’t provide a slew of men in addition or any such thing. Phantasmal servants, two enchanted gargoyle guards, a horse, that’s about it. Fortunately, he found me early. I helped him as best I could. He’s a good lad. I suppose he’s like a… good friend’s… son.”

Sammy smiled a bit at that. No, he’s not, you liar. You just can’t admit to yourself he’s like a son to you. I can see it!

“I’m glad you took him under your wing, Baron. Your heart is true.”

Orswyth nodded in some embarrassment. There was a long pause, and determination entered his features. He stepped up closer to the mirror. “Your Majesty, I know my future is grim, but with what time I have left and even after in weakness, I give it all to you. I forswear all other allegiances, as they broke their own oaths, as they betrayed me and made it void.”

Dropping to a knee, the baron put a fist over his heart, bowed his head, and continued, “Under witness of heaven and divinity, I swear I shall be faithful and true to you, my goddess. I shall love all that you love and shun all that you shun. I shall never wittingly do anything which is unpleasing to you, and where I fail I will submit to your punishment as you so judge.”

Follower has obtained quality grade [Devout] and provides 1 additional FE per day.

User Sammy, note that you did not offer/request this oath, therefore it shall not be enforced with a curse if broken.

Yeesh, as if I’d want him to be! I need to be careful about that though. If I ask for an oath like with Bast, it is binding.

Sammy was staring a bit wide-eyed at the kneeling baron but made herself draw on her Goddess class a bit to say, “Baron Orswyth Maglion, I accept your oaths and will hold you to them for the rest of your days, providing you with my blessing, care, aid, and sanctuary in return. I will judge your deeds fairly and rationally as a liege should. I also offer you my friendship. To all this, I swear. Arise as the first of my chosen Anointed.”

The baron arose, face solemn and proud, drawing strength from those words. “I am honored, Your Majesty.”

“I won’t cause you to delay any further. Do as you must, but flee before your tarot buff runs out. Those mercenaries might try hiding in wait somewhere.”

“That is possible, though the fear of the gods was in them to leave here. Well. I shall hurry, then, Your Majesty. Is there anything else?”

“Take a hand mirror of some kind with you. That is all.”

“Understood, Your Majesty! Farewell.” He turned on his heels to first walk over to the body of Danomeir, where he took off a sword scabbard from the dead man’s back to sheath the greatsword in.

Sammy watched with a sinking feeling. He might not even be able to lift that thing soon, because of what I did.

She disconnected from the mirror, and simply stared at nothing, decompressing from the ordeal she’d just been through and moreover witnessed. The blood and death disturbed her, and she felt responsible for it. She could not convince herself she wouldn’t do exactly as she did if she had a do-over, however.

They were coming to murder him for coin. He was defending himself and out-murdered the murderers. I gave him the ability to, but… it was the right thing to do. It’s naive to think there won’t be bloodshed for the right thing in this vicious world. Hopefully, I can minimize it.

“Sys, they get another try, right? They’ll be reincarnated somewhere else.”

That is correct. The soul and consciousness of users are always retained within the System, integrated and connected at germination.

“Germination? So it even affects DNA somehow?”

The soul and consciousness is in continual synthesis with all other components of a user to form the individual organism.

“Come to think, what does that make me? I don’t actually have a body, but I mostly feel like I do.”

Your basic biological information was retained and re-constructed for the sake of your own comfort in transition, albeit with the elimination of various unneeded processes. You may edit it if you desire, though the System enforces core avatar appearance (such as identifying morphological features) without special ability use (i.e. shapeshifting).

Sammy shook her head as she considered the implications. “So you’re saying I can, what, get rid of my own emotions?”

No, as emotions are part of the psychic construct of the brain that is retained for user identity and existence in psychic spaces such as this demiplane domain. You may remove non-brain secondary effects of emotions, such as stress pressure on the nervous system (for example, the ‘gut feelings’) or increased heart rate.

It was an odd thought. Would she lose some of her ‘humanity’ that way? And it might be an edge to sharpness sometimes. Stress could improve awareness and create adrenaline.

“I noticed I don’t sweat.”

This was suppressed subconsciously as undesirable. You may turn it back on if desired. Note that the suppression was determined only upon initial entry. You must consciously make future alterations.

“Well. I guess I’ll pass on the sweat. No need to get worked up about it, am I right?”

She drummed her fingers on her throne’s chair arm. It was still daytime, and all of her Followers seemed more or less busy at that moment of time, so she rose and walked down from the steps.

“Let’s see about a respite from this weird platform, shall we? System, I want a beautiful glade in a forest, with a big house in the middle. Not quite a mansion. But with a swimming pool. Blue sky above. The trees should be… cherry blossoms! With lots of attractive walking areas nearby through them. Is this doable?”

This has been created as a separate mindscape realm. 2 FE has been deducted. Cosmetic changes (i.e. alterations within the original scope of the design) are freely permitted at will.

“Really?! Awesome! Take me there now!”

She was suddenly in front of a big two-story house in a clearing of rich green grass, framed by pink cherry blossom trees, with some of them growing closer, including leading up to the front door.

Sammy smiled and marveled at it. She soon noticed something weird with her clothing and looked down. It was all blurred as if shifting from her regalia to something else.

“Uh, hey Sys, what’s with my clothes all melty looking?”

Beyond the platform, your clothes can be whatever you desire. You have not deliberately decided anything yet.

She nodded and then imagined herself in a t-shirt and jeans. Sandals. Poof! It was so, and she grinned again. Then sighed, in dressed-down contentment.

She strolled under the trees to the house’s front door and entered. Spacious and kind of empty. Immediately she started mentally filling in the details. Rugs, paintings on the wall. A comfier couch and a love seat. And even-

“Wow, I can even make a TV?! Modern stuff, Sys?”

Correct. This is a virtual, mental construct. Your memories of your own world are not deleted, so you may freely reconstruct them in your private spaces.

“That’s useful because it helps me to not forget them. Right? You haven’t given me a perfect memory. It’ll degrade as it would naturally, correct?”

Correct.

She tried the TV but found it a bit disappointing. It was clear that everything was just how she remembered things, with lots of gaps. But she was determined to find a way to record the things she remembered the most, somehow, someway. Eventually.

I can’t go back, supposedly, and I’m hypothetically going to live forever. I don’t want these things to just be gone in fifty or a hundred years.

She moved on to the kitchen, adding appliances and things she could remember. A small Hello Kitty plate slightly melted on top, one that would absolutely still be in cabinets back home, as it had since she was a toddler. Her dad would use it, too, even when she gave him a hard time about it. ‘A plate’s a plate’ he’d say, stuffing his face with a sandwich.

Her favorite coffee mug: rainbow handle, bits of multiple-colored speckles and glitter, but with the words ‘Bad Bitch Energy’ on it. She’d kept it in her room before taking it to college with her, due to her dad’s similar ‘a cup’s a cup’ policy with coffee mugs.

‘Well, if it isn't the Bad Bitch and her rainbow cup,’ she heard in her mind’s eye, as he’d say so often when first seeing her in the morning, cheery and teasing at once. Like he always was.

Dork. It was amazing, though, how eye-rollingly redundant and annoying it had been to her for years, yet right then, she ached to hear it again, to see him…

She put the mug in the cabinet and deliberately set her sights for outside. The pool, the patio. There were things she had to do in that place for the sake of memory, but it was too soon, too raw. She still had time.

Memories, things… pictures. But not today. I’m just not ready. I need this to be a relaxation time, damn it. That’s why it has to be my own thing. Why I won’t just make the old house. Something new, with fragments of the old.

The pool was absolutely beautiful — the sort of thing she dreamed of, for sure — something that would be behind a mansion. There were aesthetic multi-colored rock panels framing its curves, big layout chairs with umbrellas above, flowered shrubs and trees around, and a little waterfall lip in the back around a bunch of rocks. A separate hot tub was also nearby.

“Now this is how a goddess lives!”

Sammy made a pink bathing suit materialize under her clothes, then took off the outer layers manually. For some reason, it was more satisfying than ‘bewitching’ them off or whatever.

She took a dive and swam around in the pool, which was a keen refreshment from the madness she would soon return to. The water was slightly cool, just as she preferred. She swam smoother and faster than she ever had, her body's strength showing its increases once more.

She eventually hopped up and sat at the lip of the waterfall with her feet dangling in the pool below, then summoned… something like a mai tai to her hands. It was delicious and fruity, in any case.

Welp, someone call the police! Underaged drinking in progress.

“Sys, is there some kind of ‘ambrosia’ or something for gods? Some way to get tipsy?”

You may add alcohol susceptibility back to your psychic body, expressed as a percentage of the assumed average for your body type. For example, 50% susceptibility would provide double the usual alcohol resistance.

“Huh. Well, I’ll consider it, I guess. Probably irrelevant, though.”

She created a big straw hat on her head and made sunglasses as well. She always wanted to be a cool, rich girl sitting by a pool in a straw hat and sunglasses, sipping a mai tai. The only thing missing were witnesses.

Hmm, maybe an Instagram isn’t such a- no, no, no, that’s silly, Sammy, silly…

As she splashed water with her feet, she did have something bugging her from the back of her mind, which had all sorts of potential, good and bad.

Finally, she had to ask, “Sys, what about, ah… people? Or maybe even pets? Is there such a thing as a virtual entity? And can anyone… else come here from outside?”

Autonomous constructs are possible, subject to specified design from the appropriate filed form. These cost 1 FE and can have variable access to your psychic realms (note that only appropriate appearances are allowed in your throne area).

Deities and those psychically capable through powers or magic may be granted entrance to your realms. They cannot harm you within them and may be banished at will.

“Which means I can be allowed in theirs if they have them. Well, well… wouldn’t that be interesting?”

____________________________________________________________

Samantha, Virgin Goddess of Mirrors
____________________________________________________________

Goddess Level 1; Fledgling Deity

Domains (1/2): Mirrors
Faith Energy: 256/1000

Followers: 4 (Daily FE Gain: 5)

Brute: 0

Rogue: 0

Wizard: 0 [6/10]

Bard: 0

Special Skills: First Aid, Tarot Reading

Special Traits: Token User, Immortal, Demiplane Domain, Conceptual Body, Fueled By Faith