Full Immersion [for what it's worth]

>I'd suggest waiting until the critical people are taken care of first at the very least. It's not like you're time critical after all, and for Link: the more people that are healed there are the more potential allies you have. It's not a pure ARPG, and nobody really cares if you're a main character.

> At least find out where you can get healing, if they're not too extremely busy who knows your wings might be a simple fix? (At least if they haven't started to heal wrong...)

>Wait for things to calm down before getting help.
>In the interim, confirm/deny whether you can receive input from us that is not text, i.e. videos such as this one.

I don't think the video went through. Not really sure how that would work anyway...
After a bit more thought, Claire shakes her head. "Nah, it's bad roleplaying. Auleoris is way too nice to do that. Also, if anything else attacks this town we'd want more people alive and able to help us, right?"
He shrugs. "That's fair, just thought I'd offer. Maybe we should find somewhere to sit down while we wait?" He starts toward a less crowded area of town in search of some benches or something, the Florian following.

"Hey, did I ask you what class you picked yet?"
"No. I'm a Mimic Mage. Kinda like a blue mage thing, but I can copy any spell at all that hits me."
He nods. "I'm a magic archer. I learned a thing where I can change the timescale of my arrows. How do skill points work in this game, anyway?"
"You get some when you kill something, or...actually, I think just if you finish a battle without dying."
"Really? I just helped these guys fight a dragon!"

By now they've reached an outdoor eating area just outside of a restaurant, which appears to be closed and empty at the moment in the wake of the recent crisis. The Keino takes a seat in front of the nearest table and summons his screen, which appears flush with the table, displaying his huge wheel-like skill tree.
Auleoris looks over his shoulder. "That is too many options."
"Well, if the one I got earlier is anything to go by they're probably all useful at least. Hey, can you learn these if I shoot you with them?"
"I don't think so, not yet at least. Anyway I don't know what good being able to shoot a fire arrow would do me when I have no idea how to use a bow."

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Spoiler(i.e., suggest skills for him to learn)

I have to be honest, I like having two to four different ways to refer to the same character while still making it clear who's talking. I always feel like I'm being repetitive if there's a 3+-person conversation and I have to keep naming who's speaking to clarify who's speaking at each point and it's the same name every single time.

>Link: Ponder upon your strengths and weaknesses, then see if there's anything that compliments your strengths while covering your weaknesses. Also, you could see what abilities your allies have and choose some skills that fulfill a role they do not currently have. Besides that, see if there's any abilities that increase growth, those are always good to get early.

Jin looks around for a second or two. "..Did you hear someone say my name a second ago?"
"Nnnope."
Link keeps looking over the tree, tapping a few things and thinking. "Hmm..what all can everyone else in the party do?"
"Well, I know spells from a few different elements like fire, lightning, wind. I can heal a little too. Neyla's skills are random, but she's really strong and her spear has some insane enchantment on it that--"
"Wait, what do you mean 'random'?"
"I mean her skill tree is just a few skill panels with dice symbols under them and when she clicks the dice symbols sometimes the skill above them changes. It doesn't tell her what skill it is other than showing an image, so we have to kinda guess.

"And the other guy in our party so far has a class whose description is basically 'fills whatever role isn't already filled right now.' I think you can pretty much do whatever you want and we'll be fine."

>Link. You're a Kitsune. You must have a racial ability tree somewhere in there. Illusions and Foxfire sound fun? What about eating emotional ambiance or general trickery? Give it a looksie~

The Keino's ears twitch around. "I swear I heard it this time."
"Maybe you're sorta hearing the input? But I'm not hearing them, so that's weird.."
"Huh. Well anyway, do you know how we look at racial powers or anything? Like I want to know if I'm actually a Kitsune Yokai and can do illusion stuff or if I'm actually just a kemonomimi with extra tails."
Auleoris shrugs. "The alien in our party is an elf and he said their ability lets them 'tune' magic so it's weaker or stronger but also costs less or more to cast, so, I guess there are racial abilities at least. But I'm...not really sure how he figured that out. I didn't see anything like that in my stat menu..."

> I'd look into: some sort of ability that lets you rapid fire arrows, arrows that can change the speed of time around in an aoe, arrows that let you stop a target in time, something to control your own personal time so you can be fast when you need to (probably chains off of the rapid fire ability). something to "loop" your arrows back in time so after they hit things they can be looped back to try and hit things a second time. And then it's back to the basics to look for something that increases the accuracy/damage of your arrows, anything that increases the stats you get per level is good too.

How many/much of what can we get?
> Look at the medium- and high-level abilities. Bookmark a small number you want to work towards.
> Do higher levels of arrow recovery automatically retrieve arrows for you? Either way this is a good option.
> Seconding upgrading the time arrows. Is there a void element, and does it involve phasing or deletion or somesuch? Bypassing armor and damage from within is usually more effective. The space arrows sound useful, too. Actually, just look for things, especially skills that combine two or more elements, that enable shenanigans. If there is a skill that lets you arbitrarily apply more than one element to an arrow, that would be very useful if you get multiple elements. On the other hand, the Mimic Mage next to you probably has the variety/versatility front covered.

See if there are any healing arrows, shooting someone to make them healthier is always funny and they'll be good against undead enemies.

"Well, now I hear them. Or..whatever sense that is. Did you hear your name that time?"
"No, I didn't hear anything. What are they saying?"
Claire looks vaguely like she's developing a headache. "Uhhh...lots of things. How many skills can you get with your points..uh..bunch of...I think probably you'll just think of all of it anyway, is how it usually works."
"Hmm. Well, I don't have enough to level up Bow Mastery," he says, poking it show how many points it costs. "But I do have enough to get three more first-level elemental skills...or level up arrow recovery, bleh, or one first-level and one second-level.."

He starts quietly browsing through the spells a bit. The second level on the "time" spoke are Backtrack Arrows, which can be pulled backwards in time as long as they're still in the air and can be pulled backwards in time immediately after hitting something exactly once. The way the skills are worded, Time Arrows and Backtrack Arrows are more general powers able to be applied to any arrow that's been fired than properties that the arrows are given upon being fired. The next past that are Timeline Arrows, which can split into multiple copies taken from nearby timelines where the wind or other things affected them slightly differently; its effects are reported to be somewhat apparently random. It looks like the ability to fire arrows that affect the time of what they hit in various ways is still several levels out from that.
The next thing in the 'mundane' list after Double Shot is a Quick Nock, which fires an arrow very quickly after a previously-fired arrow. It can be activated as many times in a row as desired to shoot several arrows in a short period of time, in return for a very rapidly diminishing return on accuracy.
The first tier of 'typical' elements like fire, lightning, ice, and rock basically just make an arrow catch on that thing immediately after it's fired (i.e., be on fire, be wreathed in electricity, be enveloped by very cold air, be surrounded by a shell of rock that makes it hit harder on more surface area but somehow doesn't change its flight path). After that come more complicated things, like the second skill out on the fire tree giving the ability, once per fired arrow, to have the arrow emit a ring of fire outward from the middle of its shaft at any point in the middle of its trajectory, or the second-level lightning skill allowing a sort of "chain lightning" to go out from the arrow's head at a chosen point mid-flight as long as said head has enough metal in it. Adjacent elements (such as fire and lightning) have skills tied between their first-tier ones, and requiring said first-tier onse that produce arrows which are on both things at the same time. The cost of these in-between skills is the same as the regular ones.
The space arrows can teleport exactly once mid-flight to anywhere within about a foot-radius sphere of themselves, keeping their momentum the same (in the 'relative' sort of way that the portals of Portal do), but not inside of any object. Next after that is the ability to amplify (increase or decrease) the gravity of an arrow within a certain range for a few seconds, once per shot.
Jin looks and looks, but there don't seem to be any healing arrows. There are 'holy' arrows, which are imbued with the ability to do greater harm to dark-elemental things like undead and demons, though.

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SpoilerSorry, long break because of a family trip + I wanted to get together a spreadsheet of some important information on the characters so I don't have to go back and read the whole adventure every time I want to know "hey, what skills does this guy have?". Some of said spreadsheet might be spoilers so I can't share all of it but I may get a censored screenshot up if there's enough interest in it.

And with the above post, the archive dump is over! This adventure is now live once again and accepting suggestions. Of course, we winded up starting with what seems to have been everybody's favorite pastime: Picking skills for a player character to learn.

So, after a month of indecision, a month and a half of thinking this adventure was dead, and another week of consideration, I may have made a choice.

But first, a reposting of my criteria. I want something that deals plenty of raw damage, and is versatile both in and out of combat. Useful against many types of enemies and in most circumstances, and with which Jin can be a brute, or clever, or a clever brute.

>Dean: "Listen" carefully, and you may be able to actually hear us.
>Jin: Level one rock and level two time, with the goal of level three time because Timeline Arrows can turn any arrow into a small, tightly grouped volley and the OP-ness of that will spiral out of control as you get better abilities. Rock for the option of stabbing or punching.

I vote waiting for another opinion or three before the next update.

Oh god, I remember having posted a command for this on the old forum, but can't remember what the hell it was. Eh, I'll just make a new one.

>Time and Space arrows get, because there's no way that combination isn't OP as fuck later down the line.

>Dean: "Listen" carefully, and you may be able to actually hear us.
>Jin: Level one rock and level two time, with the goal of level three time because Timeline Arrows can turn any arrow into a small, tightly grouped volley and the OP-ness of that will spiral out of control as you get better abilities. Rock for the option of stabbing or punching.

>Time and Space arrows get, because there's no way that combination isn't OP as fuck later down the line.

"Hmm..." Jin's ears twitch a little more, and he visibly concentrates. "I hypothesize that I can just barely perceive the Input when they're targeting messages at me..by starting them with my name. I understood one of them asking me to try and listen carefully."
"So, whatever it is that their words go through probably filters them so I can't hear things directed at you," says Claire.
"Yeah, and that makes sense, right? Anyway, I know I want the backtrack arrows because the thing after that has so much potential for abuse. What else do you think?" He chooses to learn the second-level time arrow skill.
"Me?" she leans over the skill tree again, squinting at the mass of options. "I dunno...maybe rock? That'd give your arrows more punch, right?"
"Hmm. Well, I do want to get a bunch of space skills, because space and time aren't really different things in the end and having skills across the spacetime board has got to be good. But taking one point in rock to make every arrow I use it on stronger is practical in both short- and long-term. I mean, what am I gonna be able to hit with normal arrows that won't also take damage from a heavy rock?"
Auleoris scratches her head. "I...wasn't really thinking about it that hard. But yeah." After taking the rock skill, Link puts a favorite on the first-level Space arrow for later.

Claire goes around and takes a seat opposite the new party member. She takes a moment to bring up her own menu and rifle about her inventory for a moment, before pulling out a small drill, staring at it for a long moment in confusion before remembering where it came from. "...I forgot I had this thing."
"What is it?"
"It's kind of a magic windup drill." she turns the crank backwards a bit and then taps the back end of it a few times as a demonstration. It turns itself for a couple of seconds on the stored energy.
"Hmm." Dean takes it from the table and has a closer look. "I'd love to have a bigger version of this. Nothing says 'your armor is useless' like a giant spinning drill that can tear through solid rocks." He hands it back.

These two aren't doing much of interest for a little while. Should we check in on the party headed to Laerta, or try to catch back up with whatever happened to Jarod?

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SpoilerDid anyone else forget they bought the drill thing? It wasn't even in the spreadsheet until I was reposting the archive and read the post it's introduced in.

I totally forgot about it. We should put it on an arrow once arrow recovery is higher.

I also forgot, even during my original archive binge.

Jarod first.

Jarod first.

Wow, something sure happened back the last time we were with this guy. It was totally a complete writer's block and not something weird happening. At any rate, this is about midmorning.

Jarod did the sensible thing and played along, took up the old man on an offer to stay for a night in one of the upstairs rooms decently far away from the breathing, connected pile of corpse parts. And then he returned to the castle to report his findings to the queen, who immediately donned what she terms her "commoner cloak" (which obscures practically all of her features except the fact that she has very long, voluminous hair) and followed him back to the house. So that catches us up, pretty much.

Jarod knocks on the front door. "Ah, just a moment..." comes a call from inside. After about that long, the old fellow opens the door. "Oh. Hello again.." he starts, before noticing there are two visitors rather than one.
"I, uh..I found someone who sh-should be able to help with your problem," says the wolf-man. Zettai nods mysteriously.
"Oh..you, ah, you did?" The old guy tries and fails to make some meaningful identification of Jarod's companion. "That was fast."

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SpoilerBluh bluh, computer problems, bluh.

>Jarod: "Yes. Yes it was. But only for us. If there was some kind of multidimensional group of people observing the events of our lives it could have taken MONTHS for this to happen. I guess we should be glad that we perceive our time in a linear fashion."

^Yes.
>So, if Zettai can hear this, I would like to apologize for our behavior when you first met Jarod.

>Jarod: "Yes. Yes it was. But only for us. If there was some kind of multidimensional group of people observing the events of our lives it could have taken MONTHS for this to happen. I guess we should be glad that we perceive our time in a linear fashion."

^Yes.
>So, if Zettai can hear this, I would like to apologize for our behavior when you first met Jarod.

"Not necessarily, I mean, j-just from our perspective. If someone didn't e-e-experience time the same way as us..." Jarod trails off, not entirely sure why he decided to pursue this topic in the first place. "Uh...we should talk insde."
"Sure, sure." He lets the two of them into his library-slash-antechamber.

"So..how much do you, know already?" the old one asks, a little nervously.
"Your problem has to do with that person's brain," she says, rather than answering. The response implies that the answer is 'quite a lot', however. When the old man looks at Jarod, she adds, "It's not his fault. I have some power over minds that I can't help using sometimes. Anyway, I should be able to wake her up if enough of the brain is intact...especially if it's someone whose mind I have seen whole before."
"Oh...really? That's wonderful!" He goes from suspicious to elated in a couple of seconds. It's unclear to Jarod whether Zettai used some mental influence to help him do that or he's just that eager to make progress with his work. "Let's go down right away then, there's not a moment to lose!"

He opens the secret door and hurries down the stairs a little faster than seems healthy for someone his apparent age. Zettai follows straight after, subtly floating an inch or so off of each stair instead of exerting her legs and leaving Jarod to carefully toe his way down the narrow spiral again.
By the time he makes it down, the old man has pulled the sheets off of his "patient's" upper body. "I am glad I made an effort to get her decent the other day," he's saying, "with all the visitors. More than we've had in the months I was...well, anyway. Do you see anything?"
"Sssh. Lemme concentrate for a minute." The wolf-man quietly steps inside while the cloaked woman carefully places a hand on the sleeping figure's forehead. It is a woman, or at least several different pieces of different women. Well, the old man informed Jarod that he never could find a good female left arm so he used the best-matching male one he could find and decided to make do. The individual pieces are held together with some combination of medical stitches and very out-of-place-looking metal; apparently the bones have bolts and the nerves have wires, though that's taking the reconstructor's word for it. Her upper-left head does have a large visible chunk of skull replaced by a metal plate, however, which is more or less bolted on; Jarod had to hold that plate while he put the brain in. That was fun. The ear on that side is human, the other one is furry and pointy, but rather ragged, enough to be difficult to identify. She is wearing more or less a hospital gown, or at least the budget/used/medieval version therof.

There is a faint purple glow around Zettai's hand and the head, and after a bit she says, "...Well, you're lucky. I happen to know this person very well. In fact, I'm familiar with how she died. You should...get back, she's gonna wake up swinging, like she's still in that fight."
Jarod steps nearly outside the room; the old man takes a far corner on the other side. The faint glow brightens, and Jarod sees something like purple fire from where the Numeral's eyes must be under the cloak. Finally, the amalgamation of people jerks straight up into a sitting postion and immediately starts yelling in panic and swinging her arms around as if wielding a pair of swords. She slows down and quiets after a second, looking around, mismatch-colored eyes focusing on the wolf-man first.
"Who are--where am I?" she demands angrily, but in a hoarse voice that sounds like it's trying to go much louder and higher than it's capable of.

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SpoilerIt occurred to me I need to sort out the mechanics of Input-as-sensory-information and whether or not Zettai can hear it from people who don't perceive it as words. Especially for Jarod because of his unique stuff that was mentioned when they first met. I think it's best if I consider it to only be super clear words when Auleoris is around because it's how the person experiences it. Certainly she's smart enough to intuit when something weird Jarod does is because of Input though, although if his sanity ever gets too low it may not be as clear-cut.

I'm worried this is slightly cutsceneish but it will, if goes as planned, result in something beneficial and interesting.

> "Hello, I'm Jarod and am currently the LEAST qualified person to answer either of those questions."

> "Are you sure you want to know?"
> "You're in a basement science lab. The experiment was a success."

> "Hello, I'm Jarod and am currently the LEAST qualified person to answer either of those questions."

> "Are you sure you want to know?"
> "You're in a basement science lab. The experiment was a success."

"Er--w-well, my name is Jarod, n-not that I think that'll mean much to you..I, uh, d-don't really think I'm the right person to..a-are you sure you want to know?"
"Just--answer!" It should say something about his personality that Jarod is readily intimdated by a person who currently has no weapons and whose legs are actually still strapped down.
"W-well, uh, ah, this is a basement sc-science lab, not mine, and, I g-guess the e-e-experiment was a success?"
"What experiment?" She seems to be adapting to her voice a little better, though the hoarseness is still in full force.

"You were dead, Jikkai*," says the queen, moving next to the reconstructed woman and turning her head to face her. "Now you're not."
The woman's response is to look at the woman next to her for a long moment in surprise, possibly awe, for a good several seconds before exclaiming, "Majesty! I thought I'd never see you again!" Her tone is totally different, the threat and confusion entirely replaced by the excited happiness of a child meeting a parent who'd been gone for a month on a busniess trip. She embellishes this impression further by reaching and leaning with all her might at the queen to get her closest approximation of a hug, which Zettai returns one-handedly.
"Er...excuse me, did she say 'Majesty'?" says the old man, looking a bit nervous.
"Uh...yeah." The Numeral removes her hood, which reveals her face, and half-turns to face him.
"Gah!" At the sight of her, the old fellow jumps a foot or two higher than it seems he should be physically capble of. "Uh--err...th-that is...am I, in trouble?"

"Well, you did take a few corpses without permission," she says, taking a single step closer to him. He squishes against the wall behind him and his eyes around nervously as if hoping to find some place to run. "But I've always been taught to judge things based on the results, and you've more or less given me one of my best agents back. You weren't planning on imprisoning the person once they were put together, were you?"
"Well, n-no, of course not--I mean, not any more than--you know, t-to get used to..."
Zettai nods. "Rehabilitation. I understand. I see no reason to distrust your intentions. How about you work for me?"
"Um.." The old man is dumbfounded by this suggestion.
"I can get you better facilities than this, and some help. You could get the kind of parts you need to do this through the proper channels. I'd expect you to document the process well enough for someone else to repeat it."
"W-well, I..uh, this was more of just a hobby.."
"Let me put it another way. Legally, now that I know you stole corpses I can't not punish you for it. It would make it harder for me to stay the queen." She takes another couple of steps toward him as she speaks, with roughly the same result as the first one. "But I have the privilege of deciding your punishment. How's community service sound?"
"U-um, j-just fine! I, I would be pleased to serve you, your majesty.."
"Great!" she turns back and moves closer to Jikkai again, waving her hand at the leg-straps to undo them.

Zettai's tone has been nothing but conversational and friendly this entire time, but nonetheless that conversation gave Jarod numerous chills down his spine and left him feeling about as terrible as the old man looks after it. He tries his best to maintain composure once she's looking in his general direction again, however. Jikai manages to stand up but looks really unsteady on her feet. The queen gently lifts her up in the air psionically and drifts her toward the stairwell where she can lean against a wall. "Jarod, can you help her up the stairs? I'd like to hammer out a few details here before we go back up."

"Um..s-sure." Without being asked to, the reconstructed woman puts an arm over his shoulder and starts shuffling out the door, which forces him to follow along.
Once they start up the stairs, she says, "Jarod...huh. Don't think I've heard of ya. Are you new?"

>

*jih-kah-ee; the j sound is softer than in "jay" but not quite a "sh", and the last two syllables bleed together as more of a diphthong.

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SpoilerI guess if I had to summarize the Numerals' general sense of ethics in one phrase, it might very well be "the ends justify the means."

Funny thing: I was trying to come up with a name and my brain spat out the pronunciation "jikai" at me. I don't know Japanese at all, but when I did a quick google search (as I often do with a name I'm hoping to use) I found out it actually is more or less romaji for a word that means "next time" or "the next meeting". WOW.

>Answer the scary lady.

>Very. As in, two days. Say you have amnesia.

... To which Jikkai will probably respond that Zettai could get his memories back.

>In that case, say amnesia was more plausible. It's complicated, you don't understand it yourself, and anyone in this country would understand it even less. That's not an insult but a fact of culture differences.

>Answer the scary lady.

>Very. As in, two days. Say you have amnesia.

... To which Jikkai will probably respond that Zettai could get his memories back.

>In that case, say amnesia was more plausible. It's complicated, you don't understand it yourself, and anyone in this country would understand it even less. That's not an insult but a fact of culture differences.

"Uh..yeah, you c-could say that," he says. "I-I mean, t-two days ago I appeared in a field s-somewhere, and I d-don't know how I got there."
"What, you lost your memory? I guess Her Majesty offered to fix it or somethin'?"
"Well, no. I-it's...complicated," says Jarod. "I do t-tell most people it's amnesia because, because it's simpler, and m-makes more sense, to p-people around here, than...Sh-she knows the uh, the whole story." Good, good, he thinks. Shift the burden of coming up with the rest to someone who seems good at coming up with that sort of thing.
"Ah, well, it's good enough for me if Her Majesty trusts ya."

Jikkai pauses and he waits, allowing her to catch her breath for a moment. They have made it about halfway up the stairs; there haven't been any particularly loud noises from the lab below, just what seems like casual talking. Hashing out details, he guesses.

Shortly after they begin moving again, she says,"Hey, weird question, buut...how do you manage with a tail exactly?"
"Um.."
"I didn't exactly have one before, 's what I mean."
"Well, i-it just sorta..." Jarod tries to consider how having a tail makes sense, considering that he doesn't normally have one either. "I g-guess it's...mostly unconscious? I don't th-think about it, like, y-you don't think about how to mo, move your a-arms and legs to run."
"I guess I'll adjust somehow or other. You're not still nervous, are you? Or is that just..."
He nods. "It's j-just how I talk, sorry."

Jarod gets an idea: It might deter her from asking more about him if he uses the rest of the trip to ask her about herself...

>

>So Jikkai, you're an agent of the queen? What did/do you do?

>How did you meet Zettai?

>So Jikkai, you're an agent of the queen? What did/do you do?

>How did you meet Zettai?

"Um...i-it seems like, you like the Queen a lot?"
"Sure," she nods. "Don't you?"
"W-well, I mean, I was c-curious how you met her."
"Oh, well. My mom died young, my dad was a brigand. Brought me up more or less like another a' his kind. I, ah, did some things in my youth I wouldn't be too proud of now.

"Before Her Majesty took the throne, she was going around doing good deeds. She caught my dad's whole crew, me included, without hurtin' anyone. But, y'know, in a way that made it pretty clear she coulda hurt us if she wanted. My dad an' the rest she turned over to the authorities, but she vouched for me. Claimed I'd jus' been innocently dragged along, y'know? And hired me on to help her out with stuff."
"You're not, uh..u-upset she got your f-father locked up?"
"Pfft. Dad's an ***hole!" She says it as if holding back a laughing fit, before taking a breath to calm down. "Pardon, language. I guess I was upset for a little while, but once I understood what it was we'd been doing to people who hadn't done no wrong I knew exactly what side o' the law I wanted to be on. An' I'm eternally grateful to Her Majesty for givin' me the chance to decide."
"U-um..d-do you, get upset if other people d-don't call her, 'Her Majesty'?" This seems like a good thing to get straight early on.
"Nah. Funny thing, it's been my nickname for her since way back then. It was sarcastic at first, but yeah, 's pretty hilarious how it turned into her real title an' all. I will get upset if somebody disrespects her, though, don' get me wrong."

They are nearly to the top, but Jikkai needs another brief rest. Jarod says, "Uh, w-what kind of work did you do for Zettai? Uh..I-I mean she just s-sort of gave me a list of p-possible jobs to try and f-finding the man who, uh r-revived you was the first one I picked."
She shrugs. "That's more 'r less how my jobs went, but my list was all monsters 'n criminals that needed a taste of my blades. That list got a lot longer the last couple months...or, the last couple months I remember." Jikkai sighs. "Think I tried to do one too many in too short a time. I got tired, an' I got sloppy."

They continue the rest of the way up the steps and out of the secret passage. The reconstructed girl looks thoughtful at first, and then a bit sad. "In this..condition, I'm not sure if I'll be much use to Her Majesty at all."
"I wouldn't worry about that." Jarod jumps at the sudden appearance of the queen's voice as she walks out of the passage, the old man following behind her. Jikkai doesn't look all that surprised, though. "From what our new friend here tells me, your subconscious just isn't entirely used to your body yet. I should be able to fix that with an hour or two of work." She moves a little closer, putting an arm over Jikkai's shoulder. "You may take a while to get as good with your blades as you were before, but you'll figure it out. Besides, I'm just glad to have you back at all." The old man seems relatively calm; in fact, he's smiling a bit. Jarod can't suppress a bit of doubt that his mood changed this much from only talk. Zettai removes her cloak and hands it to her agent. "Here, put this on. I don't think the world is ready for your new look just yet."
Jikkai nods, putting it on; it obscures her features just as well as it did the queen's. "Are we headin' back to the castle for now, Your Majesty?"
"Right."

They take the road toward the castle quietly for a few minutes. Zettai finally says, "So, Jikkai...ever since I found out it was you who'd been put back together again, I had an idea. How would you like to work with Jarod here for a while? I feel like you might complement each other a bit."
"I'll do whatever you wan' me to, Your Majesty. You know I ain't too picky."
"Yeah, but would you like it?"
"Sure, I guess," she nods. "We don't know each other too well but he seems solid enough."
Zettai looks at Jarod. "You wouldn't mind having someone with you who knows how to fight, would you?"

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SpoilerIt felt like this update was going to go on forever because I couldn't figure out where to pause for suggestions.

Hmm. The obvious answer is yes: cooperate with Zettai, expand the party, get a partner who knows the local culture, history, and lay of the land, combat situations more likely meaning Jarod would likely level up faster and have more opportunity/reason to use his sanity sapping abilities.

On the other hand, this will make it even harder to make Jarod act crazy than it already is with two rational suggesters, as Jikkai will definitely notice his behavior and we want to stay in her and the queen's good graces for now.

Overall, >sure

Hmm. The obvious answer is yes: cooperate with Zettai, expand the party, get a partner who knows the local culture, history, and lay of the land, combat situations more likely meaning Jarod would likely level up faster and have more opportunity/reason to use his sanity sapping abilities.

On the other hand, this will make it even harder to make Jarod act crazy than it already is with two rational suggesters, as Jikkai will definitely notice his behavior and we want to stay in her and the queen's good graces for now.

Overall, >sure

"U-um...sure." Jarod pauses long enough to realize that's a confusing answer. "I-I mean, not a-at--I wouldn't mind, I mean."
"Cool."

A little later, back in the castle, the queen has sent the old man off to do...something they must have discussed in his basement, and has Jikkai lie down on a bed with a chair pulled up next to it. She remains silent while she uses some kind of psionic power to induce sleep and start work on Jikkai's subconscious connection to her body, but after a moment seems to have enough concentration to spare on a conversation. "So...the jobs I mentioned last time* are basically still around. I got someone to confirm the bandit camp's location, I bet with Jikkai's help you could take 'em out. Or if you want to go monster hunting, that's fine too. I guess I could look something else up if you don't wanna do either of those. While you think about that...maybe you could satisfy my curiosity a little?"
"Erm..h-how do you mean?" Jarod goes from awkwardly standing to one side to sitting on another bed in the room, still where Zettai can turn her head to look at him.
"Well..I got a chance to meet with some of the other players in your session proper. They didn't say anything about reading their minds being difficult, and as far as I can tell it wasn't. I...don't think you're Numeral either though, right?"
He nods slowly. "Um..I h-have been, li-living on their planet for..s-several years now."

"I don't want to pry but I am very curious. I promise I mean you no harm even if you were supposedly an enemy of my people or something."
Jarod thinks for a long moment, and nods even more slowly. "W-would you be, familiar with the...C-Ceazans**?"
"Hmm.." The Numeral thinks for a long moment, or possibly has reached a delicate part of her work and has to focus on that. Either way, afterward she says, "I think I remember a news story from when I was maybe a few revolutions old? It only said that a potential threat...calling themselves..something like that, had been wiped out."
"Th-that was..what you were supposed to believe. W-we didn't know it until we encountered your people, but we h-have a natural immunity to ps-psionic abilities, especially th-things like mind reading or mind control. I d-didn't really learn this firsthand. Several young people of my race were s-sent through an ex-experimental, uh..transport thing, toward other planets thought to contain life. We were each sent with...a message explaining our people's history and ins-structing us to st-stay where we were, try to get along with any p-people we found, and and try to prepare the world we were on for..uh.." He pauses for a long moment. "F-for a Numeral attack."

The queen nods. "I don't think you have anything to worry about now. I don't want to hurt you and as far as I know my people aren't a threat anymore. For what it's worth though, I'm sorry they did that to you."
"Y-yeah." Jarod thinks he would rather change the subject than continue this conversation just now.

>

*-the original job list, for reference.
**-(say-ah-z'ns)

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Spoiler(Choose one of two quests or ask for a new set of options)

Non-Earth origins, prior Numeral contact confirmed.

> Let's confirm or deny the existence of the thing that is big.