Civic Possibilities

Chapter 64

[Mistress 42,

I cannot say if I've successfully fulfilled your request, but I have passed the map and light stone to a party that claimed interest. I'm not sure if they will actually go to the valley or not and did not desire to spend more time with them. I noticed strange magic affecting them and felt it was unsafe to remain near them. I apologize if this yields no results.

Your servant,

Elim Grey]

I read the reply twice and felt like wincing each time. I'd really worded my request poorly, but there was only so much I could have done with what amounted to "lure people to their doom, please." So really, I felt lucky he'd responded after only two days.

[Elim,

Thank you for trying, don't worry if it doesn't work out. I'll think of another way to go about it. I'd like to hear more about the strange magic when you get a chance.

-42]

The reply wasn't stellar, but I sent it anyway. I wasn't in a position to promise I'd never ask Elim to do that or something like it again. Points were a matter of life and death for me, and the clock was ticking.

Despite that, I put figuring out a way to attract people without involving Elim in the future on my to-do list. Well, bumped it up higher. I needed a serious amount of points, so it hadn't seemed feasible to rely on him alone in the first place.

Really it would be easiest to connect with the post town at the end of the mountain range and use that as a jumping-off point. Maybe see if there was something like an adventurers’ job board and post some stuff on it.

I was just leery of it because being connected to a major thoroughfare felt risky. It would be annoying to move along the mountains to the valley, but it would be a more leisurely trip than through the desert. My fear was someone sending a subjection force along if I drew too much attention too quickly.

I shook the thought off. Worrying about possibilities wouldn't do me any good. Instead, I needed to focus and work on my dungeon to make sure I could handle whatever ended up thrown at me. Not that I hadn't been before, but the possibility of guests gave it a greater urgency.

"Whaaaacha doin!?" Chris demanded, startling me. I jumped halfway to the ceiling from where I'd been standing in front of my layout drawings.

"Fuck!" I growled, embarrassed. I didn't have a heartbeat, but fright filled my pseudo flesh with a subtle vibration like a racing pulse.

"Fuck all? Fucking up?" Chris asked sweetly. I flipped him off.

"It's crazy you can get that high up but can't actually fly," Chris commented, like nothing special was happening. I scrubbed my face with my hands and waited for my slow descent as I calmed down. He was right, but he could shove it up his ass at this particular moment.

"Caaaan I help you with something, Chris?" I asked, once I was back on the ground properly.

"I'd like more books," Chris said. I felt my orbs flicker. That had been a side project I hadn't worked on much for the last few weeks. Definitely a bit of a fuck up on my part.

"Okay, want anything in particular?" I asked. Making illustrated first reader books wasn't really hard. At least not since I was decent at drawing and Chris wasn't demanding about the art. He seemed to like the quick cartoon style I usually went with.

"...Something longer, but not harder? Like that story you were telling about the man-bat," Chris said after a few moments of consideration. I couldn’t help but laugh at that. As much that an assassin enjoyed stories about a vigilante as the butchering of the name.

"Hmmm… Okay, maybe not about him, but I'll think of something," I said after a few moments of deliberation. I wasn't interested in drawing gadgets and only had sketchy memories of the storylines anyway.

"Maybe the grave man then?" Chris offered.

"No," Henry cut in sharply from the door. I looked over in surprise, not used to him raising his voice.

"Okay, not that," Chris said quickly, trying to look casual. I was still looking between them, wondering who the grave man even was, when Chris bolted for the door. Henry let him pass, but it was weird since he only stepped aside at the last moment. Usually, he was particular about manners and entirely polite.

Once Chris was gone, I expected an explanation. Instead, I found Henry turning shy suddenly and not meeting my orbs.

"I have no idea who the grave man is, but I take it you're not a fan," I commented mildly. Henry nodded, then hesitantly started making his way over to the couch. Him coming over to hang out and read or work on his embroidery projects every couple of days was fast becoming part of my routine.

"I-I… H-He was an assassin where Ch-Chris and I were f-from. One who was part of the anti-imperial faction during the k-kingslayer rebellion," Henry explained.

"Oh, that explains why Chris is a fan," I said and chuckled. An assassin who maybe killed a king or at the very least targeted the nobility. I could see why Chris would be tickled by that. Unfortunately, Henry's mood didn't lighten, even though I didn't ask for more details.

"Not to pry, but this seems like it's bothering you a lot," I said finally. It might not be polite to just point at the elephant in the room and ask what the fuck, but I certainly wasn't going to guess what was wrong based on social cues.

"I was a-alive during the r-rebellion. It didn't go well,” Henry said in a painfully flat tone. I winced. It was easy to understand why living through the "interesting times" a story was based on would make it a sore subject. I felt terrible for Henry and held my arms out, inviting him for a hug.

Henry tilted his head in confusion after a couple of seconds. Apparently, there was no universal gesture for 'hug?' in this world. I started to lower my arms then felt a stubborn desire to double down.

"Would you like a hug?" I asked. Saying the words felt awkward as hell, but there wasn't a reasonable alternative other than giving up. Henry surprisingly managed to get visibly tenser.

"W-What?" Henry asked, confusion plain in his voice. I was really going to have to figure out social norms relative to the dungeon denizens. Maybe send a group text about it and see how everyone felt.

"An embrace? Where I'm from, it's a gesture of comfort. You look upset to me, so I offered because I hoped it would make you feel better. Though, I won't do it again if it makes you uncomfortable. They weren't common everywhere, and I know that doesn't-" my sociological rant was cut off. Henry stepped forward and gave me a hug. A beat late, I returned it.

A moment after that, I remembered that neither one of us could feel much. I wanted to laugh at myself. I'd offered a physical gesture to someone it wouldn't do anything for.

Still, Henry did seem to relax, and I couldn't say I didn't find it pleasant. It was probably only intellectual, but I felt better after a few moments. When Henry pulled back, I moved a little away, but not totally out of his space.

"Still want to hang out, or are you feeling like something else?" I asked. I knew that anxiety could be draining. I wasn't going to hold it against Henry if he wasn't up to it now.

"I would like to st-stay," Henry said firmly. I nodded, happy to hear it. Henry joined me on the couch with a can of chaos beverage and a book.

It wasn't exactly a thrilling combination, Henry reading while I worked in share mode, but I liked the quiet atmosphere between us. Having someone nearby made it more pleasant than when I was alone.

Getting down to work once more, I started by reviewing my layout. Nothing jumped out at me as problematic, which wasn't surprising. I'd put a lot of effort into testing everything as I constructed it. The league matches also helped out since they were essentially playtests.

The only thing I could see that still needed some obvious work was the placement of the stairs. I'd already discarded the idea of a single descending staircase because of the backtracking issue. That and the fact it was boring.

The current design connected the exit of the prior layer with the beginning of the next. That was fine, but I'd essentially lined them up without meaning to, entrances at the north end and exits at the south.

That setup was fine in theory, but I felt like it added a predictable element that made navigation a little too easy. So I decided it would be better to randomize the locations. Of course, the entrances and exits would still line up with cardinal directions, but that wasn't such a big deal.

Accomplishing the change meant some fussing with the layouts, but nothing too serious. Thankfully I could select and rotate an entire layer. If I had to reset everything tile by tile, it would have been a nightmare.

Some reworking was required to make everything fit well once I was done, but nothing extravagant. Finally, feeling accomplished, I decided to take a break and have a chaos beverage.

"W-What's that song? You've been h-humming it for a b-bit," Henry asked.

"Huh? Oh... Uhm..." I foundered, drawing a blank. I hadn't realized I was doing any such thing.

"Was it this?" I asked, then tried humming a couple different things.

"That one," Henry said on my fourth try. I had to laugh at what ended up being the winner.

"It's a holiday song about a town full of monsters-" I stopped cold. I'd been worrying about who to pick for the farm's caretaker since so many skeletons were interested.

Really though, it would be pretty awesome to have a full-on town populated with skeletons. I had no idea how to make it work without freaking out the locals, but seriously, I could build my very own Halloween Town.