Chapter Four: Avoiding Suspicion

The two spent the night together live streaming videos together where they talked about being magical being from separate different worlds. Over the night they gained a small following and began to build up a reputation as “Alien Role-players” so if the people from the news ask them they could answer with absolute honesty and be taken just as seriously as their videos would come to be.

The two decided to avoid suspicion by leaning into the story of the meteorites and after they did they woke up to find a large following had started up around them. Shortly thereafter girls in other places started trying to copy them to varying degrees of success with different alien stories. So far if they were asked about the validity of their claims they could just point to the group that had sprouted up and reply that they were just another girl streaming online for money and since it’s technically true they wouldn’t have to lie. This is Good because Cory is a very bad liar and always wears her heart on her sleeve so if she’s going to lie she has to tell the truth.

During her morning class, the quiet kid passed her a note, implying he’d seen her videos and asking her how it was she came to be a ruler in her previous life. She passed the note back with the words ‘I’ll ταlk abouτ iτ in my nεχτ sτrεαm if ψυο rεmεmbεr το show υp αnd αsk’. When the note made its way back to his hands you could almost feel the creepy fanboy noises coming out of him. And everyone in class heard how excited he was when he read what is said. Though her handwriting still had a couple of Greek letters mixed in it wasn’t to the point it affected its readability. Though if you tried to read it in Greek it would make no sense.

Through the rest of school, few others recognized her… or if they did they didn’t show it. She has since stopped permitting her mana from flowing freely from herself and is moving about in such a way that she’s conserving more than she’s using because both Cory and Νεκρα agreed it’d be best not to saturate anywhere else with mana for the time being until they can take a sizable area under the influence of the mana such that she wouldn’t get suspected because the area of effect would be too wide to pin her as the suspect. Also when interacting with Martha in front of people who asked about the news she’d always reply with “Oh were you talking about my live streams? Did you really take me seriously?” which almost always resulted in at least one onlooker checking their phone and finding it, which usually resulted in snickering, from their classmates. Martha was more than a little bothered but this and by the end of the day snapped back with. “I found you by that crater sitting in the middle of those strange plants” Cory almost lost composure but there was at least one of her fanatical fans in the audience this time so she overacted saying, “well, you’ve got me there. Turn me over to the authorities I’m guilty.” The over-exaggeration of her honesty caused the other students to laugh a little, Martha gave up trying to defend herself after that day and though she wanted to ask her to leave her house her mother seemed to really like her and probably wouldn’t look too kindly on throwing out people Martha invited because ‘they have nowhere else to stay'.

Meanwhile, at the library, Νεκρα was having a bit of fun talking with Jeffy, she seemed to have gotten recognized once or twice but the people who saw her were more afraid to approach her than Cory’s fan. They seemed to watch her from afar and though she knew they were there and could tell they wanted to speak to her; she decided she’d wait for them to work up the nerve to ask her about it.

At this point, both Cory and Νεκρα had made themselves a key for understanding the differences and similarities of the written languages they were used to and the language used here, English. Νεκρα out of curiosity went looking on the internet for magic and spells to see if there was such a thing in this world and though she did find things that looked as though they might work upon closer inspection it was mostly just superstitious rituals and the worship of nature in strange ways. As she couldn’t find anything akin to the magic of her old world nor anything that looked like it could work if she tried to cast it she became frustrated and gave up. “perhaps if it does exist in this world, they’re keeping their secrets close to the chest… maybe they’ll seek us out if there are any casters here. Power does attract followers.” She was whispering thusly to herself in Greek, so as not to be understood if anyone approached her. When she was approached by a little teen girl with a black book in her hand and a face full of freckles. “what are you whispering about?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with, little girl.”

“I’m not little.” She was just adorable. She pulled her little black cloak over her head and started walking away “I thought she was casting a spell” she whispered dejectedly as she disappeared into the maze of books. Νεκρα pondered for a moment and then dismissed that such a coincidence could be in any way related to what she was looking for. She decided on her own reason that the child was just looking for the same thing she was and when she heard her whispering in a language she didn’t understand with a pensive look on her face she assumed magic was involved. Νεκρα then noted that of the images often depicted of witches in this world that girl was dressed as if she was trying to emulate their style while still constricted by the wardrobe choices of her parents. While on lunch break she got a phone call from the only person who had her number beside the man taking his lunch break across from her. “Hello, Cory?” ‘has the plan been working for you?’

“Hello Νεκρα” ‘everything’s working out just fine you?’

“I can’t complain work’s been fun so far” ‘I was approached by a little girl and I had an idea’

“That’s good school’s been pretty interesting” ‘I don’t think I can lie much more. I hope Martha’s reached her limit.’

“I’m sure things will be fine” ‘rumours must have spread by now. She’s probably suffering worse than you right now. If she tries to fight back it should only make the situation worse for her. If she has any sense at all she’ll drop the subject on her own'

“thank you for your words of encouragement” ‘would you like to meet up anywhere and discuss more in person?’

“I’d like to go to the mall there’s something I want to show you” ‘we’ve been wearing the same clothes since we got here we might want to get a change of wardrobe before people start suspecting that we’re either poor or our clothes have something about them worth stealing’

“sounds like a plan” ‘I’d prefer my ring to stay where it is, thank you.’

After the brief half telepathic conversation, the two meet up at the library. Νεκρα briefly mentions that she got accepted at a different job and that though she can work both jobs and still have time to speak with Cory she might not be around much at home anymore for at least a while. At this point, the two had been staying in this world for a little under a month and Νεκρα had enough money that she could pay back the loan she took on Jeffy for the phones she bought. Their streams had brought in a little bit of money but it wasn’t substantial enough to sustain them and Νεκρα wanted enough money to buy herself a house and since Martha no longer wanted them in the house she briefly mentioned to her mother that they had money and could pay rent. So on Martha’s suggestion Cory and Νεκρα had one more money issue to worry about. Regardless they had enough money to buy a couple of outfits, so they went and looked for new clothes to buy so they can leave their normal clothes to when they stream and if they get enough mana they can manifest clothes from their old world to change up their live streams every once in a while.