Chapter 38: Chapter 36: An Old Friend

Lilith walked down the street, letting the nostalgia completely overtake her as she did. She was back in the neighborhood where she grew up, heading back to her parent’s house to pick up their stuff and take it to the dungeon. Carmen had volunteered for the job, but Kali had shut her down, claiming that Carmen also had to spend some time with her new girlfriend.

Lilith took a moment to check in on them and found they were…out mini-golfing? She wasn’t always paying attention to what was happening with Carmen, so she was surprised by the unexpected development.

Carmen says they are in Oregon. Mae supplied. They’re under the effects of the same spell we’re using.

The spell in question was one that filtered the awareness of other people, essentially making the target the least interesting person around to anyone who didn’t know them well. It was a step up from pure invisibility in Lilith’s opinion, as with this people would still acknowledge their presence, they just…wouldn’t think anything of it. You could rob a bank using it, and the guard would hold the door for you on the way out. Provided they didn’t know you well, anyway.

“Kali, it seems that Mae and Lilith have finally noticed what we’re doing.” Carmen said absentmindedly, hitting the ball, bouncing it off the side of the course, and completely missing the hole.

“Ah, thanks!” Kali said, turning to face Carmen. “You’re next, Mae!” She said, smirking. “I’m sure Carmen or Lilith would be willing to spend some time in the spare avatar so you can use a body.” She took her shot without looking and the ball went completely the wrong direction, causing Carmen to burst into laughter.

“I’d be more than happy to volunteer.” Carmen said between breaths. “You might not want to do mini-golf if you want to win, though. I doubt Mae would take it easy on you.”

Kali grinned. “I’m sure she wouldn’t. Now, the two of you have things to be doing, so get back to it, because the two of us also have things to be doing.” She said, punctuating the sentence by giving Carmen a kiss.

Carmen playfully pushed her away. “Stop it!” She teased, “You’re just going to distract them even more! And don’t think I didn’t see you move your ball!”

Lilith stopped paying attention at that point, focusing back on her task. She was only a few streets away from her house, having chosen to teleport just outside of her neighborhood rather than in front of her house, so as to enjoy the nostalgia a little more. She…doubted she would be coming back here any time soon, so she intended to make the most of it.

“Yo, Lucas!” A jovial voice called out. “Woah. You…are Lucas, right?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” Lilith said, turning around. “How’d you know?”

The owner of the voice, a tall man with short brown hair, rubbed the back of his neck. “Dunno. Just got a real “Lucas” vibe from you, you know? Anyway, what happened to you? It’s been, like, a day.” As he said that, a look of understanding dawned and he broke into a smirk. “No, wait, I got it. Some faerie thought it would be funny to make you look exactly like the chick from the broadcast because of your names. I understand, this sorta thing is happening all over if the internet’s to be believed. Hey, look on the bright side, though. She may look a little edgy, but at least she’s hot.”

Lilith made a mental note to go have a “talk” with the fae. She’d have to have Kali introduce her to…whoever passed for a ruler. “Actually, no.” She said. “I am the “chick from the broadcast”. And, I…guess it’s flattering that you think I’m hot, but also, ew. It’s weird to be told that by you.” The man, Jameson, was an old friend from all the way back in elementary school. Growing up, he and his now-girlfriend, Anna, were so close with Lilith that they were practically siblings, so hearing that from him was just…weird.

Jameson laughed, walking up and clapping Lilith on the shoulder. “Man, they really did a number on you. Can’t even properly talk about what happened, right? And no worries, man, I wasn’t saying you’re attractive, just that the girl was. I’ve got no interest in you, would be weird to go out with you like that, given you’re, you know, a dude at heart, if not in body.”

Lilith sighed. “No, it’s nothing like that, Jameson. The fae haven’t done anything like that to me, I can talk just fine.” She looked him dead in the eyes and, in her most serious voice, said, “My name is Lucas Clements and a faerie turned me into a copy of the girl from the broadcast.”

Jameson gave a nervous laugh. “Alright, why not just say that, then?”

“Because I actually am the broadcast girl, dude. It’s the truth.”

Jameson shook his head nervously. “Man, you don’t expect me to buy that, right? It’s only been, like, a semester since we’ve last seen each other, so I can hardly believe you became some interdimensional peacekeeper. The name thing’s weird, but there have got to be hundreds of other Lucas Clements out there.”

Lilith looked around, confirming that the street was empty save for the two of them. Satisfied, she activated Aura of the Arbiter, and watched as Jameson froze in place, completely unable to move. After about five seconds, she released it. “There, happy?” She asked. “I can prove it to you in other ways, if you want.”

Jameson let out the breath he had been holding. He was silent for a long moment, looking Lilith over. “…Really?” He asked in a small voice.

“Really.” Lilith replied, nodding. “Anyway, what are you here for? I thought you wouldn’t be back until Thanksgiving break.”

“Nononono,” He stuttered, “You’re not just going to gloss that over. You need to explain, mister.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Alright, I’ll explain. But, in return you’ll help me get stuff from my parent’s house. I’ve got a lot to move.”

“Fine, fine. Let me go let my parents know. I’ll meet you at your house.” He shrugged once he noticed the questioning look Lilith gave him. “We’re trying to keep each other in the know when it comes to where we are. Everyone’s a bit on edge since the Shift.”

“The Shift?” Lilith said, slightly amused. “That’s what people are calling it?”

“We have to call it something. It’s kind of a significant event.” He replied, walking off. “See you in a few minutes.”

“Got it, I’ll leave the door unlocked, make sure you lock it when you come in.”

Lilith unlocked the house and made her way into the living room. She cleared large area in the middle of the room and laid out an array that would transfer items back to Kali’s house. She would have preferred to send the stuff straight to her dungeon, but apparently teleporting into a dungeon just wasn’t possible outside of Higher Being shenanigans, but that would require Worship that neither Lilith nor Kali were willing to spare at the moment. Once the items were in the dungeon, moving them would be trivial, so teleporting them one room over was good enough.

After this she would be emptying out Judy’s house, as well as the one that she used to rent from Judy. Most of what she would be keeping was stuff that couldn’t be easily reproduced by the dungeon (such as electronics with data on them), or items with sentimental value. The rest would be absorbed into the dungeon for a slight increase in DP and variety of items it could produce.

“Yo, I’m here!” Jameson said, walking in and locking the door behind him. “How are we going to do this? I don’t see any trucks or anything.”

He walked into the living room and then stopped, noticing the large array on the floor. “Or…that, I guess? How’s it work?”

“We put stuff on it, when it’s full I’ll activate it and the stuff will be sent away. Simple as that.”

“Handy. Any chance you could teach me?” Jameson asked.

Lilith shrugged. “I mean, there’s no reason you couldn’t learn it, but you’d kind of be skipping a lot of steps and making it harder than it needs to be. Gotta learn to crawl before you can sprint. Not to mention the fact that I doubt you have enough Mana to really use this thing. You’d probably need to store some somewhere and draw on reserves.”

“Yikes. How much does it take?”

“About a thousand per go.” Lilith said casually, picking up the couch with one hand, moving it onto the circle, and activating it with no apparent effort. She put on a look of faux innocence as she looked at his shocked face. “What? It was going to be annoying, so I got it out of the way.”

“Show-off.” He mumbled. “Isn’t that kind of wasteful?”

Lilith grinned. “That much will be back in barely over a minu- scratch that, it’ll be thirty seconds.” She said, updating her estimate as Mae transferred over five hundred Mana so they both were regenerating.

“Oh, lay off it. Do I even want to know what your Mana pool is?” He half joked, moving an end-table over to the circle.

Lilith smiled wider “If we’re talking easy-access Mana, that’s around sixty-eight thousand. If I pull into some reserves that I like to keep untouched I can probably crack eighty thousand.”

“That’s nuts. I specced into magic and I’ve got one hundred and fifty two. What kind of steroids are you taking, and where can I get them?”

Lilith activated the circle immediately once the end table was in, thoroughly enjoying showing off to her friend. He was always more athletic than her, so it was nice to have the tables turned in magic.

And, come to think of it, she was also probably far stronger than him too, now. She wouldn’t tease him for that, though. No reason to lord her stats over him more than she already was. “Well, for one, if you include my Racial Classes, my total level is almost eleven hundred. So, you know, that’s slightly higher than what I’m imagining you’ve got.”

“I’m level four.” He chuckled. “You’ve got me there.”

“Hey, if your magic growth held up and you hit my level, your total would be bigger than mine.”

“Uh, earth to Lucas, I think your math is off. I’ve been growing like, fifteen to twenty every level, and that wouldn’t add up to anywhere near sixty eight thousand, let alone eighty.” He said, rolling his eyes. “You might want to double check your work.”

“Alright then.” Lilith said, sending the other end table through the array. “You have one hundred and fifty two Mana. Assuming you started at one hundred and got three level ups, including taking your Class, that’s fifty two Mana from levels, or an average of seventeen point 3 repeating per level.”

She continued, parroting the numbers Mae was feeding her, “Multiply by eleven hundred and you get nineteen thousand and sixty six point six repeating, add one hundred and that’s nineteen thousand and sixty six point six repeating. Which, yes, does not reach sixty eight thousand, but I’ve also got four separate Mana pools, with another as a backup if I really need it. If you count against just one of those pools you win, they’re only around seventeen thousand each.”

“Wow, only around seventeen thousand.” Jameson said sarcastically. “I feel so much better. That’s only a bit over one hundred times my pool, so I’m sure I’ll make it past that in a couple of weeks. How’d you get that many levels, anyway?”

So, Lilith began to tell Jameson her story while they worked. She wasn’t rushing the cleaning, so by the time she was done, they still had a few rooms left.

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Jameson rubbed his forehead. “Wow. I can’t believe it. You got a girlfriend.”

“That’s what you feel the need to point out?” Lilith retorted, playfully throwing a cushion at him. “Rude.”

He watched the cushion soar through the air and made no attempt to dodge or catch it, letting it hit his chest and fall down. “It’s the only thing I think I can point out right now. I’ve been preparing to tease you about this for ten years, man. I’m in shock over everything else. I mean, that’s not even getting into who your girlfriend is.”

Mae nudged Lilith into paying attention to Carmen as the latter leaned over to Kali. “They’re talking about you and our relationship.” She whispered. “Jameson’s having a hard time processing.”

Kali grinned impishly. “Oooh. Alright, mind if I step away for like, five minutes? I’ve got something I’ve always wanted to try.” She said, clearly delighted.

Carmen grinned back. “By all means. I’m looking forward to whatever it is.”

A beam of light shone around Lilith, a figure descending majestically from it…before landing so she was sitting on Lilith’s shoulders. “I am the great goddess Kali Clements!” She said imperiously. “Bow down before me, puny mortal, and I will spare your life.”

The image was ruined, as much as it could be ruined further, by Kali kicking her feet back and forth, bouncing them gently off of Lilith’s chest.

“Stop that.” Lilith said, swatting at Kali’s foot. “You’re not fooling anyone. Get down from there, you’re hunched like, all the way over.” It was true. While on top of Lilith, she was too tall to fit in the room, so she was leaning over to keep herself from hitting her head. Lilith wasn’t done, though. “And what do you mean Kali Clements? We’ve been dating for like a day.”

 “I just wanted to say it.” Kali giggled, jumping backwards off of Lilith and then flapping her wings, sending her right back towards her. She latched onto Lilith in a piggyback pose and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “There. Now I’m not hunched over.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Anyway, Jameson, this is my girlfriend Kali. You can ignore the whole bowing down thing, she’s just messing with you.”

“Hi there!” Kali waved energetically. “Nice to meet you! Any friend of Lilith’s is a friend of mine!”

Jameson stood there mutely, observing the situation with an unmoving face. He slowly pinched himself and then, when that apparently didn’t work, croaked out a greeting. “Hi.” He said, voice betraying no emotion.

“I think we broke him.” Kali giggled, playfully biting Lilith’s ear. “Should I get the duct tape?”

“We?” Lilith said incredulously. “I’m pretty sure ninety percent of everything leading up to this situation is your fault.”

Kali giggled again. “Guilty as charged. Take me away, officer.”

Jameson, finally seeming to come to terms with the situation, spoke again. “Um, I’m flattered that you came to say hi…” He floundered for a moment, obviously trying to figure out how to address Kali. “Your holiness, but…aren’t you kind of busy right now? What with changing the world and everything?”

“That’s right.” Kali said, fidgeting as she tried to straighten her posture without making her hold on Lilith any looser. Not finding a way, she gave up and just tightened her grip instead. “I was in the middle of some very important work.”

“She was playing mini-golf with Carmen.” Lilith said flatly.

“Right! Like I said, very important work. It’s research!”

“For what?” Lilith replied, unimpressed.

“The Mini Golfer Class, of course.”

“That’s not a thing…right?”

“It will be!” Kali said proudly, thumping Lilith’s chest in place of her own. “The system will probably add one once people have played enough mini-golf.”

“So, you don’t even need to be doing research, right?” Lilith pointed out. “The system should just do it itself.”

“I’m doing my part in making it get done that much faster!” Kali said proudly.

“That’s…well, I suppose that’s true. So…shouldn’t you be getting back to it, then?”

Kali squeezed Lilith’s waist. “Or what, mommy?” She purred. “Will you discipline me?”

Lilith blushed fiercely, embarrassment not at all helped by Carmen cracking up in the background. “Alright, that’s enough.” She said. “Didn’t you say earlier that we should focus on our work so you could focus on your date?”

Kali laughed. “Fair enough. I was just stopping by for a minute.” She waved at Jameson again. “By the way, just call me Kali, “Your holiness” really doesn’t suit me, I’m not really a god. Later!” She said, and vanished, reappearing next to Carmen without any of the fanfare that had accompanied her when she had gone to Lilith.

Jameson breathed a sigh of relief. “Wow.” He said. “That was a trip. She always like that?”

“Lately, pretty much.” Lilith said, picking up a box. “It’s not that bad, though.”

Jameson grinned, elbowing Lilith in the ribs. “Seems like you like it, eh?”

Lilith blushed even harder. “Maybe a little. It’s kind of cute.”

“You’ll have to go on a double date with me sometime. I’d love to see the look on Anna’s face when she finds out what you’ve been up to.”

I’m down for it! Kali said in Lilith’s mind. Ask him if Friday at seven PM works! I mean, I’m free any time, really, but I want to set up a concrete time so it doesn’t get delayed forever.

“Um…Kali wants to know if Friday at seven PM works for you. She says she’s free at any time, she just wants to nail down a time.”

For a brief moment, Jameson had his “idea” face, but he quickly masked it. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Alright, spit it out, what’d you think of?”

“It’s nothing, not a big deal.” He replied sheepishly.

“Nuh-uh, that face never means nothing. Say it.”

“I was…thinking it would be funny if we pushed it back a day and told Anna it was because we didn’t want to interrupt her night out with her family. She usually goes out with her sisters then, but none of them really care if someone has to schedule a date then. But then I figured I shouldn’t push back the schedule of someone like Kali for a dumb joke.” He said, moving for the stairs with box in hand.

That sounds hilarious. Tell him it’s a deal and that we’ll show up at his house on at seven o’clock on Saturday.

“She says that sounds hilarious and that we’ll be there at seven on Saturday.”

“Oh.” He said, blinking. “Sounds like a plan, I guess.”

Lilith began packing the contents of a bookshelf into a box, waiting for Jameson to return. And…after several minutes, he didn’t.

Getting slightly worried, Lilith made the trip down the stairs to find the living room occupied by two people. The first was an extraordinarily beautiful woman. Her reddish-brown hair fell down to her waist, coiled in an intricate fashion. She was tall, too – Lilith would have put her at just over six feet, but her height was hard to judge, as she was bent over, inspecting the other person carefully.

The other person was…a catgirl, oddly enough. She stood stock still, staring ahead stoically, like there was nothing of interest whatsoever in the room. Her long brown hair draped messily over clothes that Lilith realized, after a moment, were the same ones Jameson had been wearing minutes ago.

The woman gave Lilith a radiant smile, standing up straight and bowing. “Hello. My name is Titania.”