radio414

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.
-Titus 2:3 (NIV)

---

Melissa was sure she was being paranoid, and yet the look she got from the waiter as she and Natasha entered Eating For Two felt like one of the meanest looks she had ever gotten. It was like a “You don’t belong here,” type of look, which she supposed was technically true, but seemed weird in the context of two people entering an establishment called “Eating For Two.” They were seated without an issue, though, so the moment passed without too much discomfort, even if it remained on Melissa’s mind as the conversation turned elsewhere. “Have you been trying to get into this place for a while then?” Melissa asked. “They knew your name, and it didn’t seem like a Guardian thing. Did nobody else from your group want to come with?”

Natasha shook her head and got to typing. “Hasn’t been open long. Tried to get in before just myself. It was the first place I thought of.”

By the time she’d finished typing all that, the waiter was back and waiting expectantly for their drink orders. Melissa nodded a measure of understanding of Natasha’s situation up to this point and then nodded at the waiter. “Um,” she said, still thinking about the look she’d gotten and wanting to fit in. “Do you know what a Bloody Mary is?”

The waiter just stared at her. Melissa wilted in her seat a little. “Like, tomato juice and I think vodka, but with a bunch of garnishes. I don’t know what all goes in -”

“Yes. I am familiar with what you are describing, but we do not call it that here. And I would need to see some form of identification indicating-”

Melissa quickly waved away the question with a frantic gesture. “No no, um, I wanted to order a Virgin Mary, actually. Like, without the vodka. And not bloody either, um, so I was wondering if that could be replaced with something else like a spicy ginger beer or something.”

The fact that the waiter had to repeat her order back to her was a bad sign. Melissa was entirely inexperienced in the world of cocktails. Communion wine was her only real experience with alcohol, of course, so she wasn’t sure how “ginger beer with lemon juice, lime juice, pickle juice, horseradish, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, and a celery stick” was going to taste, but the waiter said that they would have it right up and Melissa didn’t want to take it back at that point. Natasha, meanwhile, simply pointed at the drink menu, and a holographic image appeared on the table indicating her selection.

“That’s nifty,” Melissa said as the waiter walked away. She tried it with a few other drinks, all of which looked much more appetizing than what she had just concocted. “I should probably order some water too, when the waiter comes back,” she said. “I just wanted- this seemed like the place to be fancy, and I know who the Virgin Mary is, obviously, so I kind of just defaulted to that. This keeps happening to me. I- One time, I somehow made a friend put honey in her coffee, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over myself for that.”

Natasha seemed confused. Melissa worried that she might have gotten lost somewhere in that whole ramble, but Natasha simply typed out a single word: “Mary?”

Did Natasha know that that single name could cause so much strife? Melissa nearly launched into another whole ramble simply on instinct, but she just managed to catch herself with the reminder that evangelizing a woman she had met only twice was not a thing that would get her to meet for a third time. Unless Natasha was genuinely curious, of course -- and why shouldn’t she help a wayward soul find her way to the light of Jesus? -- but that would require at least a bit more clarification, which seemed rude when Natasha had asked for clarification first.

Melissa made some sort of involuntary gurgling sound, but she decided to split the difference. “So, um, ‘Bloody Mary’ was a person -- a queen, I think -- but the name is mostly used now as a children’s horror prank. The Virgin Mary, meanwhile, is a prominent figure in my religion as the mother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” She intentionally left out the parts there that Natasha probably would have found distasteful, unless Natasha was okay with fourteen-year-old pregnancies, which was not something Melissa wanted to get into.

Natasha just smiled, a bit sheepishly. “I know of Jesus,” she typed. “Sofia says that when she’s surprised.”

“Sofia” was not a name Melissa had heard before. She had met Salvo and she knew that she and Salvo shared a religion, and she knew Salvo and Natasha were in the same group, so it could have been Salvo’s real name or something, but the possibility of a third person excited Melissa. She just hoped Sofia was not one of the denominations that had irreconcilable differences with Catholicism. Not all of them had survived the dome, but there were still pockets. Instead of prying into all that, Melissa just said, “You should try and get more out of her, like a ‘Jesus, Joseph and Mary!’ and maybe an ‘And all the saints!’ for good measure if it’s a real surprise.”

Natasha’s smile changed to one of bemusement. “Perhaps I will,” she typed, and just in time, as the waiter returned and asked for their order.

Melissa looked down at the menu and realized just how much of it she hadn’t read yet. She put her finger on a random item and a massive bowl of noodles materialized in front of her. “Oh, that’s… I wouldn’t be able to eat all of that,” Melissa said. Maybe that was why she got such a look from the waiter as she’d entered the restaurant. She wasn’t such a serious eater after all. But until such a time happened that she was thrown out for such an injustice (or at least the injustice of the drink that was now sitting in front of her, with its thick sauce bubbles on top of the soda), Melissa did try to persevere. “Um, there’s no leftovers, so did you want to share something, Natasha? I get the feeling I’ll get stabbed if we try and get an extra serving bowl, but I can just eat out of yours or you eat out of mine or, um… I don’t have any dietary restrictions, so whatever looks good to you…”

M.A.C.S. Basic Rifle Marksmanship

it's only a train if it comes from the train region of germany otherwise it's just a sparkling bus

anyway what's your favorite playing card in your standard 52-card deck (no jokers)

37 minutes ago, yui said:

you gotta give up forever, one of the food groups as shown in that not very accurate food pyramid every millennial grew up memorizing. what group is on the chopping block for the rest of your life?

vegetables aren't real they were made up by big chef to force-feed kids brussels sprouts before brussels sprouts were cool look it up

if someone says "hey that's a carrot you're not allowed to eat that" i'd just be like "um actually this is a root"

“Next rank.” God, why was Carmen going along with this? Maybe it had to do with the stuff Shiki was talking about, but that sounded like some sort of video game and not whatever the hell his life had become since accepting this job. “Confession Event?” More like “Confusion Event.” It was a dumb enough joke to get Brian to smirk as he finished up the rest of his second burger.

Brian licked his fingers and wiped them off with a burger napkin. “I already told you my goal, Shiki,” he said. “I’m not here to make friends or whatever, I’m here because…” Was this too vulnerable to say out loud? Well, it was just Carmen, right? “I’m here because you saved me and I’m repaying that. And because you can’t really go back from experiences like that anyway. I’m not going to think about what the alternatives are.”

He let that simmer there in the van for as long as it was comfortable to do so, which wasn’t long. Brian almost considered grabbing another burger, but he knew that if he did that he’d guarantee some sort of burger dream when he did eventually collapse into bed that night. Now that he thought about it, though, it was taking a long while for Shiki to get back to either of their houses. He’d had to drive to Carmen’s to pick her up first, so maybe Shiki was taking some weird “shortcut” to his house and driving as slow as Shiki normally drove, but Marinton wasn’t that big. “Hey, Shiki,” Brian eventually said, “Where are you taking us?”

“We were not asked to go anywhere in specific.”

Brian nearly threw a burger at the driver but settled for spiking it on the ground. “Fucking hell. I would like to sleep in my own bed tonight if that’s alright with you.” He was sure Carmen wanted to too, but they weren’t there yet -- “Relationship Levels” or whatever -- for him to say that out loud.

He became aware of just what time it was. Like, he’d checked before because of the time fuckery, but now the exhaustion was really hitting Brian. When Shiki finally started driving everyone home, it still felt like forever before he was allowed to sleep.

He awoke the next day later than he normally did, which wasn’t great for his gym schedule, but he forced himself at least to be moving, which was almost the same thing. After some stretches, Brian decided to walk to the nearest coffee shop, whereupon he bought a medium latte, a scone, and however much table space a medium latte and a scone would get him for his laptop. Shiki told them they wouldn’t be contacted. Probably. And as long as that “probably” hung in the air, he intended to get some goddamn work done.

Quinn flinched the moment when Route One Oh Two became the smallest bit wet. It was not enough to keep from carrying on, but she kept thinking about it as it took further and further steps. Quinn was intimately familiar with mud, for reasons they rather kept to hirself. As Route One Oh Two became a full-on bog, Quinn spent more time looking for the safest places to step than zir stated goal of hunting for Pokémon. Cassiopeia had to help with a few of those jumps, putting all her effort into pulling upwards, giving Quinn just a few extra moments of airtime to navigate safely. It did not always work, and every piece of clothing below Quinn’s knee suffered the consequences, but there was still entertainment in the process, so Quinn did not mind.

There were wild Pokémon to encounter, of course, and for those, Quinn did faer best to stay in place. Normandie did not seem to mind the environment fighting with her trademark ferocity, and Cassiopeia was unaffected by most terrain in general. The Pokémon that truly caught Quinn’s eye, however, was a Bearble standing stock still and facing away from her as it approached. Quinn recognized it immediately. “Peat? Where is your friend Nathaniel?” Quinn asked. But the Bearble did not respond, still looking ahead and growling under his breath. “Ahead, then? What is he doing without you?”

Quinn made a move to continue, but Cassiopeia suddenly jerked its hand back, pulling the rest of the young ghost back with her. “Oh!” Quinn said, in more of shock than actual pain. “What is with you, you silly balloon?”

That was when xe heard the whispers. In all likelihood, they had always been there since first stepping into the marsh, but it had taken breaking focus to notice them, and now they were impossible to ignore. The whispers in the back of Quinn’s mind were incomprehensible, but in the sort of way that promised comprehension if one only listened harder. Quinn tried again to approach the statue -- the whispers had to be coming from there, right? -- but Cassiopeia once again refused.

“Do you want to go back into your Pokéball?” Quinn asked. That seemed to be an acceptable compromise for Cassiopeia, who practically opened her ball for Quinn as ze took it out.

Approaching the statue alone made staying clean a practically impossible task, but Quinn no longer cared. The statue’s aura was awesome in the literal sense, with all the terrifying implications that that implied. It was no wonder that both Cassiopeia and Peat were not interested in such a place. Nathaniel was also there, hesitating just before placing his hand on the edifice. Quinn did likewise but overcame that final mental barrier to find out what the statue felt like.

The statue was warm, but not in a way where the rock had absorbed sunlight all morning and was now radiating excess heat, nor was it warm because Quinn’s skin, as a ghost, was naturally cooler. No, it felt warm because it felt like it was alive, an impossibility in itself, but that was what it felt like. Even more, it felt like it was breathing, too. There was a pulse of energy in the statue. Its rhythm was slow, but it was there and it was consistent. Quinn could tap along with it if they didn’t feel compelled to keep his hand on the rock.

“Material or Astral, I have never encountered anything like this,” Quinn said, Quinn’s voice soft. The voices in her head got louder, and faster too. And yet, Quinn still could not understand it. “What secrets do you hold?” Quinn mused. Still keeping faer hand touching the rock, Quinn began walking clockwise around the base, searching for more phenomena to experience -- an irregularity in the rock, perhaps, or a change in the statue’s beat.

Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool

Before the skeleton’s sword could strike Chris’ flesh, he pulled back on his string and returned to the entryway to the room. Things were moving a bit quicker now, so Chris took a moment to reevaluate where things were.

“Where things were,” it turned out, was on the left wall. Ziun and Lana had dealt with the skeleton over there and one of the coffin lids opened up, revealing some new type of undead monster inside. It was not something Chris recognized, though, if he thought about it, he really shouldn’t expect to recognize any sort of undead creature. That wasn’t his, or anyone he associated with’s, line of work. He saw Lana cut a gash into the creature and how ineffective that was. Maybe if a blow went all the way through it would work? He didn’t exactly want to tell Lana to just do it again but better this time, though.

Chris unwound the magic string again. It felt like he needed to be in two places at once, and this was the best way to do it. The skeletons were only going to get closer while everyone wasn’t looking. He took one or two steps back before breaking into a run towards that corner. When he reached the coffin, he leaped up onto the edge and used that to propel himself higher He still had his sword in his dominant hand, and as he jumped he held it high above his head before bringing the blade, his body, and his entire weight down on the wrapped thing’s raised arm, right in the shoulder.

He teleported away before he had to experience the consequences of such a reckless leap, though he still had to brace as he hit the ground back where they started again, eventually falling to his knees. Still, he was quick to pick himself back up. “Try hitting that with magic!” he called back to them. “That or, uh, I dunno, aim for a joint? Or where a joint should be, anyway?” He turned his attention back to the skeletons coming his way and readied his sword.

Abyss Angel

“Where’s DEUS?” someone asked.

“Short North,” was the answer. “But he was headed north from there, so if he takes the right turns from there, maybe?”

Clotho was in charge of the front lines facing off against Project Rubicon. She had an earpiece on, and if one was really paying attention, they’d notice a few more capes going around with similar paraphernalia. She broke off from mumbling into it when she saw Sibyl arrive, though. “Did you win?” she said, in the sort of tone that made it clear there hadn’t really been any doubt. “You’ll have to tell me all about it. Later, obviously. Right now, well…” Her tone made the conclusion of that sentence obvious too.

“We’ve got two things to worry about: Figuring out what’ll actually shut that thing down… or kill it? I guess figuring out which of those verbs is the right one is step one of that. The second is keeping it from being able to focus on the main bulk of Scarlet City. That’s what all the fliers are for.” She gestured upwards. Flying around Project Rubicon’s face were all sorts of airborne capes, some winged, some with tinker tech, some with some other power. They were like tiny mosquitos to Project Rubicon, though. Every so often, the behemoth raised its arm to cut a swath through the swarm, and they all scattered, but they came back just as determined. One of them streaked right across its eyeline, and it turned its whole body to try and follow.

Project Rubicon took a step. It was away from the main hub of Scarlet City, though that flier still had to get completely out of the thing’s sight.

A voice blasted over her earpiece so loud that it was audible to everyone in the vicinity. “Maybe we could lead it to where DEUS is?”

Clotho winced. “Levels, watch it,” she said as she tapped her headset. “We’ll call that Plan B.” She returned her attention to Sibyl and produced some Tinker tech that Sibyl would hopefully recognize. It was two of the items she had pilfered from Dee Moxley’s warehouse a week ago, the toy-looking ray gun one of them had wielded, and what looked like a puzzle box with a bright red button on top of it encased in a safety glass dome. “Catch,” Clotho said, though she only held the items out for Sibyl to take. “Maybe we’ll try these too, whatever they are. Can’t hurt.”

Project Rubicon took another step. Clotho turned to watch this one, and one could practically see the gears turning in her head. “Oh that’s a thought,” she said. She turned back. “Hey, gotta run and find a Tinker or a Thinker or… something, but yeah, we’re in ‘throwing stuff at the wall’ mode right now. If something does work, make sure to let someone know, yeah?” And she went off.

But Sibyl was not alone for long. In Clotho’s place, drifting down from above, was Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia looked like she had just fallen across the sky about as fast as her power could manage, though her clothes still somehow looked no worse for it. She gave Sibyl a light smile and tapped her cheek like she meant to say, “You sounded like you really want to punch that thing in the face. Need a lift?”

The Killer

Battle Labs was a pretty unassuming building just looking at it from the outside. It was of the brutalist school of architecture -- an all-concrete exterior that had been painted white to give the faintest impression of an aesthetic beyond that. It was mathematically interesting in that the part of the building that was above ground was a perfect cube, but only the sort of nerd who eventually wanted to work there cared about any of that. Many of the windows on the ground floor were broken, but it was safe to assume that, on a normal day, they were perfectly intact.

Roy was in the middle of his second lap around the makeshift perimeter surrounding Battle Labs when the capes arrived. “Lavender… Ochre…” He kept mumbling even more colors to himself as Sarah and Lachesis trailed behind. Lachesis had altered her gait into an exaggerated lockstep, arms swinging wildly back and forth. She was just careful enough to not whack Roy in the back of the head but was more careful not to distract Sarah, who was taking notes on Roy’s musings on a legal pad. They passed by the original strike team, who had pulled themselves back out to the perimeter and were in the process of licking their wounds -- metaphorically in most cases and literally in one.

It was Lachesis who noticed the two heroes first, somehow, despite her blindfold. “Heyyyyy,” she called out, making sure to pronounce each and every one of those ys as one of her arm swings turned into a lazy wave. “World’s ending and Captain Rainbow over here thinks we have time to go cross-checking every entry point. Atropos is by the main entrance back that way, if you care, which, you know, apparently we don’t.”

Roy stopped and sighed. “We’re not going in the main entrance. I don’t care if you mistrust my power or not, that’s also how they -- the original strike team -- went in, and look where that got us. Azure.” He made sure Sarah made a note of the new color and kept walking.

Lachesis put her hands up, and her tone and posture immediately changed. “Hey, I’m not doubting anything. We’re both Thinkers. I get it. Rubicon’s first beam hit near the old fairgrounds and went north-north-east, right? I know you don’t think I- my sisters and I can be altruistic, but at least believe my selfish desire to protect our territory, huh? And we’re not just that strike team anymore. We’ve got an actual force now, and we know where we’re going.”

“A larger set of capes is all the more reason to have a plan in place,” Roy said. “Especially with you two here. That’s two extra sets of orders when we need continuity of motion.” He took a few more steps and grimaced. “Gamboge. No, Amaranth.”

Roy still wasn’t looking at Lachesis, so she stuck her tongue out at him before turning her attention back to the new arrivals. “No hard feelings about me being right about where Caesar was, right Override? That Tinker guy built a cool trinket, we were just looking at two different things. But I know you were hanging out with that guy, I’d understand if you were upset on his behalf or whatever.”

Lachesis turned around and started heading the opposite way to Roy and Sarah. “There’s a side door back around this way,” she said. “There is kind of a plan. We’ve arranged a couple of waves, one after the other. That way if someone needs to fall back again, they can do so with confidence that someone is right behind them to take their spot. And if someone –” she looked over her shoulder at the heroes again, a clear knowing look on her face even through the blindfold “-- cuts a swath through whatever Gibbons are down there for us, well, we’ll all be that much closer to apprehending Caesar down there. Not that you need me telling you what to do, right?” She smirked.

“Wait!” Minos’ voice rang out running after the three as she tried to catch up with everyone. “I’m coming too!” she said. “Sorry I’m late, had to make sure A.V.D. was okay and talk to Ophiuchus a bit, but I’m here now. I know Override’s got those floor plans like he had for the casino, but I can help too. Hey, were you just standing around? Let’s go!”

---

 

13 hours ago, Cibryll said:

Are they undead?

some of them! some of them are girls too!

andy

 

 

41 minutes ago, yui said:

e

feng

1 hour ago, LordCowCow said:

is skullgirls like fate

idk, idk what fate is

stanley

yeah i play a gatcha game too what of it yes it's also a fighting game but i'm bad at it

Brian was in the middle of peeling off the pickles on his second burger, considering between throwing them in the sink or yanking open the door and throwing them onto the open road, when Carmen asked her question. Was whatever was in that building a ghost or a demon? It wasn’t any sort of ghost that Brian had heard of, so the answer was obviously the latter. Besides, it sure seemed like the whole building had been possessed, which sure seemed like something a demon would do. Once he was satisfied his burger was pickle-free, he opened his mouth to respond and set the record-

“If it were a demon, you would have had a much harder time.”

…and thankfully he was in a position to eat some of his burger instead of his words. “That’s what I was going to say,” Brian said in between mouthfuls. Thankfully, Shiki kept talking before anyone had time to interrogate that.

Not that the follow-up question was any better, though. What the fuck was a “Relationship Value?” “What the fuck is a Relationship Value?” Brian said, still chewing. His focus shifted between Shiki and Carmen, trying to determine any further clues as to what was going on. “Like, have I gotten to know Carmen better? Shiki, until like ten minutes ago, I was dealing with a fake Carmen, and she with, well, I don’t know if Carmen was dealing with a fake me or not, but I assume she was. You think I know Carmen any better because I had to wrestle a demon version of her to the ground tonight?”

He sized the real Carmen up. “It was even weaker than you are,” he said. Having said that, and looking at Carmen more closely. If she had been stuck in that room with a demon or whatever it was, she did manage to get out of it all by herself. She’d even managed to get out at about the same time Brian had, like, yeah, he’d spent a lot of time going through some really stupid potential solutions that went nowhere, but he hadn’t taken that long, had he? And like he’d told the fake Carmen, hell, like he'd told Shiki late last night, she’d been almost okay when they were dealing with the school. Two times in a row reduced the chances of a fluke significantly.

It was some measure of respect. Some. It still had to be couched in, you know, the rest of her whole deal, though, and he wasn't about to admit anything out loud anyway. “I don’t know,” Brian said. “I don’t hate her, I guess. Somehow, despite watching whatever that was in that building dance around in her body.”

is touhou like fate

is blue archive like fate

Chris didn’t think about Estellise’s absence anymore once they all crossed the threshold and headed back down into the dungeon. He just didn’t. If it popped back up into his mind, he just ignored the thought until it went away. It wasn’t even his fault; her mother had sent her away. It was a totally unrelated set of circumstances. Nope, that was thinking about it again. Focus, instead, on the task at hand.

Ziun had looked like he wanted to say more, but it wasn’t like he’d made the prediction Chris had desperately asked for, so maybe he didn’t and Chris was just being paranoid. Speaking of predictions, though, Chris was pretty sure he wouldn’t have guessed “more skeletons” if he had to make one of his own. But, then again, it made sense. Behind them was what should have been a stairwell and was just a solid wall instead. They were in the crypt from their last run. These skeletons were just an extension of the last ones they had fought. Right? Just because their weapons were different didn’t mean they didn’t match thematically?

Maybe he was expecting too much continuity. Maybe he was desperately holding on to whatever he could grasp. Ziun had certainly changed in the meantime. It was only then that Chris realized that Ziun didn’t have a sword anymore. He wasn’t flailing about trying to get at whatever he could, he cast a set of spells that distracted the skeletons and coated one of them in acid. “Cool new tricks,” Chris said. He tried to say it without a hint of disparagement because he meant it.

Right, time to focus now. They had a long crawl ahead of them, no need to think about anything else besides the present moment. Chris wondered if he could get the next door open like he had the last one, and a few of the other ones besides it. There were only six skeletons that he could see, and they were pretty spread out. If no more monsters showed up, he could see himself putting his trust in Lana and Ziun to keep him safe a bit longer. Of course, if this was the tomb from their last dungeon run, it would be another strong test for his lockpicks. There could also be, you know, a key lying around somewhere. Maybe it was in the coffins?

Whatever the case turned out to be, There were two skeletons in the middle column between everyone and the door, and though they were both distracted by Ziun’s conjuration for the moment, they had to be dealt with before they could try any of this. Chris’ sword was already in his hand, but he unwound his string in the other to give himself a safer retreat once the distraction stopped working. He charged forward, picking out the closer one on his left. He slid low to the ground when he got close enough and hacked at the skeleton’s knees.

kirby super star

shaq fu

sküljagger: revolt of the westicans

earthbound

is honkai star rail like fate

53 minutes ago, LordCowCow said:

If you made a forum what would it be for?

a lot of my interests still have fora it's a little weird actually. i guess i think "the forge" ttrpg creation forum shutting down is sad if only because it's harder to find the discussions that led to apocalypse world, fiasco, blades in the dark, and so many more modern mainstays or at least their inspirations, so i'd make something like that

call me rpgmaker oh wait that's taken isn't it.

birthday bump am i ycmaker who can say

 

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
-Judges 6:12 (NIV)

---

Having her consciousness shunted around was almost like what happened to her when she let the computers in her brain take over for her. Maybe that was why Melissa was getting used to the teleporters so quickly. It was either that just using one so many times in one day. “The third time’s the charm,” was a saying for a reason.

Natasha spotted Melissa first and, more embarrassingly, also recognized Melissa before Melissa even remembered Natasha’s name. There weren’t that many people she knew on Prana, it shouldn’t have been that hard, but “Salvo’s friend” was an impression that had to pull out of the orbit of someone as bombastic as Salvo. She only remembered just in time. “Hello… Natasha,” Melissa said. She stopped to read Natasha’s message. “Oh, I did go shopping, but, um, it turns out I just like wearing clothes like this.” She gave her dress a little twirl as if to demonstrate. More importantly, she showed Natasha the dress’s pockets. “Today was an exploring day. I just wanted to see more of Prana.”

It was hard not to judge Natasha for how she typed. Melissa watched as Natasha’s single outstretched finger drifted over all the keys searching for just the right one to add next. How did she not know the general layout of a keyboard yet? Melissa didn’t say anything, though (and, frankly, regretted such thoughts as soon as they came into her mind), and simply read out what Natasha had laboriously inputted as it came out: “Did you find anything of note?”

Melissa recounted her day: “Well, I found here, which is quite different than what I was expecting. My churches are, um, never mind it’s a whole thing, but then a level down I met someone with a pet sanctuary I was thinking of visiting again. A level down from that was the entrance to the mines, though I forgot to ask what they were mining down there. Going back down to ask feels… wrong, though? Somehow? Um,” She realized just how much she had dumped on Nataha and blushed. “Sorry, that was a lot more than I expected.”

Natasha shook her head and typed out, “I was the one who asked.”

“That’s fair, I guess,” Melissa said. Her blush didn’t subside entirely, though. “Um, what have you been doing since we last met?” In fact, there it was growing again. “You don’t have to type all of it out if you don’t want to.”

Thankfully, Natasha just gave a silent laugh and made a motion that Melissa interpreted as, “A bit of this and that.” 

It was bit of a vague answer, but Melissa couldn’t exactly fault Natasha for that. Not after she had just embarrassed herself by doing the opposite. “Do you want to get lunch?” Melissa said. “One of the reasons I came back up is because I was hungry, and I still don’t know where the best places to eat are. I don’t have… a lot of money, but I do have enough, I think.”

Melissa remembered Fiona owed her and Fen lunch from yesterday, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to collect on that bet for all sorts of reasons.