The New Arrival's Guide to Common Things

by Jorbon Delivas

Alright! Now that we've discussed the absolute basics of the world's governance, let's get a bit more specific. Given I'm writing a general guide, I have no way to know whether you - dear reader - are from a tutorial of law or chaos.

Due to that, I should address social expectation, law and order, society - whatever you want to call the concept of general agreement of acceptable behavior.

Whether you come from a tutorial governed by chaos, or by order, you will be familiar with the concept of social boundaries and expected consequences. As one might expect, the world is a mixture of the concepts taught in both chaotic and ordered tutorials.

First, organizations have their own sets of rules, expectations, and requirements. They have their own penalties, and methods of enforcing those penalties (though most use the globally recognized title of 'enforcer' to administer said enforcement).

Jonah

Frella's Camp, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

A deep yawn ripped itself from Jonah's throat as he stretched his arms up and leaned back to relieve the minor stiffness in his back. He hadn't slept quite as long as he might have liked. He and Naomi had spent a good five hours in deep discussion with Frella and he'd woken when his body and UICI informed him it was 'morning'. He and Naomi had gotten used to operating on Origin Standard Time (OST) during their time on Phoenix's Nest and had convinced Willow to switch from the local world time to OST as well.

That switch hadn't happened until after they left Shee, as Willow was apparently entirely unable to not wake up with the sun. As soon as dawn hit, the woman was up and running through her morning routine - even if she'd only laid down for bed a couple hours prior.

Speaking of Willow, Jonah noted that she was still walking around in that weirdly stiff way she'd started moving in the night before. He'd noticed the oddity during the conversation with Frella, but hadn't seen any reason to worry. Willow was always doing new weird things, after all, nothing to get worked up about. Seeing as she had apparently not gone to sleep, and was still moving like a robot, Jonah decided to investigate.

Trotting over, Jonah reveled in the sensation of the swift movement without even the slightest hint of strain. Stopping in front of autono-llow, Jonah raised a hand in greeting, "Hey. Everything good?"

"Mhm, yep!" She answered in a distracted, flat, tone. A tone much more Naomi than Willow. She didn't stop as she answered him, stepping sharply to her right then marching forward past him. Perhaps he should have worried a bit when he saw her start acting weird last night.

Turning, he fell in step beside her, "Are you okay?"

"Great!" She said with more feeling, but in an oddly stilted way. As if she was trying to be cheerful but wasn't quite hitting the tone.

"That's good, because you're acting like a robot."

She stopped, head turning to look at him with eyes that made his skin crawl. They weren't unfocused, not exactly, but they also weren't present. Once more he was reminded of Naomi. Deciding to take a stab at what was going on, he asked carefully, "Did… Ah, did Naomi teach you some of her techniques or something?"

"One sec…" Willow muttered, before her eyes went glassy for a moment. He stared into eyes which were devoid of all soul in a way he'd rarely seen. It was, frankly, alarming. Sometimes Naomi stared off into the distance when she was doing stuff in her soul nexus, but there was still a kind of spark there. Somehow, Willow's gaze seemed entirely dead.

Until it wasn't. Chipped and glazed ice suddenly brightened into their usual shining frosty larimar. The missing life was suddenly undeniably, vibrantly, present. "Sorry, I was messing around in my library. I figured out how to walk around and look at stuff while I'm in there! My primary attention is either on the inside, or outside though. I can't really fully concentrate on both sides of things. So, yeah, robot-Willow! Don't worry, I won't slay humanity for their transgressions against the machine."

She suddenly positioned her arms at awkward ninety degree angles, leaning jerkily forward, and spoke in a semi monotone with a sharp and clipped cadence, "You're safe today, meat–bag."

A tension he hadn't realized had formed in the pit of Jonah's stomach loosened at seeing Willow acting silly again. He flailed for an equally silly way to reply, but the moment dragged on too long and she dropped the act before he could join the joke, "Anyway, need me? Oh! Are we ready to get going again?"

"Are you ready? Did you even sleep?" Jonah asked, pushing down a surge of regret for having missed his chance to goof around with her.

"Hmmmm…" Willow considered the question seriously. Which, of course, meant she started stretching and flexing: apparently testing her body. It only took her a handful of seconds to come to a conclusion. "Yep! I'm good to go! I actually fell asleep in the library… Woke up an hour or so ago with my head on the book I was reading. It was…"

Her bright demeanor suddenly faltered, a shadow passing over her eyes. "…Rough. Insightful, but… Yeah, a tough thing to experience."

"Experience? You said you were reading…" He pointed out, curious and back to a bit concerned.

A one-shoulder shrug met his question, "Both, kind of. In the soul nexus library, if I 'write' a book I can re-experience the entire memory of what I wrote rather than just reading words. I found another book that was already in there which worked similarly… So I kind of experienced a condensed version of this guy Josep's life after arriving. He had some tough experiences."

"Want to… Talk about it?" He offered, uncertain.

She bobbed her head from one shoulder to another slowly, "Not right now. Maybe later. There's a lot to process. For now, I'd actually much rather get out there and keep looking for Hama. We did promise the gnolls, after all."

"Sure, let's go find Naomi and see about heading off then." He smiled and waved for her to follow.

She joined him, asking, "Can you really call it 'finding' if you already know exactly where she is?"

"People used to say, 'I'll find my way there' while fully intending to use GPS." Jonah shrugged, "Seems about the same."

"Sure, sure. Hey, I've been wondering but we're rarely alone to ask anything sensitive…"

Jonah's heart suddenly sped up, accelerating at the possible implications. Doing his best to ignore the palpitation, he nodded at Willow to continue and focused on listening. "You can see through roofs and stuff, right? You mentioned the mats in that unused cottage thing over there…" She waved vaguely toward the back of Frella's base.

"Yeeah…" He answered slowly, unsure how such a question was exactly 'sensitive'. If they were traveling with anyone who they weren't sharing path details with, maybe, but everyone in the party had agreed to be open with each other.

"So you're always looking through all the ceilings of any structure?"

"I guess?" There was a trap here. He could sense it, but for the life of him couldn't figure out how to avoid it. Where was this going? His rapid heart had slowed to more normal levels now that it was confirmed the conversation wasn't really 'sensitive', at least to his mind.

She nodded thoughtfully. "Have you run into any ceilings you can't look through? Like, maybe, due to an enchantment or something?"

Feeling a bit proud, Jonah shook his head and boasted a bit, "Nope, seems my ability is either stronger than or just bypasses whatever enchantments beings might have had! I could even see through the interrogation rooms when we were in Motrendi and I'm sure they were warded against spells letting beings see or hear through them."

"Hmmm…" They were maybe a minute away from Naomi at their current pace. She and Frella were back in chairs around the central heating stone discussing something. Piper suddenly stepping onto her shoulder from nowhere. The little pink pixie glanced between the two of them and plopped herself down on her 'mother's' shoulder to listen in. "Are there any real limits to what you can see through?" Willow asked curiously.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

There was a strange sparkle in Piper's eyes. A mote of mischief she only had when a trick was being played, either by her or someone else. Jonah felt himself begin to sweat, despite still not seeing what exactly he was walking into. Seeing no reason to lie, he explained. "There are some limits, yeah. When I'm inside a structure I have to consciously push my sight outside of it, but the details lower. It's like zooming out. It also costs mana to move the 'center' of my viewpoint around."

"Interesting, interesting…" They were nearly to the base's little meeting circle. Willow stopped and leaned against the stone wall of one of the small houses. "Can you rotate your viewpoint around to see more details?"

They clearly still hadn't gotten to the 'sensitive' part of the conversation, and Piper's wide-gleeful-smile was not comforting him. "A little bit? I can kind of tilt the viewpoint. Not enough to mimic a third person view or anything… But I can use it to read signs if I position the viewpoint right."

"Nice! Got it!" Willow finally looked at him again, eyes calculating. She stayed quiet for long enough that he couldn't stand the tension and blurted, "Why were those questions sensitive?"

"Oh, no, they weren't. I just wanted to confirm I wasn't wrong that you could do it…"

"Do what?" Jonah could feel himself stepping up to the headman's noose. The rope was practically rubbing his neck raw already.

She leaned forward, "You watch Naomi and I in our pods, don't you?" His eyes widened as the floor dropped out underneath him. The gallows' floor seemed to swing before his panic-reddened vision. "…So you've seen us changing?… Relieving stress?"

If Jonah had the ability, he would have fainted just to escape those piercing blue eyes.

Willow

Campsite, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

Jonah's entire face was red. Beyond tomato shade, closer to chili pepper. His mouth was opening and closing, but no words came out.

Willow had started this whole line of questioning in an effort to take her mind off of Josep's memories. She was grateful for the time skips in the journal's account of events, as even the moments recorded had been… A lot. Although there was a sense of distance, reliving the memory was still much more intimate and 'real' than watching a movie or reading someone's account would have been. She'd felt the poor man's grief, anger, and horror when he finally learned of Isabella's betrayal. It wasn't something she could just brush off. It hadn't been her experiencing it… But at the same time, she had experienced it, if second hand. It was all very confusing.

Which was why she'd taken the opportunity to mess with Jonah a little bit. She'd been saving this particular topic for a while. She really just thought it'd be funny to see what Jonah's reaction would be since she was already sure of all his answers. After all, she honestly didn't care if anyone saw her naked - though being spied on without permission was certainly not 'okay', it also wasn't something she personally felt the need to be upset about.

Piper couldn't contain herself anymore. She leapt from Willow's shoulder pointing accusingly as her hand flew over her mouth. A drawn out, over-loud, gasp escaped the pink menace's lips. "Pervert! Criminal! How could you betray Naomi and mother?! Everyone needs to know!" She zipped off, a pink trail seeming to mark her raid passage.

"It's not like that!" Jonah yelped, hands raised in surrender. "I promise! I don't try to look or anything! I… I don't look into any of your pods on purpose! I… I might have seen something, but I would always turn my attention away and… and…" His breathing was way too fast. He might hyperventilate and pass out.

Willow put her hands up on his shoulders, steadying him. "Relax, relax. I'm just teasing." She grinned at him, "I'm sure you wouldn't do anything weird."

He nodded frantically, immediately agreeing. "Right! Of course! I wouldn't… I'm not…"

"Relax, Jonah, you're gonna faint." For some reason that prompted him to breathe faster and harder rather than calming him down. "It's fine, I won't mention it to Naomi. I don't know if she'd really care, though, her being her. I was just curious, y'know?"

He seemed to start to relax, then his eyes flicked in the direction Piper had gone and his eyes widened. Glancing over, Willow saw Piper floating in front of Naomi. Knowing the little fairy, Willow didn't actually think she was ratting Jonah out. There was a difference between playing jokes and trying to start fights, and so far her guide hadn't crossed that line.

Patting Jonah's shoulders one more time, Willow tried to channel her father's soft comforting smile, "I trust you. Don't be weird."

Leaving it at that, she followed Piper to Naomi to see what they were talking about. As she expected, Piper wasn't talking about Jonah at all. Instead, she was excitedly explaining that she'd found three gnolls that could possibly be the 'Hama' they were looking for.

Noting Jonah was standing, rooted, with his eyes locked on Piper and Naomi Willow took pity. She sent him a private message through his party channel, "Piper found some kind of way to track gnolls named 'Hama'… Has to do with that 'step back' spell Madrick taught her."

The man's relief was palpable, even from a couple dozen meters away. Willow winced, seeing the exhaustion in his eyes as he approached.

Mayyyybe that wasn't a good joke to play on him. Note to self: Jonah is super scared of being caught doing taboo stuff. Probably worried we won't wanna be his friend anymore. The thought was interesting. If she thought he was a purposeful serial peeper, would she still want to be friends with him? Knowing he was intentionally violating her privacy? Urgh, why the deep thoughts today?! He's not really the kind of guy to do that. So no point thinking about it.

"Hey Willow, what's the little one so excited about?" Slyth's voice crashed over Willow, surprising her. She spun in place to find him standing a hand-span away, eyes fixed on the subjects of his question. If Slyth had Jonah's ability, would he peek?

For some reason Willow felt heat rush to her face. Clearing her throat, she quickly answered, "She found some leads on finding that Hama gnoll."

"Really? That's good, I was wondering how we'd manage…" He trailed off as he turned his head to look down at her. She felt her moment of focus activate, entirely unintentionally. The world froze, except Slyth whose curious honey-gold eyes examined her. He didn't notice the rest of the world having gone gray. Yet.

He leaned toward her, his hot, oddly sweet-smelling breath not helping cool her warm cheeks. "So, the incorrigible shameless Willow can blush, hmm?" His voice was low, soft, pitched so only she could hear. Not that anyone else would be able, given they were frozen by her ability. Unless they're outside its radius.

The unwelcome thought broke her from the odd stupor her mind had fallen into and she forced herself to do something. She released her ability and, following her usual course of refusing to back down, stepped even closer to Slyth. "Who says I'm blushing?!" She spoke in an equally hushed tone, lacing it with southern charm and sugar.

The sight of Slyth's own silver skin rapidly tinting purple was vindicating. He pulled back, chuckling hoarsely. He tried to speak, failed with a cracked syllable, then succeeded with a husky, "Point."

The exultation of victory mixed with a murmur of disappointment which Willow absolutely refused to acknowledge.

Madrick

Near The Elf Woman's PBoO, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

Whistling softly, Madrick strolled along the passage. Barks and screeches followed him, naturally, but the originators of each noise were far too slow to actually catch up. His whistling was laced with a spell, War's Opus. One of his favorites, and one he hadn't had cause to use in nearly a century.

Rage and blood-lust filled the tunnels, proceeding the hoard of monsters answering his spell's call. He was fairly certain even captured a few sentient beings in its net. Hopefully, he had. They would be a much better test of his apprentice and her underlings than any beast.

Although… A step to his left was all that was required to dodge a lunging cavern creeper's sneak attack. A portion of the gathered swarm would test Willow's weaknesses, even without intelligence behind their cunning.

Feeling at the net of his spell, Madrick decided he'd gathered enough. Ending his whistling, the master of war gathered the edges of the spell with a deft rope of domination mana. Tying the edges closed, he ensured the fervor for battle and conquest he'd stoked in the many creatures caught within would not subside naturally.

Then, he conjured his Shroud of War and about-faced. Walking through the midst of the disorganized army, a mass of slathering beasts and furious monsters, he admired his work. Had such a gathering occurred naturally, or even unnaturally, in any other circumstance the mob would have been at each other's throats. However, under his War's Opus, they were an army. An army aught not fight amongst itself, and the spell ensured they were not able to break that rule. He strengthened said army as he moved among them, multiple casts of Tireless Army ensuring none of the weaker creatures would run out of steam before their purpose was fulfilled.

It took him nearly half an hour to find what he was looking for within the mass. A group of sentients. Two humans, an elf, and a Hazzabi. Excellent. Drawing forth multiple strands of mana from within the furnace of his war-fueled soul, Madrick cast another spell and anchored it to the existing Opus. Designate Officer would ensure the sentients understood their role in this army, and that the army understood their own.

Gleeful of the upcoming struggle, Madrick drew the thread of mana he'd been carrying since leaving Willow within her new elf friend's Personal Base of Operations. The thread which had been created when he cast Designate Enemy. Looping the thread into the beautifully complex mesh of his War's Opus, Designate Officer and Tireless Army, he completed the multi-spell requirements to activate the final spell which would merge the disparate pieces perfectly. Marching Orders integrated each spell and coordinated them, properly orchestrating the allocation of mana to each subsection as needed.

Beyond that simple mechanism, which might have been achieved in a number of more efficient ways Marching Orders brought the entire army to heel under his will. Exercising his right as their absolute authority, he made his will known.

The sentients began organizing their minions, splitting tasks among themselves, and generating objectives which they believed would lead to achieving his greater goal. Every order they gave echoed through Marching Orders, rapidly bringing structure and purpose to an otherwise unruly rabble of directionless monsters.

As Madrick headed back toward his apprentice's current place of rest, he began whistling again. This time, for the sheer joy brought on by the knowledge of the upcoming glory of war.

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