You tumble around in the bed, the rising morning heat setting in, waking you despite every neuron in your brain tempting you to stay asleep for just a little while longer. You spend time reflecting over the events of yesterday, how you had been given a flying start, and not the good kind, into this world. It might be due to your meta knowledge of the 'brought into an alternative world' setting that you are taking it somewhat calmly, but those differ wildly from source to source and there are no guarantees that you can draw experience from what are ultimately works of fiction.
Getting on all fours you stretch out and realize you don't remember when and how you got into bed, but judging by the lingering scent this is Mina's bed. She however is nowhere to be seen. Scouting out the room, it's rather small and utilitarian, not quite how you would imagine it, on the top of a basket you spot your clothes neatly folded with your bag on top of them.
1/3
>>46288201
As you dress up you to ponder over the fact that you don't have any underwear, the knight order couldn't procure any that would fit your thick tail and you had thought of getting custom tailored ones, but yesterday you had spotted some lizardmen on the streets, with their similarly thick tails surely it should be possible to find pre cut ones. That should save you some cash..
Which reminds you that you haven't even counted how much money you have, really you should have done that first thing once you got out of the knight compound yesterday, but all the exiting new sights kept distracting you. It's sorta worrisome how you kept showing childlike tendencies yesterday.
Picking up the small purse inside the bag, you start counting. There are 14 more copper coins inside, and 3 more larger ones.. Ugh, you recall straight away that you paid with the large ones while buying shish kebab yesterday. It's regrettable, they are obviously more worth, but there are no indication of how much more worth they are, and such you don't really feel that bad over it. It's a good wakeup call, you need to relate to economy somehow so you can appraise the worth of items and services.
While attaching the small purse to your belt, you taking a mental note that there probably are literal cutpurses here. Leaving the bag here in Mina's room, no point dragging around the letters until you need them, you head out of the room. There's a corridor with more door, at the end one of them is open where the smell of baking bread is gently spreading from.
2/3
>>46288212
Heading inside you see kitchen staff who seems busy preparing todays breakfast, and Mina is amongst them.
Calling out to her, as she turns around you notice her hair is longer and that she doesn't smell the same. The yeti picks on your confusion and gives you a warm smile.
"Good morning Alex, I am Heidi, Jarl and Mina's mother. I apologies for not greeting you yesterday, during our evening service it gets quite busy."
> Be the little girl, cute demeanor
> Act your mental age, polite
> Write in
>>46288221
> Welcome to Manticore quest
> Rolls are of the roll below type, counting degrees of success or failure. Best of three and crits always counting.
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/manticoreqm
> Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com//archive.html?tags=Manticore%20Quest
> No statting yet, I know, its lazy
>>46288221
>Be a polite little girl.
>>46288287
Writing
>>46288221
>Be the little girl, cute demeanor
>>46288221
>> Write in
Immediately fuck everything that moves since we're suck a cute little manticore bitch
>>46288287
This.
>>46288505
Piss off, dude.
>>46288287
>>46288485
>>46288530
Partitioning text and proofreading before posting
>>46288505
>Immediately fuck everything that moves since we're suck a cute little manticore bitch
Not that kind of questyet
>>46288221
> Be the little girl, cute demeanor
>>46288547
Heidi, her husband, Mina and probably Jarl even tough he might not have been to polite about it yesterday, are probably going that extra length to provide for you, a complete stranger, on behalf of their friend Druzag. New world or not, you have always been polite to those who deserve it and you wont stop now.
You figure, given your appearance, playing the little girl would be the easiest way to get along in your day to day life, trying to explain everything that has happened seems like a bother, and given Gerwine's warning yesterday, downright hazardous.
"Thats ok, I had a fun time yesterday with Mina and Jarl and all his friends" You put on a a big childish smile
"Thats great to hear. After reading the letter you brought with you, and given our debt to Druzag there is no way we wouldn't listen to one of his requests"
"He also seems confident that you would manage to take care of yourself after a while, so me and Geir have decided to let you stay here for free for one month until you can manage on your own."
Seems like Geir is her husband, you never caught his name yesterday.
"Judging by Minas behavior yesterday I'm sure she would love to keep you here longer too"
If Mina were here you are sure this would have been a stab at her
1/5
>>46288602
"So where is Mina, the bed smelled of her but she weren't there"
Heidi is shaking her head. "I told her we made a bed in one of the storage rooms, but I guess she did as she pleased again"
"Ahh, Katsu and uuh, that little mousegirl mentioned yesterday that she keeps brining home kittens?"
"She has a big heart that girl, when she was younger she sometimes she brought in orphans and pleaded us to keep them. The inn would have turned into an orphanage if we had been less strict with her."
Picking up a flat wooden spade she walks over to one of the brick ovens.
"Be a dear and play with Mina, we need to get these breads ready for breakfast. You should find her at the backside of the inn doing her morning routine, practicing magic"
2/5
>>46288620
You walk out the back entrance and spot Mina brandishing axes, those are of the throwing kind, reminds you somewhat of a Francisca. About 12 meters in front of her there are multiple targets on stands, and some large rocks. Judging by the the axes already embedded in their targets, she's pretty proficient in their use. The one axe embedded in one of the rocks is a bit more impressive however. Still, thats a weird way of practicing magic.
You elect to stay still and observe her, she drops the heavy axe in her left paw from her grip near the head and grips it again near the edge of the handle, breathing slowly, just for a moment before she lets the projectile fly with such force it nearly topples the target.
"Pretty impressive Mina"
"Hey there Alex, you finally up? You slept quite heavily by the time we quit last night"
"I guess I overstayed bedtime"
She drops the other axe, walks over to you and ruffles your hair. This girl is touchy.
"Children need all the sleep they can get, especially small hatchlings"
It probably going to get to you getting treated explicitly like a child, but revealing your real age is no option, so in the end you have no recourse but to play the little girl. Besides Mina is nice, no point in making a fuzz about it.
3/5
>>46288633
"I heard your mom said you were out here practicing magic, but to me it looks like you are working on marksmanship instead?"
"This? It helps me relax and work on my spell"
"Hey, can you show me?"
Mina gives you this 'hey i got this' look and pushes you behind her. As like yesterday you feel the mana forming around her, but in an instant it is expelled in a wide coneshape spraying ice shards all in front of her.
"Impressive huh? I've been working on expanding the cone while maintaining the activation time and force of the blast"
It really is impressive, the shards are embedded deep into the targets, but on a closer examination you see the shards already evaporating, far faster than the big slices of ice should.
"Why are the ice shards melting already?"
"How do I explain this.. They aren't real. There's not enough water here to form ice, so I spend extra mana to create it temporary, I only spend enough mana to make sure they exist just long enough to hit the target"
You notice it as she is explaining, the shards doesn't evaporate or leave behind water, if you focus it is as if the mana of the shard is dissipating.
"So they aren't physical?"
"They are for a brief moment. If we want to make ice that lasts we can do it from water, in fact we sell a lot of ice from this inn, it's a nice extra income"
"So thats why the beverage was so chill yesterday"
She's frowning
"I specifically told them not to.."
4/5
>>46288642
"Hey Alex, while we wait for breakfast to be served, why don't you join me?"
"I'm not sure I can use magic yet"
"Thats not what I meant"
She walks over to the targets and collects the axes, they are embedded deep but she pulls them out with ease, seems Mina is quite a lot stronger than she appears, that or she is using mana to reinforce her muscles just like you did yesterday.
"Honestly, you hatched yesterday yet seem so capable already, it would have been quite unfair if you already knew how to cast spells"
Give the look on her face it seems like she would have been amazed rather than jealous if that was the case.
"I meant with these" She hands you an axe.
"If you intend on becoming a courier, you need to be able to defend yourself. Camping out in the woods or getting mugged in the streets, you need to learn to defend yourself. And you shouldn't rely only on your natural weapons, finding something that complement them would be ideal"
"So I should practice with axes?"
"Honestly I don't think thats a good fit for you, given your wings you may want to find something light or with long range."
Indeed, the axe in your grip is rather heavy, you haven't tried flying yet but you can imagine that carrying more than one of these would be a real pain.
While idle in thought, Mina throws a axe and hits square in the middle of her target.
"You up for a challenge?"
> Your up for it, throw that Francisca
> No fair to challenge on unfair terms, use your tail spikes
> Add wager [Write in]
> Write in
5/5
>>46288652
> No fair to challenge on unfair terms, use your tail spikes
This triggers my autism, I never seem to catch these writing errors
>>46288652
>No fair to challenge on unfair terms, use your tail spikes
>>46288652
>> No fair to challenge on unfair terms, use your tail spikes
>>46288652
>Your up for it, throw that Francisca
>>46288652
> No fair to challenge on unfair terms, use your tail spikes
I still think our tail-spike-throwing is weird as fuck.
>>46288652
> Write in
subtly molest her.
>>46288798
Piss off.
Rolled 35, 20, 31 = 86 (3d100)
>>46288679
>>46288702
>>46288710
>>46288742
Tailspikes it is, give me 3d100 [DC 50] to show of your marksmanship. I'm rolling for Mina.
Rolled 39 (1d100)
>>46288830
Rolled 15 (1d100)
>>46288830
Rolled 99, 31, 28 = 158 (3d100)
>>46288830
Get fucked Mina.
Rolled 16, 14, 38 = 68 (3d100)
>>46288830
>>46288844
>>46288845
im only counting proper ones
>>46288859
ehh, good enough
>>46288865
Thats pretty solid
One more
Rolled 23, 82, 86 = 191 (3d100)
>>46288830
>>46288880
Roll under or over?
>>46288905
Under.
Rolled 20, 55, 6 = 81 (3d100)
>>46288859
>>46288865
>>46288890
Quest characters have it so easy with best of threes.
Writing
If we're planning on being all areal with fighting maybe we should pick up a crossbow. Launching even more shit at people seems like a good idea.
>>46288992
How do you reload it in midair ?
>>46288992
>If we're planning on being all areal with fighting maybe we should pick up a crossbow. Launching even more shit at people seems like a good idea.
>>46289045
>How do you reload it in midair ?
I'll see if you guys can't see Cwyna's crossbow at one point, there's a reason why muskets never caught on in this world
>>46289062
...Is it a rapid fire crossbow? It's totally a rapid fire crossbow.
>>46289110
>...Is it a rapid fire crossbow? It's totally a rapid fire crossbow.
Innovation in this world is usually solved by applying magic. Crossbows are commonly enhanced with a self reloading mechanism, depending on the quality of the enhancement and the user you could easily reach 4 to 10 shots a minute.
Ammo is still finite, unless you start conjuring it, but there are issues with that, mainly heavy mana consumption
Magic OP as fuck, solve every design inconvenience.
>what is Archimedes' principle? if you want a boat to float make it magical lol.
Summoning souls from other dimensions is a HUGE waste of mana and a bad gamble.
Text ballooning, I need to learn when to stop. Update soon
>>46289438
"Your mom told me to play with you. But thats unfair Mina, I don't know how to throw these heavy axes. Can't I use my spikes instead?"
"I thought we were practicing?"
"Then don't make it a challenge!" You puff up and try to act annoyed
She tries to ruffle your hair again but this time you make sure to pat her off.
"Fine, lets see if your spikes can measure up to this"
She lets an axe fly and it hits the target, its barely outside the centre, but still outside.
"I have been practicing with these for years"
You'll admit its a nice hit, but you have already seen her throw better earlier, it's not her best.
"hmph, just because you are older doesn't make you better" The irony is that you are in fact older than her.
Just like with yesterdays attempt at picking up a mug with you tail, you ignore the tail completely and just focus on the target and your will to hit it. It takes a moment before you feel the rapid and heavy contractions of the muscles in your tail, catapulting a spike which itself gets released by another set of contracting muscles.
The spike flies true and hit the target almost dead center.
1/5
>>46289879
You turn around expecting banter or praise from Mina, but looking at her she is now a few steps away and looking at you angrily.
"What are you thinking, you can't fling your tail around like that when someone is standing next to you!"
Oh, you didn't even think of that. You trusted your genetic memories blindly and nearly hurt her, you aren't sure how to convey to Mina that you didn't intend to do that. Instead you feel a bit insecure, looking away from her accusing eyes, you feel the tears well up and you start shaking.
Acting like the little girl is fun when it's your choice but when your mental state is as brittle as ones without your consent it's downright humiliating, but your can't help picturing how Mina will hate you now and you have to move out of the inn and make due on your own.
"Hey hey, it's ok" Mina's soft fur embraces you. You don't deserve her empathy, or atleast you don't feel like you deserve it. You try pushing out, but her grip remains strong yet gentle.
"I didn't mean to, I just.. I didn't know my tail would move like that"
"I know, it's ok"
This is a wakeup call for you, despite you mentally being an adult, you are now aware that you have some instinctive behaviors and your mental state is brittle like a childs. Yesterdays incident with your hunger overpowering you, and loosing your composure today is innocent here with Mina, but you need to ensure it doesn't happen when you are outside with strangers.
You remain in her embrace for a little while longer, enjoying the strokes on your head and near your ears, it's not as intense as the canine squires did yesterday, but slow and calming.
"There, all better now?"
You still can't look her directly in the eyes, but you nod your head and wipe your eyes and the running snot.
2/5
>>46289896
"That was a nice shot" And then she continues the competition without drawing further attention to your little breakdown. She hits better this time, almost dead center like yours, but with a lot more force, the stand is swaying.
Since your projectiles are smaller, you target the same one. Swaying your tail once again, making sure not to hit Mina, you land a spike right next to the other.
You are still unable to speak calmly so you opt to just grin at Mina, with your red eyes and still running nose its nowhere as cool as you intended it to be.
"Why don't you take take another shot to make it interesting?"
Another spike flies from your tail and hits the outer boundary of the centre. You briefly wonder how long it will take to regrow these spikes.
"Not bad, but watch this"
Mina is throwing faster than she has done so far, no relaxing motion like earlier, mid air you realize the axe edge has frozen over and is glowing pale blue. The axe splits the target and continues on, not having lost any significant momentum, embedding itself in the rock behind it.
"Ahh, thats cheating! It's cool, but cheating!"
3/5
>>46289912
"It's my loss. I just wanted to show you something to cheer you up again"
And it worked, just like a child you have gone from a sense of insecurity to excitement in a brief moment.
"How did you do that? Can I do that? Can you teach me?"
"It's an enchantment in the axes, and it took me weeks to make room for them mentally so I could use them"
"Room? mentally?"
"You better talk with someone who can explain better.. But if I try, hmm, Imagine if you have a big cake and take a big slice for your main spell.."
You see where this is going, no need to keep her explaining about percentages and pie charts.
"It's fine, Mina, I think I understand"
She doesn't respond, she is standing next to your target with the embedded spikes, inspecting the liquid pouring from the edge of the hole where the spike is embedded.
"Ahh, Thenry said.."
"I heard him and Thenry is a smart guy, despite the fact that we don't get along anylonger, but he just happened to have read it by coincidence"
"Listen, until we get this examined and get a second option, I want you yo consider this lethal poison, you hear me?"
She is making an adult to child 'take this seriously' expression.
You agree with her assessment, and nod. "Hai~" thats way more embarrassing than any other cutesy expression you've used yet.
"So, are you hungry for some breakfast?"
4/5
>>46289929
Back inside the inn you sit down with Mina and enjoy the breakfast. She sits down way closer than she needs to, if your tail wasn't so thick you are sure she would have put you on her lap.
There's freshly baked breads, cheeses, hams and other preserved sausages, it seems like your breakfast is going to remain mostly the same as you are used to, that's rather convenient.
"Hey Mina, why would a waitress need to learn how to throw axes anyway?"
"I only help out when I got spare time, I really spend most of my time as an adventurer, but.." And she exhales slowly, that frown can only indicate she's thinking of her brother and his friends.
"I had gathered a small party of female friends I had started to trust enough to start taking on more difficult tasks."
"We were here celebrating after taking out a small bandit gang due south of the city, we started getting drunk, and then dad asked me to help him with an errand"
"By the time I came back I didn't find my friends at the tables, but up at mine and Jarls rooms I could hear them moaning loudly"
"So I burst in and start yelling my brother, Thenry and Agelm, accusing them of only thinking of wetting their dicks. They start yelling at me, then my friends started yelling for interrupting them, and it turned into a real clusterfuck"
"I guess I had been a bit too idealistic about the whole friends on an adventure thing, doesn't help that I was the youngest in the group either"
> I am only eight and what is this
> "So, what are you planning to do now?"
> Write in
Need to pick up my parents at the airport, will probably take 60-90 minutes or so
5/5
>>46289941
>> "So, what are you planning to do now?"
>>46289941
>"Well you can forget about them! I'll go adventure with you instead!"
>>46289941
You don't close a pair of quotation marks at the end of a paragraph if the next paragraph immediately continues dialog from the same speaker
>>46289941
> I am only eight and what is this
>>46289990
It triggers me
>>46289941
>We can go on adventures instead
>>46289941
>We can go on adventures instead
>>46289988
I'll change my vote here to this>>46290029
>>46289941
I like this one.
>>46290029
>>46289941
Damn, Jarl doesn't fuck around
Supporting adventures and head pats with Mina
>>46290283
>Damn, Jarl doesn't fuck around
More like that's exactly what he's doing
At the airport and the plane was a further 20 minutes delayed, damnit
>>46290592
In the meantime let's discuss the finer points of running around without underwear because of it and that Mina incident as Alex starts to become properly aware of what having a tail is like
>>46289941
>"So, what are you planning to do now?"
It sounds more like her friends wanted some after-adventure sex, rather than Jarl, Thenry, and Agelm getting them drunk to have sex.
>>46291271
>It sounds more like her friends wanted some after-adventure sex, rather than Jarl, Thenry, and Agelm getting them drunk to have sex.
You know I like this better, Mina being Mina just happened to lay the blame on her brother and company due to her idealistic point of view
>>46289988
>"Well you can forget about them! I'll go adventure with you instead!"
>>46290029
>We can go on adventures instead
Seems like this is popular
Seems like running a thread when I have to pick up family members at the airport was stretching it, going to have to call it her. Next thread I promise we are going to do shit.
>>46291707
And when is the next thread?
>>46291707
Seeya then
>>46291707
bye, happy easter.
>>46291798
>And when is the next thread?
Next Saturday, even though tomorrow is another holliday I got normie shit to do.
>>46291859
>>46291910
Thanks and see you
> at a pizza joint
> picking for parents
> 2 pizzas cost 80 burger bucks
> such is life in socialist hell
