Third Quest: Prepare For Operation Carbuncle

[lightnovelexperiences]

1 - I wish I had a faster therapy / I'm here to mind control your needs

Deedee and her employees are busy, busy, busy as Imperial middle management and low-level officers flock to a warm bath in the face of the chill. The bathhouse stewards are absolutely pampering their subjects so they'll let slip all the gossip that's worth reporting to the higher-ups in the Corsairs, then upselling their patients on pedicures, manicures, shaves, haircuts, and massages.

And, of course, providing such comfort and sometimes medical aid to visiting Corsairs as they require. Deedee is always happy to do her reports while giving someone who badly needs it her unique healing combination of bodywork and Breathwork, of massage and magic.

She invariably starts such treatment by warming a neutral oil in her hands, and asking her patient, "Tell me where you're keeping your tension right now?"

2 - Blinding lights, thunder tremble pack / muddy hearts, beanie babies lies

If there's one thing the casualty count impressed on Deedee, it's that the fighting is only going to get harder, especially if the mad plan that's starting to form in her brain is to have any chance of success.

So she's procured a halberd and is practicing, on the beaches and in the Vault, both the magical and the martial arts - and how to use them together.

She goes through all her old techniques - the whirlwind flurries of the Nine Tail Lash, the devastating air-to-ground missile that's the Gryphon Talon Kick, the conjured cutting winds of a Gale Blast, various body reinforcement techniques. It's quite a spectacle if anyone is looking on.

She badly wants sparring partners or - after meeting with Atom and the reminder of how much about magic she doesn't know - magic tutors. Which is how she finds herself bouncing on her heels and stretching, getting ready for instruction, of one kind or another.

"Right," she asks. "What's your specialty? How will we go about this?"

3 - Wildcard

Or seek out Deedee for something else! I'm not your mom. Surprise me!

Comments

[lightnovelexperiences]

"I - don't know what brought that on," Deedee says.

She doesn't break contact but she does kind of want to step back.

Deedee takes a deep, square breath.

"Little bit of the salty healer in me, I guess. 'Don't stand in the glowing runes' was a running gag on Mundus for a reason."

[spacetogrow]

"It's fine," Ilphyl said. "Though the cause and effect might be the other way around. I chose to focus on shapeshifting rather than casting spells better, because of prior experiences in my life that mean I need to be mindful about my body."

Maybe they would have still chosen to focus on wild shape for other reasons, like loving animals or just being sick of being a dark elf on the surface -- no way to know -- but Ilphyl does realize some of the appeal was that it put their form under their own control to a far greater extent, and turned 'sometimes feeling off in their own skin' into an asset.

[lightnovelexperiences]

"Right. Makes sense," Deedee says, with a nervous laugh.

She sighs.

"Let me know if it's anything medically significant. Or... even if you want to get it off your chest, really."

It's strange, she thinks, what inspires trust.

[spacetogrow]

"Nothing medically significant," Ilphyl said quickly. After all, they ahd taken the healer lecture to heart. But they had to think about their words carefully. It wasn't like someone was writing books about this. At least not that Ilphly had found. And this was another world, and Deedee was from a third. "Where I come from, some elves have the ability to just rest and wake up as a man, or a woman, or in between. It's supposed to be a divine blessing. Dark elves don't get that blessing, but my mind kind of does that on its own. Not like, daily. But enough that sometimes I just feel a bit... disconnected. I couldn't pin down why until I started learning how to change into animals."

Well, and unpacked a crapload of internalized sexism from their birth culture. When women were the people in power, there were other reasons one might want to be female sometimes, and not exactly space to opt out of the gender binary.

But if other people are remarking that Ilphyl is acting a bit disconnected from their body, maybe time to check in to see if they need to start presenting more feminine to be a bit more comfortable. Or it could just be too much time in wild shape. Minds were complicated.

[lightnovelexperiences]

Deedee laughs.

It becomes clear after a moment that it's not at Iphyll; it's self-directed.

"God, that would have saved me so much trouble," she says. "I didn't figure my dysphoria out until my first offworld jaunt forced me to, and I had time to wonder why piloting this felt so much better than the old model from Earth."

She indicates herself... well, her chest really... with her hands.

[spacetogrow]

"Ah, well, you look very good," Ilphyl said. "Keep in mind, elves age slower than humans, so I had a lot of time before becoming a druid to be confused. Still not sure what I'm doing about it, until I get good enough to figure out shapechanging into other humanoid forms."

[lightnovelexperiences]

"I wouldn't have thought Namer forms to be more difficult than animals, but the Gods sometimes have very strange agendas to mortal minds," Deedee says. "Then again, I learned Mundane religion the hard way. Each of my spells is a vow kept to Sylphan."

She parts Iphyll on the back. "Unless I've missed something, and please let me know, I think you're good to go. How do you feel?"

[spacetogrow]

"Much better, thank you," Ilphyl said. They pull themselves up into a seated position.

\"And it probably comes from druid magic focusing so much on nature. My patron god has some rites that lets devotees change their sex, but I was still figuring things out the last time I was staying in that community, so I didn't learn them."

"Sylphan is your god?"