>>920481
Is there a couch you can lay her down on?

>>920485
>"She allowed me to touch her intimately"
this

They shouldn't see her like this. It's improper. She entrusted you with a personal matter, it's none of their business unless she decides otherwise.
Also. You know, they'll want an explanation from you.

Is there another way out? Even a window? Grab her and make a swift exit. At least then you two would have plenty of time to come up with a cover story once she recovers.

>>920481
Act nonchalant. Simply hang out with Bea.

Hide Bea inside you. Make sure she have a constant supply of fresh air and if her body can't keep up force her do breath and keep her heart beating.
Assume the form of an adult Avaro, remove the apron and leave.
Explain to Bea you will find somewhere private for her to learn how to move.

>>920481
>I bring Beatrice to a chair and let her slump over the table, panting hard.
>She seems barely conscious as I sit beside her, holding her up.
Since Emils is able to sit next to Bea without breaking whatever she’s sitting on, that must mean that the chairs in Hoor’s house are stronger than the chairs in Victoria’s house.

>I can hear a voice from another room. It appears Hoor and Charls is back.
You can stick your head out the door and tell them not to come in the kitchen because we’re still making food and Bea doesn’t want to be disturbed. This will hopefully buy Bea enough time to regain control of her body.

Or if they come in and they see Bea like this, you can tell them, “As you can see, I’m a worse cook than Bea is. She just ate a sandwich I made and then this happened.” Then you can ask Hoor to heal her.

>>920489
Agreed, make sure the others don't see her like this.

>>920496
we're trying to hide that we're a slime, that goes directly against that objective.

>>920496
No, don’t do any of that!

>>920485
Do this, but in the likely event Charles and Hoor want a better explanation, just tell them what you did.

>>920481
Tell her she might want to turn it back on if she doesn't want the others to see her like this.

Have Bea sit in the chair for now. Inform her what she needs to do to re-activate the effect herself - she may not instinctually know, but encourage her to focus on regaining her strength and ability to move for when she isn't 'using' her boost - and say that she should think of it as simple, basic training. Ask that she keep your involvement in this quiet - to say it was something she accidentally developed herself during food mana infusions.

Then go to Hoor and ask him if he'd like to come with you. Tell him Beatrice appears to have become a bit out of it while you were making lunch, but that as far as you can tell she's fine, if weakened. Encourage him to help take care of Beatrice until she 'recovers'.

Proceed with the plan to create lunch. Something simple, I think, for Bea to eat in her weakened state.

Tell Bea to try casting a spell. Any spell. That should get some mana flowing heh.

Training with her buffs off is probably what she needs to properly strengthen her body and learn control. Should probably tell her this as well.

As for Charls and Hoor, tell them that it looks like Bea's condition now has the potential to improve. But don't tell them what exactly you did.

>>920511
Ah, ofc! If her body is physically in an extremely atrophied state due to her relying on her buff, this would explain why she didn't have enough mana: she was too frail. She would probably be fine if she just kept it off and only used it when needed.

I have a feeling Bea is going to be a highly successful mage and hero in the future (unless she turns evil).

>>920506
I think getting the boost back on until you can get more time alone to do some physical therapy is the best idea.

>>920510
Also, point out that the stronger she is WITHOUT the boost the stronger she'll be WITH the boost, and the strength difference will likely be proportional. It's like wearing weighted clothing, only much more effective and without the downsides.
Also, not dying. Not dying is nice.

Oh, and maybe next time Emils messes with someone's Core she should touch closer to the core so the process is shorter.

Help her turn the boost back on.

Maybe we could switch the toggle to a dampener. That way Bea could gradually work on taking it off.

>>920553
That is a LOT more complicated, difficult, and prone to failure.

>>920553
Emils currently cannot do that. This was the limit of her skill. Perhaps later on, after she's had practice messing around with the cores of animals and such.

Maybe hold her up a bit.

And be nonchalant when other people come in. I mean, not that Emils can do anything else, but go ahead and act like there's no downsides expressing themselves here and now.

Keep talking to Bea though, encourage her to use the atrophied muscles. This might explain quite well why she was going to die... the enchantment might get stronger but her body is secretly decaying beneath all that.

We can't even guarantee that she's going to be able to work her muscles back into usefulness.

... tell her to wiggle her little toe. Like, make her lay out and stare out of it and verbalize that she's going to wiggle her little toe.

>>920485
>Allowed to touch intimately
Are we sure Bea is old enough for that to be an appropriate thing to say?

>>920496
None of this! This is terrible!

Turn the toggle back on for now, and arrange a more convenient time to try again and do some proper muscle training. Maybe drag Bea along to Punching Things class to get her used to increasing physical fitness.

>>920788
I think that class is taught by her dad, so that might raise questions too early.

make like the dude my ex cheated with me on and jump out the window

Just act like nothing is wrong and talk to Bea like they aren't there, and be completely deadpan when answering their queries about what's wrong.

'I gave her an on-off switch'

Uh...

Did we bother asking Emils or anyone competent at magic if a build of magic that needs to be released once it builds up so that Bea doesn't... explode, is going to damage her body or channels?

Cause we may have just locked her into a cycle that will kill her much faster too.

>>921453
Her core was producing too much magic, which was killing her, so the enchantment was put there. But now the enchantment is consuming too much magic, which is killing her.
I believe the idea is that when the mana builds up she can turn it on, and when it runs out she can turn it off, so that she dances around that middle area of 'not dying' as often as possible.

Emils 2019/02/16(Sat)08:42 No. 921535 ID: 7e06cf
File 155033534942.png - (19.12KB , 1000x600 , 558.png )

"I'm currently keeping your body stable. Please concentrate on moving your body."

I get a better grip over Bea, holding her upright before Hoor and Charls walks in.

"Hello."

Hoor stops, eyes wide before rushing forwards, "Bea, what's wrong, what happened?!"

"She agreed to an experimental procedure to regulate something inside of her, in an effort to prolong her life."
Hoor tries to take a hold of Beatrice, but I don't let go.
Hoor seems unsure on how to handle this.
"Is she okay?" Charls asks.
"She is fully conscious. I have cut off the supply of mana to some parts of her, and as a result she's feeling extremely weak. I am regulating her excess mana, and need constant contact to do so."
Hoor scoops up Beatrice in his arms, while I keep holding her hand in front of her face.
"For now, She just needs to relearn how to control her body without the help of whatever's affecting her body."

"We have a guest room we use whenever Bea stays over, follow me."

Hoor leads into a somewhat sparse room, filled with books and dolls, setting her down onto a soft bed.

"How long will she be like this?"
"That depends on her."
Beatrice mummers as she exhales, barely audible.
"She says she be fine." I tell Hoor.

Hoor unties her apron, and looks concerned, "Tell me, what happened? What did you do?"
"I asked Beatrice if I could examine her body, and discovered two things.
One, her core is above average in size, and is producing an above average amount of mana for someone of her body and size."
Beatrice's face twitches, and I can feel her tendons twitching under my grip.
"Two, some ability of hers, probably since birth, had been feeding on her mana continuously.
I can only assume that when she was smaller, her mana production was offset by this ability, giving her a normal level of mana production. But as she grew older, the ability grew with her, as did her production of mana."
Beatrice stares at me, and I can feel her fingers move.
"She has probably lost control over this ability at one point, and it has been feeding off of her, causing her mana to swing wildly from too much to not enough. Does this description relates to her history?"

Hoor thinks about it, "Yes, she has had times when she was swinging from full of energy, to limp as a noodle."
He looks worriedly at Beatrice.

I look at Bea, "Once I let go of your body, the connection to this ability will return to you. You will need to train yourself to control this ability, or it will end you sooner."

>Let go
>Hold on

>>921535
Hold on.

Ask Bea to let you know when she's ready.
When Bea is ready, then you can release her.

Hold on. We should give her a while. Maybe sleep here for today. When she is ready and willing, we can let go.

Slowly let go, but be ready to grab her if anything happens. Ask Bea if she has any clue what her ability is.

Let go. Dr. Emils declares this patient cured!

>>921535
Hold on.

“But for now, I will continue to hold onto you. Let me know when you are ready for me to let go.”

Hold on for an hour more or so.

Emils should reform himself to become an exosuit that Bea can wear. He can regulate (and use) her mana that way. It would also be strangely sexual. And also be like that one offshoot gag quest.

Hold on. Let's get some food in here, yeah?

>>921541
This. Let's give her some physical therapy first, get her used to walking around under her own power again.

Go to a lake. Swimming will help with getting her back on her feet.

>>921552
No, don’t do that!

>>921552
Some oneshots should stay oneshots.

>>921645
...but this isn't one of them.

Now, however, is not the time.

>>921646
Agreed.
It is an end goal, not something to jump to immediately.

It, uhh, actually is a pretty good idea, along with the swimming thing. Increased atmospheric pressure would be similar to reduced gravity, thus make exercise easier. She doesn't seem strong enough to recover muscle-mass in a remotely timely fashion at present.

Keep holding on.
Let her know you will stay there until she feels she is ready.
Hold on until instructed to let go.

>hold or not

Hold, for as long as we can continue to build up Bea's attempt to take control of her toggle and Bea is willing to endure. Ask if Charls is willing to finish preparing lunch. Something that'd give her back some energy and vim would be nice.

>>921663
That is a point, but exosuit Emils isn't quite appropriate right now.

Can Hoor heal Bea's atrophied muscles, if just a little? I'm not sure it'd help, but didn't he talk about using healing magic on her during her bad patches earlier?

Yeah, hold on until either Bea has some measure of control or her mana levels start getting dangerous.

>>921535
Carefully let go so she doesn't break all her bones if she flops.

>>921663
Well, Emils should tell Hoor that his new goal should be to help with rehab. Also should mollify him with the information that if this change is handled properly, could give her a real life.

>>921541
This. Hold on for now, no surprises.

to be fair a exosuit Emils could be a good rehab tool if necessary, providing intelligent responses to weak movement attempts while also making sure effort is made, ie not enough assist that Emils is doing the movement for her but, enough that she CAN do the movements.

>>921541
Yeah, do this.

Hold on until she says you can let go.

>>921552
I thought we agreed to not reveal that we're a slime? That seems to be the exact opposite!

>>921773
With Bea alone, maybe. With the boys here, too many people at once.

>>921798
agreed

I keep a hold over her hand, "Once you regain enough control, I'll let go."
I turn over to Hoor, "We left behind some ingredients behind in the kitchen. It should be enough for some lunch, but I am not sure how much. We haven't made ."

"Ah. Sure." Hoor takes Charls and leaves the room, looking worried at Bea on the bed, trying to smile.


"So Beatrice." I start once we're alone.
She looks at me, "It I would probably be a long time if you try to recover on your own."
She looks at me worriedly, and I slowly let go of my control over her mana.
"I can't stay by your side all the time, so you do have to get used to how this feels."

As I retract my control, her breathing quickens as she begins twitching, panicking.
"Whu-" she slurs, but she cuts off, coughing as I finally let go of enough mana to get her moving.
She pushes me over, and struggles off the bed, stumbling on her legs and falling onto the floor.
I continue sitting by the bedside and watch as she shakingly grabs the door and drags herself out.

>Wait
>Follow

>>922979
She has an independent streak alright. Follow but don't interfere. She can ask for your help if she needs it again.

follow

Leave. What else is there to do around here?

Ask if she is angry at you. If she doesn't answer "no" just leave.

>>922980
Yeah. She's acting impulsively, but that's fine as long as we're nearby.

>>922979
Follow.
She is probably feeling pretty terrible right now, so you need to stay with her the entire time.

Is there some way to make a high-quality recording of Flopsy-Bea for later use as humour?

>>922979
Follow

Wait until she's back.

>>922980
This.

Follow.
Monitor her breathing but allow her to continue struggling. Only intervene if her breath stops or becomes exceptionally rapid and shallow.

Encourage her progress and remind her that she safe. You won't let her come to harm.

>>922979
Follow. Offer her a hand, a shoulder and a faint smile - or steady her if she refuses aid, whenever she stumbles. Encourage her.

"You are... impressive."

...

is she panicking because she thinks you just crippled her? Or just... enthusiastic about getting stronger?

I think follow?

Ah Emils, you really need to work on your delivery. Also, this is something you should devote at least a few hours to. Every time you do this sort of thing you learn a great deal about mana and how to manipulate it. It also can't hurt to have a few natives that trust you and owe you.

Follow

I stand and leave the room, following the small hallway.
A trial of fluids on the floor leads into a door at the end of the hall.
I walk towards the door, ignoring the wet floor, and knock.
“Beatrice is that you?”
A muffled “go away” is heard behind the door.
“Are you okay.”
A silent pause, “no, could you ask Hoor here, and take Charls and leave please?”
“Okay.”

I retrace my way into the kitchen, where Hoor is preparing some sandwiches, with Charls already eating one.
“Emils? Is Bea okay?”
“Is said she is not okay. She went into the room at the end of the hallway and asked for your help, and for me and Charls to leave.”

Hoor raises a brow wondering, “the toilet?” before realizing something, “oh.” He sets the sandwich onto a plate, “here, this is yours, could you see yourselves out please?”
Hoor wipes his hands and hangs up his apon before walking out the door.
I grab the sandwich and Charls follows me out.
“I have to go back now,” he tells me as we return to the street, “see you in class.”
Charls waves and eats the last of his sandwich before walking off.

It seems to be close to sunset. I could do one more detour or go back home at this point.
>?

Go home. You should probably check your emergency egress routes, in case people come by asking questions after your recent feats. With nets.

>>923424
>trail of fluids
>Hoor raises a brow wondering, “the toilet?” before realizing something, “oh.”
Oh, because Bea’s muscles are weakened, the muscles necessary for “holding it in” were too weak to “hold it in” and that’s what was all over the floor.

Yeah, that must’ve been embarrassing for her.

>It seems to be close to sunset. I could do one more detour or go back home at this point.
I don’t know where else we could go, so I say that we go home to Victoria. We can be all excited and show her our new [Song] trick that we can do while casting magic!

Oh, and don’t forget to eat your sandwich! Make sure you use your mouth and don’t just absorb it through your hand!

Luckily Emils grew up in the wild (among other things) and doesn't feel shame, so Bea's embarrassment won't be too bad in the long run.

Go home, a lot has happened.

Escort Charls back and talk with Forrest.

Take a scenic route home and eat your sandwich as normal folks would. Make sure you aren't followed.

Perform an Acrobatic fucking pirouette
all the way back to your home

>>922979
follow. help her if she needs it. you are her proverbial safety net.

Since we already weird out everyone and humiliate Bea in front of a classmate she wasn't comfortable sharing this stuff with we should go one step further and weird Charls in the hope he will be to embarrassed to talk about what he saw.

Ask for a favour and lick his fingers.

>>923444
Too late to vote on that update. We’re currently voting on this update: >>923424 .

>>923424
>What do?
Eat sandwich and go home. Tell Victoria about how your day went, but maybe don't tell her about what you did to Bea.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we agree on wanting to tell Victoria about Lust in the sewers? Did we ever get around to doing that? Or am I mistaken and we agreed to not tell Victoria about that?

Return to Victoria. It is time to bring her in the loop on Lust, though perhaps not on Slime until after the birthday party.

>>923470
Good idea.

Eh, she's not dumb, she knows something is up already so just let her be the one that asks the questions.

On the other hand, fuck being clandestine. Answer any questions she asks, and use the full array of our abilities in any situation where they are useful even if it's going to turn heads.

>>923470
Yeah, tell her about Lust, but wait until after the birthday party to tell her everything else.

>>923482
Drawing too much attention can be bad. Which is why we need to be selective on who we allow to see our abilities.

>>923482
As I recall there is a certain cultural ahhh... mistrust of shapeshifters to the point they were kinda eradicated.

of note, however, if we create a separate natural-form sentient slime persona that is unrelated to Emils that may gain acceptance.
Though if it were to get out that those two were the same entity it would likely cause problems.

>>923470
I don't see the point of telling her this, nor why it has to be right now. What exactly can Victoria do with the information about Lust? Nothing. Unless you want her to tell this to the prince and have them organize a slime extermination expedition.

>>923531
Not THAT part.
The part where Lust explained HOW the world is dying.
Victoria already knows Emils can talk with mana beasts. Explaining that she encountered an ancient mana beast in the sewers reveals no new information about Emils while still passing along critical and actionable intel.

I can see a reason to do it.

I don't feel Emils is ready for this, but at some point we have to start talking to the natives about what we know about the world and what's going to happen to them. This world does not have forever to live and it's not looking like they are just going to develop mana generation the way we need spontaneously before the mana runs out.

Inasmuch as we really have no direction on finding a solution, we seem to have no upper limit on how much emils can grow or honestly even what she can do, so I suggest lacking a better solution, we do what the old administrators did, we gather up what we can, save as many people as we figure we can manage, and blast off into space looking for a planet with mana producing lifeforms.

We aren't going to do that scrabbling in the dirt and doing guild jobs, and learning kid level magic at the local school. We are going to do that by contacting the aristocracy, convincing them this is in their best interests, and then squashing anyone who decides they aren't on board.

Now Emils isn't ready for this, Emils needs to learn how to use their power and they are doing so at amazing rate. They are what, a few weeks old? And suddenly the worlds foremost authority on mana (as far as the natives know anyway)?

So while lying to Victoria isn't the right move, holding off on telling her what's happening is going to hold off the inevitable questions about emils, which eventually will lead to her going back to her aristocratic friends and telling them, which will bring this confrontation to an immediate head. We want her on our side, so we need to be honest, but Emils is not ready to step in front of the power brokers of this world and tell them she's there to save the day.

>>923656
Convincing people to out Emils to the world at large as a dangerous being of untold power belongs in the disthread.

>>923655
Good point. Let’s do that.

>>923656
That's a fair point.

Victoria already has questions, and she's starting to look for answers. That's a soft time limit on how long before the issue gets forced, and if the issue DOES get forced then we won't be able to control how it plays out and our options are going to be severely limited.
The best way to prevent this is to make it so Victoria feels that finding out who and what Emils really is is less important than Emils continuing to act on her own.

To that end, we need to demonstrate two things to Victoria: Trust and utility.
Trust, in that Victoria knows Emils does not have an interest in posing a threat, will act in ways that benefit society, and is willing to cooperate on some level.
Utility, in that Victoria has some understanding of Emils having abilities which are unique and useful.

Basically, Victoria won't press Emils if Emils is too useful to fight and provides too much benefit to alienate.

Providing Victoria with extremely important information which she could never have obtained on her own demonstrates both.

>>923754
Agreed.

>>923655
>>923754
Yes to both of these.

>>923754
agreed x2/3

>>923754
I can agree to this i see the logic

>>926737
Err... everybody is saying to tell Victoria what we learned in the sewers, and not tell her what Emils is.

>>926737
We only said to tell Victoria about what we saw in the sewers. We never said anything about telling her that Emils is a Slime.