Fantasy The Magic Tanc Demon Cafe[JD and Kekse]

[JDizzle383]

Daegan sighed. It had been three weeks since they had left the Demon Castle Labrynthia when they had fought the Heroes. still, he did enjoy his job at this quaint little coffee shop...

"Maybe I should add braincell enhancement magic to the next batch..." he mused.

Raphael was outside the kitchen animatedly serving customers with a smile and a bit of banter to the girls around the place. One of them even asked to touch his ears and squeeeed when she found "How dedicated he was to keeping them attached."

"Albaon, two espressos for table five!" Raphael called out.

"I'm telling you, Ariah! they look like them! almost creepily so. if he had red skin he'd totally match! and don't tell me the cat ears aren't legit! did you see that one girl try to pull them off?" Lizzie sat at a table whispering to her gaming buddy.

Daegan walked over and eyed the two of them. "Is there a problem here?"

Lizzie stammered out, "N-no sir... we're just doing some schoolwork in your lovely little cafe before tomorrow's test!"

Of course she was lying through her teeth. she had actually been checking Albaon out behind her books the whole time.

 

[Kekse]

In the back, Albaon found himself elbows-deep in murky dishwater. "Why do I always end up doing the washing? The rest of you lot are perfectly capable of scrubbing too." He pulled a large mixing spoon from the sink and pointed it at Raphael, then at Daegan. "You two never clean anything! And don't you pull the 'well, we are later game bosses than you' bullcrap. We haven't been in Labrynthia in weeks, and my magic is just as powerful as yours in this world."

As usual he was ignored and went back to scrubbing with a sour look on his face. With the sink finally empty of dishes, the demon pulled the plug to drain the old water and fill it again with new. While it drained, he wandered out into the main lobby of the little cafe and grabbed the rack of more dirty dishes to put them in the back. He paused though. Eyes prickled on the back of his neck and his head swiveled to meet Lizzie's gaze for just a moment. A slight blush spread over his cheeks and he quickly disappeared back into the dish room.

"I mean, I can see it. But how crazy would that be? It's not even very popular in our country. Even if characters from the game were going to show up somewhere, I would expect it to be in Japan where the developers are." Ariah sipped her cup of coffee as black as her outfit and brushed her hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "If we could get to talk to them a little more though, I'm positive we would be able to find out for sure."

Daegon's approach didn't seem to make Ariah as nervous as it did her best friend. "The only problem is how long those espressos are taking. What are you doing, brewing a potion of health to add to them and can't find any light root?" She huffed and finished the last drops of coffee from the cup she already had and dropped it in Daegon's hand. "Here you go, big boy. Go tell your scrawny friend back there to get a move on."

Just then, Albaon appeared with the requested drinks. "Sorry, sorry, busy today." He placed the mugs on the table and scooted backwards, clearing his throat to distract from the flush growing on his cheeks. Why does this human body show emotion so readily?! And why are emotions so strong in it?! I have got to get back to Labrynthia...

 

[JDizzle383]

Daegan smiled in a knowing fashion, "Light root? there's an idea... still, no, I was just trying to think of a way to increase-oh, nevermind, you seem more interested in actually drinking the coffee than what's in it." he hinted with the smirk never leaving his face.

When Albaon came over BLUSHING, Daegan couldn't help but laugh. But the problem was his laugh sounded every bit as menacing as an end boss even when he didn't want it to.

Lizzie spit her drink out.

He stopped laughing.

"What?... it's the laugh isn't it? I can get a bit carried away." Daegan sighed and left the table to go make more magic coffee.

Lizzie grabbed her friend's hand excitedly, "Did you hear him? tell me that wasn't the same thing from the game when you finish Phase1! Tell me that's not the same! You can't can you?"

Raphael's ears twitched as he overheard(cat senses) and he casually cleared off a nearby table, taking a deliberately long time as if there was a spot on it he REALLY couldn't get off so he could listen in.

Daegan was in the back frowning as he mixed together the next batch. "I really need to figure out how to not sound like that when I am happy..." he muttered.

While it was true that he had multiple girls checking him out, not one of them had actively insulted him. Still, at least she had been right about how long it had been and wasn't insulting him directly. She was kinda cute too... shit... he didn't ask for her name! And now he couldn't go back out to ask because it would look odd to do so for just that reason!

God etiquette is hard... wait, why am I even thinking the word cute in the first place? Demons don't do cute! he thought as he brewed the rest and added a bit of magic to it once again. It did bring in customers after all. money was money, and the three of them still slept outside the campus in a forest, so... saving for a house was Priority One.

 

[Kekse]

"Bro. How do these girls know about healing potions, anyway? As far as I know, Labrynthia is the only kingdom to make them using light root. And from what I've gathered living in this horrible world so far... Potions aren't even a thing!!" Albaon tossed another spoon into the drying rack and answered the whistle of the coffee machine announcing that the next batch was done brewing. "Something weird is going on, here. That's all I'm saying."

The demon barely even noticed that he was beginning to pick up the lingo of the students that he and his java crafting companions served every day. The "Thy soul shall be cast to HELL!!" was a distant memory, replaced by 'dude,' 'bro,' 'beef,' and by far his favorite, 'yeet.'

Ariah, meanwhile, sipped her bitter drink and shrugged. "I mean yeah, it was pretty close. And he didn't seem thrown off when I started talking about healing potions. I've never played another game with that same recipe, so I guess that's more evidence. But I think these guys are just obsessed with the same game as us and fancy themselves cosplayers. Or like... Whatever they call people who are convinced they are a character, you know? Like... Kin or something."

She continued to watch Daegon as he worked, resting her chin in her left hand and raising her coffee to her lips with her right. "They are decently cute, though. Maybe we should invite them over to our dorm to play multiplayer with us."

 

[JDizzle383]

"I am unsure Albaon... the fact that we have no way to make healing potions is concerning, but it does seem from what we've learned that murder is not tolerated here, so fighting to the point of needing them is not necessary. Still, it does irk me that I can't kill something to blow off steam." he began adding the magic to the next batch. "Still it does seem as though we can still freely use magic and oddly enough the cooldown catalyst is literally just our own sleep... which is odd considering mana potions were required before. So yes, weird is definitely correct."

Raphael went back into the kitchen whistling. He'd heard all he needed to. Walking over to Deagan he whispered into his ear, then he used thought transference to send his words to Albaon as well.

"The girls checking you two out think we were part of a game."

Daegan frowned, "So it's likely that whatever those two girls were on about was a way to test us... well two can play at that game." He spoke before walking out to the same table the two gamer girls were currently chatting at.

"Can I get you two anything else?" he asked with a devilish smile. He was after information, but Lizzie shocked him into forgetting.

"Are you boys free tonight?" she asked suddenly.

Daegan stopped functioning as his mind mistakenly blindsided him by having his virginity flash before his eyes he only just met these two... that was so sudden and she wasn't even the one he thought was cute!

Raphael, however, being the naive little catboy he was, ran to save his master. "Is there something we needed to do tonight, Daegan?"

"Uh, no, not really. Albaon! You free tonight?" he called out in an attempt to save his ass from the dirty-minded thought process they might have seen cross his features.

Lizzie, completely oblivious to any of those thoughts and whose fault it was that they had happened, smiled, "Would you like to come to hang out with us for a bit? We could play some games and I have snacks, too!"

Daegan relaxed when he realized it hadn't been a loaded question. "What's the harm... do you girls live on campus?"

"Here's the dorm number! see you tonight!" Lizzie wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to him.

When they went back to the kitchen, Lizzie squealed and gave a thumbs up to Ariah. "Mission accomplished!"

Daegan meanwhile, was in the back trying to figure out what had just happened. wasn't his deception skill a level 100? how did she just blindside him? is that not how things worked here?

Raphael smirked, "They were both pretty interested in you guys. Who knows, demon lords might find love after all!" he then cracked up like he had said the dumbest thing he could think of.

After all, no one loved a demon. they murdered people for their immortal souls, sometimes torture was involved, sometimes other methods, so why was this happening?

 

[Kekse]

"A game? Like...those moving images on the glowing boxes that we can see through the windows of the recreation hall when we walk by? Why would they think something ridiculous like that? Those aren't even real." The demon rolled his eyes and picked up a broom. "Not that we've actually had any experience with these 'games.' Do they make ones based on real life? But we would notice if someone were documenting our lives for something like that. Unless that's what all those meddlesome treasure thieves were after..."

Nobody was listening to Albaon's ramblings, as usual, but that didn't keep him from continuing while his companions chattered with the girls. He picked up a tray of mugs and disappeared into the back for a few moments.

When Daegon called his name, Albaon poked his head out of the kitchen and shook it. "No, you know we never really do anything except chill in the woods after work. Why, what's up?" He glanced at the look on Raphael's and Daegon's faces, utterly confused. "You look like you were told that a more powerful ...like someone was threatening to take your place."

He began to laugh and disappeared back into the kitchen, still not entirely sure what was going on. But he did find the look of terror on Daegon's face hilarious. And he was absolutely positive that he would hear all about it once the girls had left the shop.

Meanwhile, the girls finished their coffee and left for their dorm with their victory slip clutched tightly. "I'm surprised they were so ready to agree to chill at our place. What do you think the scrawny one meant about 'hanging out in the woods?' Do you think they're a trio of pot heads? That would certainly not surprise me, with the weird things their coffee seems to do."

Ariah picked up the pace, looking up and seeing clouds gathering in the distance. "I don't think they'd want to be out smoking tonight anyway. It looks like the weather is going to be nasty tonight. But if they want to smoke anything in our room, the answer is no. No matter what they have." She looked at her roommate with mock seriousness, knowing that she wasn't really the one who should be making comments about not smoking in the dorm.

When she reached their place, the first thing Ariah did was change out of her 'going out of the house' clothes and into her ratty tank top and baggy gym shorts. "Did we eat all of the Doritos? I thought we bought another bag but I can't find them." She peeked her head out of the cabinet to see what her pink-clad classmate was doing. "The mountain dew is missing, too. Is it over by the TV?"


Back at the shop, closing time had rolled around. "You really think they're interested in us, Raphael?" Albaon asked, his arms full of dirty rags and aprons. "Seems rather far-fetched to me that these humans would have any interest in demons like us. But hey, less time out in the woods and free food, eh?"

 

[JDizzle383]

Raphael nodded, "YOu should have seen how animatedly they were talking about 'if he had red skin he'd be just like him'. I don't know of any humans with red skin. Do you think it's a fetish?"

——————

Lizzie kicked off her shoes and changed into a more comfortable outfit as well. When going to class she always went for cute, but at her dorm, she went for functional and easy to move in, so he skirt was now sweatpants, and her sweater was now a tank top with the slightest hint of her bra strap visible on one side.

Looking panicked when they found out they hadn't got food, she helped Ariah look, to no avail. "Aw man! we've gotta go get—" she started just as they heard thunder off in the distance.

"Crap crap crap why is this happening? What if they take it as bad hospitality and won't talk to us again?" she was now furiously looking for anything that could save them.

——————

Daegan looked up at the sky as it flashed white, the sound almost music to his ears. It reminded him of home. "We should head there before..." he stopped talking as he looked at the paper Lizzie had written on.

Raphael raised a brow, "What's up master?"

Daegan said nothing and handed the other two the paper. Lizzie had written the dorm number, a few hearts, and a little flag picture with the Demon Insignia from the game next to her dorm number.

Raphael hummed as he saw it, "Well that means they know, so now what do we do? we can't refuse them and just ditch. that's called impolite here."

Daegan frowned, "And when was a demon ever polite?"

Raphael smirked, "When they want information, or when there are girls willingly throwing themselves at you."

"Great, let's just get there before the storm. Albaon, I don't think I have to say this but I'd rather we get as much information on what they know before we leave with as little magic as possible. Smooth talk them if you have to. No. Torture."

Raphael smirked and said, "unless they're into that."

Daegan sighed, "We're dead."

Once they arrived at the door, he knocked and called out, "Girls? As we said, we are here." awkwardly.

——————

Lizzie heard the knocking and miserably walked over to the door. Opening it she fidgeted and muttered, "We um... didn't realize we ran out of food..."

Daegan just smiled, "Oh? is that all? Albaon, go get the snacks we brought as a gift." he of course meant 'walk that way and summon some food for them so we don't miss this opportunity' but again, that's not what he said.

Lizzie just looked curiously at them, almost like she was thinking 'show me magic' like they were just gonna do so right in front of her.

 

[Kekse]

"I'm sure we have something somewhere!" Ariah continued searching through the cupboards, eventually giving up and glancing in the rubbish bin next to the couch. Inside were the remains of three bags of chips, a case of Mountain Dew, and a package of chocolates. Her memory dug up a vague image of a late night of dungeon diving in Labrynthia and suddenly everything made sense. "We totally ate all the snacks the day before yesterday while we were gaming. How did I manage to forget that?"

With further grumbles, she began fishing around for her wallet, only to be stopped by the crashing of lightning. "I mean, if someone hadn't already told them we had snacks we might have been alright. But now that we've promised two boys there would be food...we can't exactly just let it go. I guess I can grab an umbrella and go get something from the student store...I don't want to go any farther than that if it's going to rain on us."

Though she didn't even have the time for that as the knock on the door made her scowl even deeper. Ariah continued rummaging through cupboards as Lizzie opened the door and the voices of all three men grew louder. I didn't realize the cat eared one was coming, too...we only have two extra controllers. I guess we'll have to take turns or something? Shit. We really should have thought this through a little better.

Her face remained calm as always and relief spread through her body as the cuter boy sent his friend to get the snacks they had brought. She gestured for the other two inside and brushed the pile of mess from the couch onto the floor. "You guys can have the couch. I'll take one of the beanbags."

~~
Albion grumbled that Daegon had sent him away just moments after the cute girl had opened the door, but he huffed and walked around the corner out of sight. After looking around to ensure nobody was watching, the demon crouched down behind a bush and summoned a variety of snacks that he had seen in the convenience store down the street from the coffee shop. With arms full, he returned to the door with a grin. "Got us covered!"

He stepped inside and dropped the snacks on the table, looking around at the girls' dorm. It wasn't anything fancy, but after sleeping in the woods for nearly a month even a roof and a couch seemed like the lap of luxury. Ariah closed the door as soon as all three boys were inside and picked up a bag of Doritos, her favorite snack. "So from what we've gathered, you three are fans of Labrynthia aren't you? We figured it would be nice to have a full team of four for dungeon diving, unless both of you insist on playing DPS. We really need a spell caster and a healer." She looked at the guys expectantly, caught off guard when Albion stared back at her with blank eyes.

"Oh uh, yeah. I'm not very good, but yeah. Totally. Great game." Weak excuse though it was, Ariah seemed to accept it. She tossed two controllers on the couch and powered on the Playstation.

"We'll have to share or take turns. Only 4 controllers in the house."

 

[JDizzle383]

Lizzie gasped when the hot one just suddenly carried in everything they needed in no time flat. "Wow! Where were you carrying all this stuff?" She prodded for information.

Fans of? Was that what they thought? Ha... Daegan couldn't help but smile at the thought of him being a fan of that place. He lived there! Whether or not he was a fan of the game was irrelevant. However... "Well none of us are healer class so I don't know if..."

Raphael got a mischievous look on his feline features. "If you hire a fifth NPC party member I can hack the game with this! I also know a ton of healing spells and ways to max out health!" he pulled out a Bluetooth Playstation remote from his pocket using a spell. what he planned to do was use magic to control the NPC directly.

Now first off, as far as Ariah and Lizzie were concerned, "Knowing healing spells" was not the right way to say "I can be a healer class"

Secondly, Raphael's pockets were not big enough for a controller.

And thirdly? Yeah, those cat ears and tail were twitching back and forth VERY realistically as if to just scream "I'm a cat."

Three-point-one... no human ears to speak of were on his head.

Daegan smirked, "Ah yes, the possession exploit. You always did love toying with your prey." He said, not realizing how odd that sounded to the girls.

Lizzie, however, had more things to worry about than why Daegan was calling the NPCs prey, "So, Albaon was it? If you're not very good, what makes you like the game so much?"

Her mistake was that he never said his name. She could always say she heard it at the coffee shop, but still, she hadn't asked and she knew it anyway.

Raphael, however, looked over the snacks, "Masteeeeeeeeeer, Albaon forgot the milk!" he whined, completely oblivious to that sounding super suspicious(and submissive in a certain way) to their hosts.

 

[Kekse]

Albaon looked at the food on the table and shrugged. "It was just around the corner. We decided to wait to bring it in since you had mentioned already having snacks. Didn't want to appear like we didn't trust your statement." While part of him was impressed with his ability to invent tales on the fly, the other part of him remembered that he was, in fact, a demon once upon a time and lying was second nature. "Hopefully we brought things that you like."

The demon dropped to the couch and picked up the controller, glancing at the buttons a little nervously. He'd never actually...used a controller before. This was going to be hard to pass off...but as the others got situated, he found himself paying less and less attention to the upcoming unmasking of their lie and more and more attention to the brighter of the two girls. It felt so strange to be attracted to a human, but hey. He was, in fact, a human right now. So perhaps it wasn't all that strange?

Meanwhile, Ariah stared at Raphael more and more suspiciously. "What do you have there, bags of holding in your pants? There's no way a controller would fit in such a small pocket." Her no-nonsense tone was softened slightly with amusement and tinged with confusion. It wasn't in her nature not to say just about anything that popped into her brain, nor was she afraid to examine things that interested her. She stepped closer to Raphael and reached out toward his ears, eyes narrowed. "Did you have those legit surgically attached to your head? And your real ears removed? How the hell did they manage that without you losing your hearing? And is the tail attached too? I've heard of some pretty weird body mods, but I think this takes the cake."

She stopped just short of actually touching his fur, shrugged, and dropped into the beanbag and turned on the Playstation with her big toe. "I guess you can do whatever you want, bro, but if you get my account banned I'll chop that tail of yours off with a dull kitchen knife."

Albaon chuckled at the girl's forwardness and grabbed the bag of Cheetos that he had picked for himself. He considered Lizzie's question for a moment and shrugged. "I don't know. It's just very familiar- I mean, I've spent enough time just wandering around that it's familiar. And yes, Albion. You must have been paying more attention at the cafe than we thought to have picked up my name already."

The game started and the familiar expanse of the castle's grounds appeared. "Do you want to log in to your own player profile?" Ariah stared at Daegon, while Albion squirmed uncomfortably.

"I'm just going to start a new adventurer, myself." Albion spoke out of turn. Because he didn't have a character to log in to, obviously...

 

[JDizzle383]

Lizzie raised a brow at his lie but decided not to pry further. After all, if he was a demon she could likely be in danger if she upset him. looking through the snacks, she found a bag of gummy works and tore it open, popping one into her mouth happily.

Raphael didn't even realize his mistake. "What? and you don't?" he asked Ariah. When she stepped closer and said he had had surgery he laughed, "I was born this way. not my fault people don't understand Nekojin biology!" He smiled good-naturedly, "Did you want to touch them?"

When she said she'd chop his tail off, he frowned, "Yeah, good luck with that." he said as he sat down and got ready to cast the spell that would take over the NPC, making it follow the players around. "Who said anything about getting your account banned? It's just gonna look like an NPC is following you around!"

Lizzie, meanwhile, was flustered as she realized she had said his name because of the game and not because of the cafe. "Uh... yeah, I ummm... game! we need to start the game!" she tripped over her thoughts.

Daegan sighed, "I will simply start with a new profile. My old one was boring anyway. One hit kills aren't as fun."

He was referring to when he was the Demon Lord and had been ruler of the Castle Labyrinthia, but he sat down and picked up the last controller. "And just so we're clear," He selected a Spellblade class and turned to the girls. "You know who I am, correct?"

If they didn't he expected looks of confusion. That wasn't what he got. Lizzie, while gorging herself on gummy worms, said, "Oh, the Demon Lord thing? Like we didn't already expect an interrogation. You're not very good at hiding it. Your subordinate is literally a cat-person, not to mention Albaon's just as hot as he was in the game. Can... can I pet Raphael's ears or would that be out of line?" she asked the last question timidly like she REALLY wanted to touch those ears.

Raphael smirked, "I knew it! They do know! and uh... sure, go ahead."

Lizzie pet his head and the two girls would hear a soft purring sound escape his throat as she did, while his tail swayed back and forth.

Daegan sighed, "I can't believe you can outclass a level 100 interrogation skill." He muttered, still unaware that levels meant nothing if you weren't actually good at the action in question.

 

[Kekse]

Albaon was equal parts surprised and unsurprised at Daegan's forwardness. But he was also torn on how to feel about the girls already knowing who they were. His cheeks flushed when Lizzie called him "hot," but he did his best to keep his face hidden so she wouldn't see. "Well, I guess we're busted. But now I'm curious...how many humans are familiar with our fortress? I was aware we were constantly dealing with new pesky adventurers, but I was convinced they all just came from the village at the bottom of the mountain. I had no idea they were controlled by another species."

The demon flashed a glance at Raphael, who was seeming to enjoy the ear scratches quite thoroughly. "You're even weirder here than you were back in Labrynthia," he muttered, shaking his head and shoving another handful of cheetos in his mouth. He fidgeted with the buttons on the controller, trying to figure out how they worked when Ariah began to laugh at him.

"You're the worst liar. You've never even held a controller before, have you?"

"Yes I have!" Albion stuck his tongue out at Ariah and scowled, continuing to mess with the triggers and joysticks. He was frustrated that up was down and down was up, his brain completely messed up.

Ariah rolled her eyes and took the controller away from Albion, turned it right side up, and handed it back. "You were holding it upside down, you idiot. It's no wonder you're only a mid-level miniboss. Not like Daegan here. Now THAT is power!" She waggled her eyebrows at the other demon before flopping on the couch and opening up her own gaming profile. "I guess we'll have to train you noobs on how to play. No doubt you already know the map, but I highly doubt you even know how to open a door..."

Her voice trailed off and Albion flushed, staring at the controller which now seemed much, much easier to use. Little by little he figured out how to access the menus, equip things, use items, and interact with the world.

 

[JDizzle383]

"What do you mean how many? this kind of home console is owned by millions of people. Granted the game was made in Japan, so not a lot of people on campus know about it." Lizzie said while continuing to pet Raphael.

"Who's a good kitty?" she said as she scratched his ears. for some reason since they had been found out, Raphael decided he wanted more praise and LITERALLY MORPHED INTO A KITTEN.

Daegan frowned, "What did I say about using magic while we were here?" he asked his subordinate.

"Meow?"

Lizzie picked up Cat Raph. "AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW! How can you say that to his cute little fluffy face?" she asked.

Daegan sighed, deciding that since no one was kicking them out it was fine. "Wait what?" he muttered, finally catching the 'power' comment. "What was that?" he asked as his character finally opened a door after running into it 3 times.

Lizzie was holding kitty Raph on her lap as he purred. She smirked, "Well look who has the hots for Mr. Demon Lord!!" she teased her friend.

"Says the girl who obviously wants to bed my not-red-skinned-anymore-second-in-command!" Daegan shot back to shut her up.

Lizzie's whole face turned red and she hid her face in a nearby pillow.

 

[Kekse]

The whole scenario was so far from anything that Albion expected in this world that he hunched down on the couch and attempted to hide his blushing face. But at the same time...nobody had ever made any kind of advances toward him before. He was only a miniboss, after all. Who wanted to get with the underling? Perhaps in this world...his rank didn't really matter? The thought gave him courage and he sat up straighter, scooting over to make more room on the couch. What would it hurt to see where this went? It wasn't like they were risking much now that they knew the girls didn't care about their secret. If he had learned anything about humans in his short few months among them, it was that these two would simply be mocked mercilessly if they tried to convince any of their classmates that the owners of the school cafe were actually demons from a video game.

Such knowledge brought a surge of confidence and Albion patted the couch next to him. "If you like me so much, why don't you come sit over here, eh? I only bite when I'm asked, believe it or not." He smirked and rested his arm along the back of the couch, again feeling those emotions that had caught him so off-guard at the cafe earlier. They felt...rather pleasant, actually.

In the meantime, Ariah had reached over to snatch Raph to take her turn petting the kitty. Her face was stoic as usual, but the pleasure was obvious in her eyes. There was just something about cats, man. She continued scratching him behind the ears and looked at Lizzie with a dead-pan stare. "So what if I do? It's not like you didn't know this before. How many times have we fought Daegan just so I could stare at his ass? That's some fine, fine 3D art there."

She grabbed a handful of doritos and began slowly crunching them while staring at the demons. "So you can do magic outside of the game, eh? That's definitely an interesting turn of events. I think our semester might have just gotten a little more interesting."

 

[JDizzle383]

"Wha—I Ummm... o-okay..." Lizzie smiled bashfully and sat next to him.

Daegan, however, was not as confident. "You were fighting me to see my WHAT???" he frowned, "I kill people for a living there, and you sent adventurers to their deaths just to see my ASS???"

Raphael(still in cat form and still purring) spoke up "It's not like they died every time, right? for all we know, you could have been defeated just as many times!"

That calmed Daegn a bit until he realized that he DIED in those scenarios. "I don't like this 'we were a game' knowledge... what's to say I won't wake up tomorrow and this will be nothing but a 3 week long dream?"

"A dream? For three weeks?" Lizzie laughed, "I don't think that's possible unless all three of you are having the same weird linked consciousness all at once."

Raphael nodded, "She has a point. I am more concerned about the magic we can do despite this world not understanding what it actually does or how it works!"

Daegan nodded, "The language we use to cast it is apparently a dead one on this planet..."

Lizzie subconsciously had leaned against Albion's shoulder, "Wait... what do you mean dead language?"

Daegan sighed, "I cast things with the language you all call Latin. I was surprised it was taught in your school, yet no one uses it for its intended purpose."

"HOLD THE F**K UP!!! WE CAN JUST LEARN MAGIC SPELLS???" Lizzie shreiked.

Daegan frowned, "My ears! and yes, I would assume if you had any affinities for it, then you could cast something to a degree."

Lizzie dropped her controller from the shock. "Forget the game! Teach me!" she practically grabbed Albion by the shirt.

Daegan sighed, "You know we live in the woods, right? Kinda hard to teach when we don't have anywhere to stay..."

 

[Kekse]

The thought of Daegan dying repeatedly actually brought Albion into a fit of giggles. He boldly draped his arm over the back of the couch and across Lizzie's shoulders, leaning forward slightly as the laughter overcame him. Ariah, on the other hand, shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, so? I mean honestly, you should be thanking me. If killing people is your job, then I was merely ensuring that you were safely supplied with work. You're welcome." She flashed one eyebrow at Daegan and stroked Raph's ears, smoothing them down against his head. His purring pleased her and she almost smiled. Almost. "Yes, actually. At least Lizzie and I here got to the point where we won every time. I have no idea how many times we've destroyed that hot bod of yours."

That sent Albion over the edge. He doubled over in laughter at Daegan's horrified face, failing to realize that this meant he had to have died just as many (if not more) times. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes and he wiped them away with his sleeve while trying to catch his breath. Daegan's dream comment brought Albion's giggles to a sudden halt however, and the demon frowned. Truth be told...he was enjoying his time here. The thought of waking back up at the castle was disappointing at best and depressing at worst. "I hope you're right. I'm definitely not done with this adventure yet, but I suppose there's no way to know if you all are just in my mind."

Lizzie grabbing his shirt and shaking him definitely didn't feel like a dream. His head lolled back and forth a couple of times before he managed to regain control of his neck and waved his hands. "Daegon is right. Living in the woods sucks, man. But we aren't making quite enough at the cafe to afford to rent a place yet. But perhaps if we sold more coffee, we could afford to give magic lessons..."

 

[JDizzle383]

Lizzie's face went scarlet as Albion draped an arm over her shoulder.

"Uh..." Daegan was speechless. When she just blatantly admitted she thought he was hot it sort of broke him for a few seconds. As Albion laughed he tried to figure out what to say, coming up with nothing.

"Well... why don't you just live here with us?" Lizzie said, making all heads turn, "WAIT, hear me out, okay? You guys have literal magic! You can make a door that leads to extra rooms that weren't there before right? Like that spell in the game that would make Labrynthia inexplicably have extra rooms!"

Raphael, still purring in Ariah's lap, said, "I am fine with just having milk and a place to sleep that isn't full of predators."

Daegan sighed, "We can do that, but what would someone say if they found out?"

Lizzie smirked, "Like you can't just wipe people's memories! We've seen you reset our save files. Same principle! What do you think Ariah? Let our dream boys live with us in exchange for magic lessons?" she asked her roommate.

"I... how into us WERE you???" Daegan had never freaked out this much in his existence.

 

[Kekse]

Ariah shrugged nonchalantly and scratched Raph between the eyes. "I suppose so. But I swear, if we get kicked out by the RAs for harboring dudes in our apartment I'm putting your entire collection of Albion merch out on the lawn for the neighbors to enjoy. All of it."

Albion froze and rotated his head to stare at Ariah. "...Merch? Like...crap with my face on it? What the hell?"

Ariah nodded and gestured to a closed door across the room. "We got a 3 bedroom apartment, so we keep all of our merch in there. You can look, if you want. It's totally not intended to be a shrine." She picked up cat-Raph and tucked him into the crook of her elbow before crossing the room. "You want to see how into you we are? We'll show you." Daegan's reaction was amusing her greatly, but her face remained impassive as she pushed the door open and stepped out of the way.

The opening of the door revealed a room absolutely packed with merch of various fandoms. "Labrynthia is in the back to the left." Albion poked is head through the doorway and his mouth slipped slightly open.

"You two are hoarders," he muttered, but stepped into the room to get a better look around. There had to be fifteen or twenty fandoms represented in the shelves upon shelves of acrylic stands, posters, shikishis, postcards, pins, buttons, and other various knick knacks. But by far the majority of the room was dominated by all things Labrynthia. The centerpiece was a 1/12 scale model of the castle, with all of the bosses and mini bosses in their appropriate spawn locations. A box of various other enemies sat next to the castle, along with another box containing the player characters and what appeared to be every type of weapon and armor found in game.

But that barely scratched the surface. Cardboard standees, fanart, rugs, towels, dishes, costumes...you name it and these girls had it with Albion and/or Daegan's faces (or bodies) on it. An emotion began running through Albion's nerves, one he had rarely felt before: terror. "Okay, I rescind my prior statement. You two aren't hoarders...you're creepy stalking maniacs..."

 

[JDizzle383]

Raphael doubled over laughing in Ariah's arms in a hissing fit. "HAHAHAHAHAHAsssss sssss sss" then he coughed up a hairball, "I'll... clean that up..."

Daegan sighed, "This is creepy sure, but what amazes me is the attention to detail some of the art has and-IS THAT A NUDE DRAWING OF ME???"

Lizzie burst out laughing at his reaction, "What? she said she liked your ass. She meant it. You should see the one I have of Albion! It's a body pillow."

Daegan smirked, and there was no joy in the terrifying aura he exuded. "Get rid of the nudes. Or. We're. Done. Here," he spoke darkly, "And by done I mean I will kill both of y-"

"Nope!!" Raphael said, "If they are so into you that they have these, are you really gonna kill them? The smart thing would be to start dating. Or is that not what people do here? They get to know each other! Why do all things end in violence with you guys? This whole planet's values are completely different from ours, and you seriously want to have to find a new place to live when we just got offered a place to stay? And for what? Magic training is easily going to be the best thing we can offer them, and you're going on about nudes being an issue? It's not like they are asking you to actually BE naked or anything!!!"

"Easy for you to say! You are a cat and they don't have a damn artbook about you next to scented candles with your faces on them!!" Daegan shot back before taking a breath, "Look, can I just ask that you two not go showing others the less clothed versions of your little fan stash?"

Lizzie smiled sweetly and walked over to Albion. "As long as we eventually see the real deal I can agree to that!"

"Terrific. I'm never opening this door again." Daegan walked out and started casting a spell, a door popping into existence on one of the hallway walls. "Hmmm... maybe that's too big an addition..." he muttered opening it to reveal a three bedroom two bath plus living room area addition to the house.

 

[Kekse]

A furious blush crossed Albion's face at the mention of a nude body pillow, but he continued poking around in morbid curiosity. It wasn't until he came across a mousepad with Daegan's naked butt cheeks as a wrist rest that he retreated from the totally-not-a-shrine and stood in the corner of the room. "Daegan, boss man, you really still want to live here after seeing that??"

He rolled his eyes at Raph, but knew that he was right...aside from the dating part. "I don't know that I could date someone who has amassed a collection of literally everything you could think of with my likeness on it...is that not more than a little bit creepy? I've never seen so much of my own butt!" He shuddered, but didn't back away quite fast enough to avoid hearing what Lizzie said.

See...the real thing...If he had been red before, this sent him straight into tomato territory. He couldn't even think of anything to say as he stammered uselessly and staggered over to the couch. These girls, man. They were hard-core! "Is...it normal in this world for someone to be so obsessed with someone before even being their partner?" he finally muttered, the words barely managing to come out coherently.

"I mean, we're not exactly the majority and honestly, we thought you guys were not real. Not that we mind, obviously," Ariah replied with a roll of the eyes. However, a sneaky grin spread across her face and she watched curiously as a brand new door appeared on the far wall. She curiously poked her head into the addition and whistled. "Well, well. I don't know how you managed to fit so much space into the area our neighbors' apartments should be, but I dig it."

 

[JDizzle383]

"Is it really that creepy?" Lizzie seemed a bit depressed that her crush just said she was creepy for liking him so much, "I mean wouldn't you collect everything you could if someone wasn't real and you wanted them to be? If... If you stay I'll get rid of the creepy stuff!" she looked like she was about to cry.

Raphael chose this moment to say, "Nice going Albion. You're making her cry just for owning merchandise that probably cost an arm and a leg! She adores you!"

"Do you not like younger women?" Lizzie asked as she realized he was probably pushing 600 if the game backstory was to be believed.

Meanwhile, as Ariah observed his spellcasting, Daegan explained it to her in simple terms so she would understand better, "It's spatial manipulation magic," Daegan said as he finished setting it up. "It doesn't occupy any room at all on this end of the door. Go on, look around. Let me know if anything looks like it shouldn't exist here."

He had managed to make a decently modern living space in the house, complete with a walk-in shower, and a large flatscreen TV. "What? were you expecting suits of enchanted armor? We're not savages... anymore..." he sighed after that last bit.

 

[Kekse]

Albion was completely unsure what to do with the human girl and her tears. The daytime television playing in the lobby of the Tanc had taught him that the usual human response was a hug or a pat on the back, so he somewhat awkwardly patted Lizzie's shoulder with a 'there, there' sort of sound. "I'm not much of a hoard- er, collector, so probably not. But you don't have to get rid of your creepy stuff to get me to stay. That place Daegan made is going to be infinitely more comfortable than sleeping in the woods. You'll be hard-pressed to get rid of us at this point."

Her second question again caught him off guard. He stuttered and stammered for a few moments before shrugging. "I mean...I don't even know if I'm into women? I'm kind of a demon, remember? I'll have to consult this human body and see what it thinks about that question."

Awkward.

Meanwhile, Ariah nodded appreciatively at the fancy addition and Daegon's explanation. "Oh, okay, so you've basically turned our dorm into the TARDIS. Rad." She wandered through the space, more than a little jealous that the living area was much, much nicer than their run-down apartment that had seen who knew how many students since it was built. "Nah, looks fine. Just as long as you and your fancy magic can hide the door whenever they do the monthly room inspections. I can /guarantee/ they'd notice a new door."

She stepped closer to examine the large TV, imagining how much better Labrynthia would look on something that wasn't a 24", 15-year old TV she'd picked up at a thrift store. "Yup, definitely going to have to charge TV time as part of your rent. Though if you can make something like this suddenly exist in an empty wall...why did you live in the woods all this time? You could totally have just made a door in a tree or something with the same effect."

 

[JDizzle383]

"My dream boyfriend is gay???" Lizzie asked in abject terror. Her face looked like she was going to melt into a pool of depression

"Ummm... No! He didn't say that! Bi! Your dream boy is into both! yeah! what do you think he keeps me around for?" Raphael desperately tried to salvage the situation.

While it got Lizzie to stop crying, she was still looking distraught. "No fair... Ariah got the big fish and I have to deal with being in a harem with a cat..."

-----------------

"There are rules about what we can make on what surfaces. For example, if a door doesn't fit on a tree in all directions completely flat, then I can't create a door there because it won't open. I can make a cave opening on a tree due to geometry, but I can't despawn a cave, while I CAN despawn a door. Magic is complicated. there are laws you can't break and rules you can... Once we start teaching you I suppose you'll understand more." Daegan said. "Right now though, you should go comfort your friend, as Albion has terrible luck with relationships and may have just crushed her spirit..."

 

[Kekse]

"...I didn't mean I'm into guys," Albion whined, resisting the urge to punt Raphael into the void. "And Raph, I wouldn't tap that ass if it were the last one in Labrynthia. I mean I'm a demon and you're a human." He flapped his arms desperately and punched himself in the head a few times. "Stupid, stupid, stupid...this is why I'm only a miniboss...but trust me, I definitely don't want any harems with a cat either."

Ariah didn't quite understand what Daegon was saying about the rules of magic, but she shrugged and turned back, hearing Lizzie's wails. "Good grief, we leave them alone for five seconds and he has her making such a horrible racket? What the crap did he do..." She left the magical space and stalked over to Lizzie, putting her hands on either side of her roommate's face to give her no choice but to make eye contact.

"What is your problem? Do I need to punch a bitch?"

 

[JDizzle383]

"I asked him if he wasn't into younger women and he... *sniff* said he was gaaaaay!" Lizzie was in tears. "Then Raphael said that he was bi... then he said he didn't like me because I was human!" She wailed, basically putting words into her crush's mouth in her distraught state of mind.

"Nonono! Ariah I swear... she's just upset and not thinking clearly-shutting up now!" Raphael morphed into a kitten and quivered in fear.

"What's going on? you made her cry THIS much? Albion, seriously... if you would work on your people skills as much as your slang this wouldn't happen." Daegan sighed.