The Outlands

Tess and her wives were about to eat dinner when they were whisked away to the party.

“I see you three are still from the past.” Amy said. “I suppose that’s just going to be how it is for the next few.”

Tess took a moment to look around. Aside from her wives and Amy, it appeared that quite a few of the other gods had been “invited” this time around. “Well, I’m just glad there are no other us-es this time.” She said. “I think once is enough for me.”

“I’ve heard that was quite the trip.” Amy chuckled. “Are you with us this time around? I assume not but I figured I should ask.”

Tess pondered that for a moment. “No, I think it’s the regular crew, at least for me.”

“Same.” Ellie said.

“And I as well.” Maven added.

Kali and an arachne with the upper body of Lilith, minus the wings, walked up. “Hey everyone, seems like Pandora and I are with you all today.” Kali said brightly, looking around. When she spotted Tess and her wives, she walked over, giving them a smile. “Hey, you three.” She said. “This is Pandora, another one of Lilith’s Parallels, I believe this is your first time meeting her?”

“Yeah.” Tess said. “Nice to meet you, Pandora.”

“And it’s nice to finally see the young versions of you in person!” Pandora replied. “Ooh I just want to pinch your little cheeks and give you candy or something.”

“I think that’s grandma behavior, not aunt behavior.” Kali said.

“Potato potahto.” Pandora replied, then gave Tess a smirk. “And I’m just trying to get your goats, I know how you feel when people say that.”

“Get our goats?” Tess asked.

“A phrase from Earth.” Pandora replied. “It means I’m messing with you, don’t worry about it too much. Anyway, I assume you’re with the usual crew? Kali and I are with Amy for today, but Lilith and Eve are with Lia and co.”

“Yeah.” Ellie confirmed. “Kinda weird you’re not with us today, though.”

“We think something might be going on?” Pandora said. “Hard to say with the party. We’ll see, I guess.”

“Well, we won’t keep you any longer.” Maven said, then turned to Tess and Ellie. “Shall we?”

“Yeah. Nice seeing you, have a good evening!” Ellie said, then began to walk off in no particular direction, Maven following behind.

“See you later!” Tess added, following after Ellie.

They found the others quickly, gathered around Jerry and three other women.

“Yeah.” One of the women, a blue haired human, was saying. “She calls it a ‘junk’ plane, something she just uses to blow off steam. She hasn’t invested any Worship into it or anything, just told the two of us to do whatever we want to it.”

“What’s this about?” Tess asked. “Are these new people friends of yours?”

“Sort of.” Lilith replied. “It seems like they’re going to be with us tonight, but they’re not from Jerry’s planes.”

“They’re essentially prisoners of war.” Jerry offered. “We’ll be mounting a rescue mission ASAP, but it’ll be some time before we have the opportunity. Aira, Nia, come with me, let’s go discuss details of your rescue with Amy. Maia, once again, sorry for the rough introduction, but if you’ve had interactions with Katrina, you can probably imagine why I reacted the way I did.”

“I have.” An angel woman, who was probably Maia since the other two had walked over next to Jerry, confirmed. “Not many, but…I’ve seen enough of her to know that she’s probably done something to warrant that reaction.”

“Warrant that and much, much more.” Jerry said darkly. “She won’t be making it out of the coming conflicts alive, I guarantee it. But you don’t need to worry about that for now. For now, you just get to know the rest of these fine women, and have a nice evening.”

With that, Jerry left with the other two women, and Rose took the opportunity to walk over and offer a hand for Maia to shake. “This is your first party, right?” She asked.

“Um…yeah.” Maia said, hesitantly shaking Rose’s hand. “Sorry, I’m a little overwhelmed right now.”

“We all were at our first party.” Rose laughed. “Why don’t we go grab a table and we can all introduce ourselves? We can get food after you’re a bit more settled.”

“Sure, I guess.” Maia said slowly. “But…what is this place?”

“I’ll send a body to go look for a table.” Lilith said, making another body and piloting it away from the group. “As for this place, it’s hard to explain. It’s…well, consider it to be outside of normal reality. People here are from different times and different universes, but broadly speaking you can consider them to be some of the most important people in existence. Yes, you included.”

Maia frowned. “But I’m…what did Katrina call it…a Lesser Being. That doesn’t sound important.”

Connie gasped. “That’s a slur, she was just trying to make you mad. Just because you’re not a Higher Being or Administrator doesn’t mean you’re somehow lesser.”

“Higher Being? Administrator?” Maia asked. “And if there are Higher Beings, doesn’t that mean the rest are lesser, or…lower, by definition?”

“No.” Connie said firmly. “It’s a catch-all term used to refer to a specific category of being that wields power beyond mortal means, such as gods. And while Higher Beings are stronger and are much, much harder to permanently kill, by no means are we inherently better or more valuable than mortals. About half of all Higher Beings were mortal at one point, and at the very basest of levels our souls are no different from that of mortals.”

“That sounds like others are less to me.” Maia replied. “I’m not equal to the goddesses, and I can’t imagine being their equal.”

“We’ll probably end up making you a Higher Being once we rescue you.” Lilith said. “It seems prudent, given what’s coming.”

“What’s…coming?” Maia asked hesitantly.

“War between Administrators.” Eve said bluntly. “The three factions are probably going to end up embroiled in another war, like the kind that originally led Katrina to have control over those goddesses. It’s going to be very, very ugly, but, hopefully, in the end our faction will come out on top and we can go about making some reforms.”

“I still don’t know what an Administrator is.” Maia said. “Is that what Katrina is?”

“Yes.” Eve said. “You can consider them to be the chief god. Anyway, we’ve found a table, wanna go?”

Maia frowned. “Didn’t Lilith go do that?” She pointed out.

“We’re the same person.” Eve said. “It’s complicated. We share our senses, and, at the end of the day, our memory. If you say something to any of us, you say it to all of us.”

“Any? Are there more?”

“Five of us, in total.” Lilith replied. “Myself, Eve, Mae, Nuwa, and Pandora.”

“I see.” Maia said.

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “No further questions?” She asked. “People are usually more surprised.”

“I’ve seen similar before.” Maia replied. “Or, at least, I’m pretty sure something similar was happening; it was a monster so I couldn’t exactly ask.”

“You’ll have to tell us all about your life.” Lilith said, motioning for the others to follow as she began to walk away. “I’m really curious to know what life is like outside of our faction.”

Everyone but Maia chatted a bit as they walked, catching up with each other and learning what they had been doing in the time between parties. It seemed that Lia and her lovers were just about to finish with their home plane before moving on to Jerry’s others, and Lilith had been doing little but study and experiment.

Once they sat, Rose addressed everyone. “Okay, since Maia’s new here, I think the rest of us should introduce ourselves and give a little explanation about our lives and what we’re about. I’ll start; I’m Rose, Lia’s wife. I was formerly a man named Reuben before I was reincarnated into their time, and we’re currently in the process of making an empire of sorts. We’re gearing up for war with the other planes in our universe because the gods want us to expand, but we’re focusing on our home plane at the moment before we go elsewhere.”

Following her lead, everyone else introduced themselves, and finally it was Maia’s turn. “Um…I’m Maia, and I’m also at war with the rest of my world. Katrina’s spread a sort of virus that makes everyone act like her, and she made it so the only way to cure it was to turn people from humans into monster girls, because that’d make Aira and Nia upset. I’m still, um…coming to grips with everything, but I’m going to do my best to win against her.

“I was a hunter named Michael before this, I lived in a village next to the most dangerous place in our world. It’s been a bit of a shock going to the rest of the world, because everything is so…tame in comparison, but at least my time near the Deepwood has prepared me for the fight.”

“How’s that going?” Tess asked. “Are you confident in your victory or are things dicey?”

“Well, we haven’t really started the war proper, but…I think it’s all going to depend on how much Katrina intervenes. If she does basically nothing, and I know that won’t happen, then there’s simply no way for us to lose. If she really wanted to she could end us at any time, but this is some sort of game for her, and I don’t think she’d just ‘cheat’ like that, it wouldn’t be fun for her.”

“Even I wouldn’t have considered doing something like that, and I was incapable of feeling a lot of feelings before.” Amelia said. “She sounds like a real piece of work.”

“She’s the person Jerry hates most.” Connie said. “If Jerry gets his…her hands on Katrina, then you can guarantee that Katrina won’t be making it out alive.”

“Do you have a system or anything?” Maven asked. “Or is all magic done without systems?”

“A system?” Maia asked. “What do you mean?”

“A construct put in place by the gods that helps enable people to use magic.” Tess said. “Usually, everyone has access to the system and it helps guide your growth.”

“Nothing like that, I don’t think.” Maia said. “People need to use magic tomes to cast magic unless they spend a long time learning a spell.”

“Definitely systemless, though maybe there’s a proto-system in place via those tomes?” Connie mused.

“Systems are a thing our faction does, right?” Ellie asked. “What does Katrina’s faction use?”

“They generally use what they call ‘cultivation’.” Connie explained. “It’s another way of internalizing Mana, and it’s usually done with the aid of a bunch of medicines and items synthesized from monster materials and plants rich in Mana. Unlike systems, it’s a very individual sort of thing, and the result is usually that there are very few people with high cultivation.

“As people progress through the ‘stages’ of cultivation, they grow stronger and stronger, and someone even one major step of cultivation above someone else is basically untouchable. The methods to cultivate are kept secretive and competition for resources is fierce, so the worlds are very cutthroat.”

“To be honest, I don’t see the appeal.” Eve said. “At the highest end of things there’s only a medium to small difference in power between system users and cultivators, and in the lower ends of things you have way less people that actually have any sort of strength.”

“I think that might be the point.” Maia said. “Katrina is all about power and trampling over those weaker than you. It sounds like the kind of world she would love, where the strong get to do whatever they want with the weak and no one would dare to say anything to stop them.”

“But how would they protect themselves in the case of a war with other factions?” Maven asked. “I’m not super familiar with Administrator politics, but their faction isn’t well-liked, right?”

“It’s the combat power of the Higher Beings, Administrators, and most powerful mortals that act as a deterrent.” Connie said. “They don’t necessarily have to win, they just have to make it so anyone fighting with them would be weak enough for the other factions to pick them off.”

“That doesn’t seem right.” Maia says. “I don’t know her well, but I have a hard time thinking Katrina would accept a scenario in which she wouldn’t have a chance in a war.”

“It’s not her choice.” Amelia said smugly. “She can’t exactly outcompete us without knowing how to build better stuff, and I doubt she does.”

“I think it’s more that their faction has been left behind in terms of size.” Connie said. “They were always the smallest, and they’ve gained very, very few new members since the war. Their best can go toe to toe with our best, and are often even better, but the numbers of their best generally remain static, and us and the other faction have gradually increased the number of our best.”

“That doesn’t mean they won’t be a threat in the upcoming war, though.” Lilith said darkly. “We were apparently given the worst odds of winning the war, so we got a head start. I think it’s likely that they’ve been holding back to an extent, and their…gifts will be much more…confrontational than ours.”

Lilith sighed, shaking her head. “But that’s not a pleasant subject, why don’t we go get some food and discuss what we’ll do for the rest of the evening? Maia, since it’s your first time here, why don’t you come with me and I can explain how things work?”

“Um…okay.” Maia said.

Everyone began to get up and disperse, Lilith leaving a spare body in her chair as she rose. As Tess and her wives left, the conversation naturally turned to Maia. “So, Maia,” Ellie began, “what do you two think of her?”

“I think she’s got a difficult few years ahead of her.” Maven said. “While I haven’t actually seen her lead, the impression she gives me is that she’s immature as a leader. She can probably rise to the task, my understanding is that she wouldn’t be here if she was inept, but the growing pains are going to be severe.”

“I feel bad for her.” Tess said. “Having your own Administrator be working against you sounds like a monumental task, and it seems like she’s a real piece of work to boot. I just hope she can unwind at least a little tonight before she gets back to it.”

The three reached the tables, and began to dish themselves up. “I can’t really weigh in on the leader thing, that’s not my area of expertise, but I feel bad for her too.” Ellie said. “Katrina or whatever she’s named sounds like an awful person.”

“I agree.” Maven sighed. “I hope whatever plan they’re cooking up to free her works.”

There were a couple moments of silence, then Tess spoke. “How about Pandora? I’m kind of surprised she chose to be an arachne. Uh…they do choose what they are, right?”

“I think so?” Ellie hazarded. “I’m not totally sure how it works but I’d be surprised if they didn’t. And I guess with the amount of control they have over their bodies, any disadvantages or even advantages of their forms are almost irrelevant. It’s just cosmetic for them.”

“Well, at the very least no one is going to mix her up with any of the other Parallels.” Maven replied. “She certainly makes an impression.”

They chatted idly as they finished getting their food, and by the time they had gotten back to the table, the conversation had turned back to Maia. “You know, her situation actually kind of reminds me of Lia.” Maven said. “They’re both taking over and transforming their worlds, right?”

“Huh. So they are.” Ellie said. “Interesting.”

At that moment, Lia and her lovers returned to the table. “Welcome back.” Tess said. “We were just talking about you.”

“You were?” Lia asked, sitting down. “What about?”

“We were saying that you and Maia are actually in kind of similar positions right now.” Ellie said. “In that you’re both working on taking over your world right now.”

“Sounds like her motives are a bit purer, though.” Lia said. “Like…some sort of virus she’s trying to cure or something?”

“Yes, assuming you’re talking about me.” Maia said, taking a seat next to Lilith’s empty body and placing down a small plate of food. “It…removes inhibitions, and makes it so people are unable to see right from wrong. People will do literally anything they think they can get away with, and they’re really, really forward about propositioning people or even…forcing themselves on them, it’s chaos.”

“Sounds like a normal one of her planes, at least from what I’ve heard.” Connie said. “Aside from being overly sexual, that is. I don’t know them so I can’t say for sure, but I’d wager Katrina did that bit to mess with Aira and Nia.”

“That seems…probable.” Maia said. “Katrina said something about the cure method being their ‘barely disguised fetishes’, and they said that Aira only likes women and Nia prefers nonhumans over human so…seems about right?”

“Disgusting behavior from her.” Lilith said, returning and taking the place of the body she had left behind, with Eve sitting next to her. “Real petty stuff. You’d think it’d get old after…however long she’s been tormenting them, though. Either they’d break or she’d get bored.”

“They can’t break, they said she resets their mental states so that they can’t give into despair or go insane.” Maia replied. “And it seems she takes breaks of a few hundred years between sessions, judging by the timeline I’ve heard.”

“Even better.” Eve said dryly. “Each time I hear about her I hate her more and more.”

“As do I.” Maia said. “I can tell by the way she talks that she thinks nothing of the lives of the people of my world. We hold value to her only as entertainment.”

“Well, that’s just about the exact opposite of our perspective.” Lilith replied. “You’ll see, once we rescue you.”

Maia nodded shyly, then began to eat. “So, um…after dinner, what do we do then? Just talk?”

“There are activities we can go and do.” Lia said. “Do you have anything in particular you like to do for fun or sport?”

“Um…does hunting count?” Maia asked. “It’s what I’m best at.”

“There’ll be some sort of hunting simulator if we look.” Lilith replied. “You could lead us all on a hunt in an exact replica of your old environment if that sounds exciting.”

“Aren’t you all…Higher Beings or whatever?” Maia pointed out. “I don’t think hunting stuff that I can handle will be very stimulating for you.”

“Don’t worry about that, we can adjust the parameters as need be.” Lilith replied. “We can all get brought to your level, you can get brought to ours, and everything in-between. If you’ve ever wanted to, say, do a hunt with the world’s best or something, then this is your opportunity. Obviously we’re not your world’s best, but I think we’d scratch the same itch.”

“Um…yeah, let’s do that.” Maia said. “I’ll think about what I want it to be like.”

With their course decided, the group ended up just chatting while they ate. They often had to explain things to Maia, be it technology, system concepts, or just stuff about how the world worked, and Tess actually found it kind of refreshing; Maia was an attentive listener, and having to explain technology was a neat little reversal from the normal explaining of magic.

And the idea of hunting with her was intriguing as well. They’d get a glimpse of Maia as a leader, and Tess was curious to see how a professional hunter approached the task. She didn’t want to do heavy exercise on an empty stomach, though, so she made sure to eat her fill now, enjoying the good company all the while.