No Need for a Core?

The rest of the day was rather relaxing for Kazue. She felt like her second floor was complete, but didn’t quite have the mana to push down to the third floor yet, so there wasn’t that itch to keep building. That let her just simply enjoy tending to her spouses' sore bodies, though that was a luxury as they would be fully healed/reset by dawn. One advantage of being a dungeon, the respawn cycle also heals those who aren’t ‘dead’.

After the bath, the three of them curled up on Moriko’s bed to chat, it wasn't late enough for the half-elf to need sleep yet to be fresh for her trip tomorrow. “I really don’t get that thrill you guys get from beating each other up,” she complained to them. “I mean, I get training for a purpose, but your emotions were all lit up with positive stuff even as you were hurting each other.”

The two of them exchanged glances, then Mordecai gestured for Moriko to take the lead. She took a slow breath to organize her thoughts as she looked back to Kazue. “Well, you said you liked singing and dancing for your temple, right? How do you feel when you master a new song or dance? Or what about when you make a new painting? Um, I guess for that matter, when you create your new puzzles for the dungeon? That sense of accomplishment, of overcoming a challenge, it’s part of it. But, it’s not just a challenge, it’s a contest. We are pitting our skills against each other, which raises the emotional stakes a little. On top of that, people tend to get a rush after overcoming something dangerous. Even for a little spar like ours, there is a bit of risk. So that thrill of potential danger stacks on top of the excitement of a contest. It’s not about the violence, the fighting is just the medium. This is the realm of the warrior, where there is art and beauty to be found in the mastery of a fighting skill.”

After a brief, thoughtful pause, she continued. “In contrast is the soldier. While there can be beauty found in the order of a military, especially one that goes out of the way to put on displays like certain marching drills, in the end, their style of fighting is not about self-mastery or grace. It is about the simple efficiency of war. And it is a necessary task: given a thousand warriors and a thousand soldiers of equal skill and equipment, the soldiers would trounce the warriors. In contrast, a single warrior against a single soldier would give victory to the warrior. I’m ill-suited for such a job, because there is no thrill, no personal contest of skills in the same way, and the day-to-day routine would bore me to no end.”

Kazue pondered the ideas presented for a bit. She wasn’t sure she agreed, but she could see a little bit of that point of view. And she had to admit it was fun when she blasted the straw dummies after she figured out how to cast spells. “Hmm, maybe.”

This led to a wandering conversation on topics of philosophy and art, most especially in regard to the need to be able to be violent because there are those who are more than willing to inflict violence upon you. The kitsune was never quite happy with it, but couldn’t find a realistic argument against it. But they both agreed with her that it was generally better to choose a non-violent path when available; they just thought it unreasonable to not be fully prepared for times when it isn't.

Eventually, it was time for Moriko to go to sleep, and the two dungeon avatars left her to it. They went out to the main room to talk about their plans for the third floor and to spend a little bit of energy tweaking the main chamber, creating rooms for themselves as well. Kazue’s was another bedroom suite, complete with bed so she could rest when she wanted. Mordecai chose a different route, opting for more of an office or study setup, though with comfortable seating to lounge in. He had never had a habit of ‘sleeping’ when his avatar was in his dungeon, so found it fine to rest his mind in other ways, but Kazue enjoyed her established creature comforts.

The next morning Moriko woke up in a cheerful mood. Though she really did like these two and her new ‘second’ home, she also really did want to see her family again and had been looking forward to it before she got so sidetracked. And, she was running late enough that she was worried they'd be getting anxious. Plans beyond that, well, that was vague right now. Still, she was pretty certain she’d at least be coming back here regularly in some fashion. She’d absolutely have to talk to the Master of the Temple Guards though, this would interfere with her current duties when not on ‘vacation’. Well, that’s a problem for future her.

So she set about collecting all her stuff, and chose to wear her freshly laundered dress. Traveling in uniform felt weird, she mostly had it with her to provide an emergency change of clothes if she needed it before she got home, or needed to be official for some reason. Most of her clothes were still at her parent’s place, since she mostly wore uniforms when near the temple.

She was also careful to not hum as she packed, and kept her emotions a little removed from the soul link. She was happy to go home, but didn’t want to hurt them by having them think she was happy to be away from them. Being here all the time wasn’t something she intended doing, but she was pretty certain she’d enjoy being here frequently.

Once she left her room, she found the central area to be rather changed. The middle tier that had been left empty now had a long table on it that looked suitable for setting up a small feast, and several decorations had been added to the walls to create a somewhat celebratory atmosphere. The cozy little couch had been moved further into the corner, creating a more hidden alcove, while a pair of thrones was center stage on the top tier, though they were unoccupied for the moment. The monk turned towards the two people grinning at her with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you think? Assuming we like them, seemed like we should reward anyone who gets through all the challenges with a meal and someplace to relax. We even made a kitchen behind that alcove, though for now I think we'll only offer conjured food,” Mordecai said.

Kazue was nodding excitedly. “Yeah, we’re going to be the hosts, so we figure that we should have something dramatic set up while we hosted. We'll need to figure out someone to do the cooking and serving of food while we host if we want to not use conjured food.” Now she hesitated. “Um, we thought about doing three thrones honestly, but, well, we don’t know how much time you are going to be here, and, um,” Moriko hid her amusement as the adorable kitsune’s ears and tails drooped a bit from her discomfort as she tried to delicately explain. “Well, we don’t mean it for our relationship, but from the point of view of, you know, being the dungeon, we’re kind of in a different position from you.”

She practically stumbled over herself in her haste to try and mollify Moriko. “I mean, technically we’re your bosses, and we kind of should hold to that presentation most of the time, but we really don’t mean it that way! And if you want, we can arrange something cool for you too! Just, you know, let me know what you want!” Her tails swished as she gave Moriko a hopeful but worried smile.

Moriko couldn’t hold it back anymore and started laughing, then began trying to explain in gasps. “Oh, you are so, so sweet.” Oh it was hard to talk like this. “No, really, it’s okay. I get it.” She held up a hand as she gathered herself, then stole a look at Mordecai, who had remained calm and was looking slightly amused through Kazue’s little ramble. Yeah, he had done a good job of taking her measure, not a surprise with his experience with people.

“Kazue, I understand. It makes sense. It’s a ‘business’ decision, and it doesn’t hurt my ego. And besides, if you ever need to hold a formal meeting with some political visitor, it means I get to duck out of it but you are stuck here on the throne.” The growing look of horror on the younger woman’s face was priceless. Moriko walked up to her to give her a set of kisses all over her face, finishing with her lips. “You are absolutely precious, and I am really happy you were worried about hurting my feelings, but I do work in a hierarchical organization, so I get how these things go.”

She bopped Kazue’s nose lightly. “It’s why relationships between different positions are usually discouraged. We’ve got an unusual setup though, and we’re going to make it work. Don’t worry so much about it.”

Then she turned towards Mordecai, and poked a finger into his chest. “And you,” another light poke, “you are a horrible man making the poor girl stumble all over herself to try and explain herself like that.” She grinned suddenly and pulled on his shirt to steal a kiss. “And yes, she needs to get used to speaking for herself when she might be uncomfortable, so good job.”

“Happy to be of service,” he replied as Moriko found herself wrapped in his arms, before he claimed a rather more thorough kiss from her in return. It was tempting to melt into it and indulge herself, but she resisted the urge and pulled back after a little bit.

“Mmm, tasty, but that will have to wait for another time.” She murmured with a smile as his arms slid from her waist. “Alright you two, show me what you can whip up for breakfast, and then I need to be on my way.” By the time she made it to a seat, the two of them had conjured up some eggs with shredded cheese, a small side of beef, a soft biscuit with butter, a glass of juice with a pitcher for refilling, and two pieces of fruit. Though the taste and temperature were perfect, having the scent of food appear as suddenly as the dishes and then disappear just as suddenly was admittedly a little disconcerting. Moriko found herself looking forward to having someone actually cooking in the kitchen. But that's a thought for later, she decided, and dug in happily; for her it was a perfect start for a long walk, she might actually make it to noon before she needed to eat again.

A little less than an hour later, Mordecai watched Kazue and Moriko say their goodbyes at the dungeon entrance, then stepped forward to give Moriko a kiss goodbye as well. “One final thing for you. I really meant what I said before, I won’t impose any rules on you, and I don’t think Kazue will either,” A glance at the kitsune confirmed that when she nodded. “but in my experience relationships that are too open tend to be a lot harder.”

The half-elf shifted, looking a bit uncomfortable as she sighed. “I get it, and I do like both of you, but I’ve never been good with that sort of thing, so I am seriously not promising anything.” She smiled slightly. “I do take my promises seriously, which is why I haven’t made that sort of promise before. So if I ever do, you’ll know I mean it.” Then with a final light kiss for each of them, she was on her way.

He watched her go with a bit of melancholy for a moment, already getting a feeling for how much he was going to miss her, then gathered his thoughts back up and turned to Kazue, who had similar feelings written on her face. “Okay, I think it’s time we push down for that third floor. I am really looking forward to seeing how your idea is going to pan out.”

A rabbit theater? How was that going to be a challenge? His little kitsune came up with the strangest ideas, but she’d been making them work so far.