Calamity the Cursed

They had to get out of this terrible hotel, Nameless pondered. Just a few moments ago, Mirn had reported that they had eaten some rats that they found lurking in the restroom. Which, well, on the one hand, good job getting rid of those rats Mirn! On the other hand, you really shouldn't eat rats you just find lurking around, Mirn! "Just kill them next time and bring the bodies to me and I'll get rid of those," Nameless instructed.

Mirn raised their eyestalks. "But you were worried about money for food for us."

Nameless waved off that particular worry. "No, it's fine, we can survive for a few days and we can just do another labyrinth dive before food money runs out. You don't need to eat rats to survive."

"Oh okay." Mirn nodded.

Nameless held out her hands. "Just a couple days, I want you to taste more of life outside the labyrinth before we dive in. We could take in another movie, go for a walk in the nearest park, read books at the library, check out a computer cafe. I haven't taught you about computers and phones yet and I'll get us phones when we have money, so we can stay in touch if we get separated from each other."

Mirn looked intently at Nameless. "Are you going to go on a... date is the word? A date with Grace."

Nameless chuckled sheepishly. "Um, I can do that after I've finished introducing you to life outside the labyrinth? Oh, we can eat at a restaurant that caters to monsters."

"Grace seems to like you as much as you like her." Mirn said relentlessly.

Nameless's ears perked. "Yeah, and I'll take her up on that. Just... I want you to experience some nice things in life before I go running off to have fun with her?"

Mirn said, "I already had fun with you. We went shopping and that was fun but a little too long and the movie was nice and Grace was nice to me and practicing with my new spear was fun."

Nameless perked her ear in thought. "...Alright, how about we take a little vacation together for one day? An actual proper one, not me mostly dragging you around making preparations. Then tomorrow I can take Grace on a date and then the day after we can dive into the labyrinth again."

"Okay," Mirn said.

~~~

Nameless couldn't find Mirn. Not for a bad reason or anything, it was just a game they were playing. Just, Mirn was way too good at this, apparently. It'd been half a hour and Nameless hadn't found them. Nameless called out, "Alright, I give up! Seriously, I surrender! You can come out now!"

Unlike the last two times she had said this, a shape detached itself from the the underneath of the raised play platform, descending smoothly down one of the platform's support beams and changing colors to reveal themselves as Mirn. "I won," Mirn stated.

Nameless sighed with slight exasperation. "Yes, you won also changing colors like that is super unfair but I brought it on myself by declaring myself the ultimate hide and search champion. You know, I would've won if I had used my sense of scent to track you down?"

Mirn said, "I know. But you didn't."

Nameless shook her head with a smile. "Just saying, you should play games in a way that's fun for everyone involved. I don't mind you doing this just that once, but let's try not using our abilities for hide and search. Particularly if you play with someone who doesn't have abilities that make them good at it. Play a little more fairly alright?"

Mirn quirked an eyestalk up. "Is playing fairly one of the duties of the strong?"

Nameless nodded. "In a way. If it's just fun and games, yes unless everyone agrees to use abilities? If it's for something serious like fighting a bad person, it's fine to cheat every way you can and ambush them and everything."

Mirn said, "Okay. But you're the only one I have to play with."

Nameless rubbed her head. "I'm hoping that'll change? And we'll be able to find you friends your age."

Mirn just came over and hugged Nameless. "I'm okay with just us."

Nameless returned the hug. "Why are you so cute? But, no, I want you to have a cohort you can play with and everything."

"Don't need it," Mirn said stubbornly.

Nameless said nervously, "Look, just give playing with friends your own age a try? I think you'll enjoy it?"

"Is it that important to you?" Mirn asked.

Nameless patted Mirn's head. "More like I think it'll be really good for you. Look, can you promise to at least try it?"

Mirn paused. "...Okay. But you better find me friends that are the best like you, or I won't play with them."

Nameless just sighed.

Mirn asked, "Did you get rid of that horror curse yet? I ate a weak horror that showed up last night. It didn't taste great."

Nameless nodded. "I got rid of it! Just earlier today. By the way, horrors're rich in power for us to consume, but I've heard they don't taste good. Oh, yeah, I started in on the weakness curse!"

She wasn't going to say that the replacement curse for the horror curse was one that made her get scared easily. Seriously, how embarrassing can a curse get?

~~~

Grace said reassuringly, "Don't mind you bringing Mirn along. But my siblings and cousins have children they can play with. If you care for a babysitting."

"Oh, that'd be handy!" Nameless said, "I love you, Mirn, but it's hard to get intimate with a kid along."

Mirn tilted their head quizzically. "Intimate? Oh, wait, you mean mating?"

Nameless blinked. "Um, intimate can mean more things than just that, like kissing and other activities!"

Grace chuckled. "Usually don't like to do lotta that on the first date, as hot as you are, nameless hottie."

Nameless considered how she was already kind of raring to make out. "I'm considerably easier, I think? But I can go at your pace. Anyways, I love that dress you've got."

Said dress was a sleeveless black gown that showed off Grace's muscular arms, with slits down the side that showed off her just as muscular legs. There also was another slit, but with buckles to close it, for Grace's crocodile-like tail. It would make Nameless feel underdressed if denim wasn't the best fabric ever. But denim dresses are lovely and appropriate for all occasions!

"Thanks," Grace said, "Your dress fits you somehow." She had an amused smile as she said that. "You make denim of all things work."

"Hey, denim is the superior fabric! Cozy, rugged, and it looks good!" Nameless said with mock indignation and a sweeping gesture.

It was at this moment that a couple of her curses struck. Her sweeping gesture knocked her fruity drink onto herself, staining her dress, at the same time as her hair burst into fire.

One moment later, after a quick extinguishing, cleanup, and explanation about those curses, Grace just sat back. "You've good reasons you haven't gotten rid of those curses, no?"

Nameless sighed. "They're Transcendental."

"Ouch," Grace said.

Nameless nodded. "I've been working on changing them to less painful ones. That indignity curse is actually an improvement over the original that fated me to die."

"Got them all of recent?" Grace asked quietly.

"Yeah," Nameless said, "Not too long ago."

"Would have anything to do with the gazebo attack?" This time the unhappiness in Grace was audible.

Nameless froze for a moment, then sighed. "I don't know for sure, I can't remember anything before my curses! Amnesia curse, see. No idea why I'd do it, but I probably did? I fell down a shaft, have a load of curses, and have Relentless which sounds like one of the assassin's abilities."

Grace growled, "Damnit, they were good people! Always fought for us monsters, for us flower-dreamers, for us what don't fit in."

Flower-dreamers. Ah. Code for gay, transgender, bisexual, asexual, and so on through the full spectrum. "They sound like the last people I would attack, then," Nameless frowned.

Grace stared at her. "...Let's make a deal. Tell me the truth, and if I can accept it, I won't rip you apart."

"Sure," Nameless said despite feeling the power in the word deal. "I was telling you the complete truth and haven't lied to you since I met you. I actually want to get to the bottom of this, find out what made me do this rotten deed. Dang, can't curse." As she spoke, she could feel the weight lift as she fulfilled her end of the deal.

Again, Grace stared at Nameless. Then she let out a long sigh. "...Not really what I wanted to hear. Will accept it, though."

There was an awkward silence for a while. Grace broke it, saying, "Gonna help you look into it, but if I don't like the answer, I'm turning you in."

"Fair," Nameless said, "I'll even turn myself in."

Another silence occurred as they resumed eating. Then Mirn asked sadly, "Does this mean you won't be together?"

Both Nameless and Grace stared at Mirn. Grace was the one who spoke up first. "Depends on the answer we find."

~~~

Nameless laid in bed that night, restlessly poking at her Curse of Weakness. It was proving stubborn, so she took a break to take inventory of her current curses again. She poked them one by one, finding some easier to budge just a little. As she got to the last curse, she studied it to get a better feeling of it. Then she proceeded to the next curse... wait. Wasn't she supposed to have fourteen curses?

Immediately, she felt an warning from Evolver against messing with this just discovered curse. Huh?

[Evolver is right. You should not touch the Curse of Unawareness at this point. If you manage to remove or change it, it will greatly endanger who you are right now. I repeat: Do not mess with the Curse of Unawareness until you are strong enough.]

A warning from both Evolver and Voice? Just what was this curse? And what was it apparently protecting her from?

That night, Nameless didn't sleep well.