Matt sucked in a breath as golden light washed over him, and he felt the power of the coins inside him settle just a little bit more, like a really good breakfast that you knew was going to see you through the rest of the day. He'd just chosen the class 'Standard Bearer' like he'd been discussing with Toraline, and apparently something inside him thought it was a good idea. Which… Was a little weird, he wasn't going to lie. He wasn't used to thinking about power residing deep inside him somewhere, and he was very much not used to thinking about that power as something that was alive.

"Alright, I've got my class," he said, accepting a scroll from a trio of large winged insects that looked uncomfortably similar to the mantises they'd fought earlier today. "What's next?"

"I'm taking something called "Squad Leader," Allie said, opening her eyes. "It's got a bunch of arts that let me boost my allies in battle, make them harder to hit or increase their reaction time, things like that."

"No wait, mom, hold up!" Olivia charged in from off to the side. "Don't choose that one just yet! Hang on!"

Both parents blinked at their daughter.

"What's wrong with it," Allie asked, raising both eyebrows. "It looks like it would be very useful–"

"Yeah, but you're Control! You're not a support."

Everyone blinked at Olivia on that one.

"What? Asked Allie, Matt, Lucas, and Isabel all together. Dinah just laughed.

"Okay so look," Olivia said, then glanced to the side at the sword still leaning against the log. "Back me up here Tori. Guys, there's different roles we're all filling here, okay? Mom," she pointed at Allie. "You're Crowd Control. You focus on hitting swarms of enemies and keeping them off balance. Dad," point. "Tank. You protect the rest of us and soak up incoming damage. Luc?" point, "healer, with some offensive capabilities to make sure you don't get ganked. Bel," point, "Pure DPS. Hit the enemies as hard as you can, as fast as you can."

"Dinah, you're leaning towards DPS too, I think. I need to know more about the rest of your Class abilities, but that Dead Eye thing gives you one heck of a knock-out punch. Maybe we could get you some crowd control or support abilities, I'm not sure."

"And me?" she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Much as I wanted to be a bad-A fireball wizard, we've already got enough DPS stuff going on here. So I'm going pure Support. Which means I'm gonna take stuff that lets me buff you guys, and debuff the bad guys, and basically act as a general. Because I'm the one with Fantasy Wikipedia in her skull, apparently," she added that last bit as a grumble under her breath."

"Consul Olivia makes several salient points" Toraline said. "Your consul abilities, as well as calling abilities, already go a long way towards determining what kinds of roles you would be best suited for in a combat scenario. Although after having examined Consul Dinah's class abilities, it seems they are much closer to a Support role than straight 'DPS', as you say. She has a range of debilitating effects she can inflict the enemy with."

"Oh yeah?" Olivia focused on Dinah, peering at her friend thoughtfully. "Well that's interesting. Kinda makes sense though. Weaken the enemy up and then finish them up with that [The Final Shot] art, huh? Okay cool, gimme a second."

Matt watched his daughter close her eyes and start muttering to herself, occasionally opening them and accepting a scroll from her owl friend without apparently having to ask for it. It was… It was an odd sight, he wasn't going to deny.

He felt Allie's cool hand slip into his again and squeeze. He glanced down at his wife, and raised an eyebrow just slightly in question.

"I'm okay," she whispered back, though he noticed her grip on his hand tightened when she said it, and not in the 'encouraging squeeze' kind of way. "It's a lot, but I'm dealing. I am going to demand that we take some tequila from the Dilligaf's kitchen when we go back to her, though," she added with a snort. "I could murder a margarita right now."

"That's a deal," he whispered back. "I'll see if I can find some cans of that chili you like too. Maybe we can have a good old-fashioned hot meal tonight. Just like a proper camping trip."

She snorted again, then squeezed his hand harder, hard enough to hurt. He didn't say anything.

"Have you come to grips with it yet?" she asked, and her voice was a whisper so soft he had to strain to hear it. "This… New reality thing we've gotten into?"

"I think it's like surfing," he said after a second. "Right now I'm in the tube and riding high. But if I stop to think about it," he made a 'boosh' noise with his lips. "Wipeout city. So I'm not stopping to think about it. Not until we have time and the safety to do it in."

"Yeah, me too," she said. There was a soft pause, then, even quieter, "How do you think they're handling it back home?"

Matt sucked in a breath through his teeth and felt something clench in his chest. His mom and dad were still in Long Beach. They all used to visit each other every couple of weeks or so, bringing the kids over to Gramma and Grampa Albright. Alejandra's mother and stepfather lived in San Antonio, and they only got out to see them a few times a year. But it had always been a production when they went. A full week of fun and games with Mimi and Boompa Morales. The kids loved both sets of grandparents equally, and had always looked forward to the visits. And, assuming they hadn't been lying through their teeth for twenty years straight, the grandparents felt the same way.

And now they would never see them again.

"You folks are tougher than fire-hardened oak," he said after a second. "They're gonna be fine. Mine…" He blew out a breath. "They're gonna hurt for a long time. They loved the kids. They loved you. Always said you were the daughter they never had. It's… gonna hurt for a long, long time."

"They don't even know we are alive," she said, watching Olivia as she started to argue both with her owl and the sword. "They think we died at sea. They won't even have bodies to put to rest."

"We'll see them again someday," Matt said with the conviction of faith. "Even if it's not until we all wind up in heaven together. And lord, the stories we'll have to tell them."

Allie snorted, then leaned over and bumped him in the side with her shoulder. "You always look on the bright side, mi corazon."

"I know. Annoying as hell, isn't it?"

"Si. But also endearing, when it does not make me want to smack your head with one of your bigger hammers."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Good thing I left them back at the Dilligaf then, isn't it."

"I can be patient."

This time it was Matt's turn to snort.

"Okay, I think I've got it!" Olivia said, clapping her hands together. "Gather 'round everyone, let's get this done!"

Matt and Allie both raised identical parental eyebrows.

"Olivia, love, we're already gathered 'round," Matt said with a little grin.

Liv blinked and looked around. "Oh. Uh. Right. Uh. Okay, never mind. So here's what we need to do. Dad, you've got your class and calling already, so you're set. You're our Tank. You should pick a profession that takes that into account, something with a healing ability to make sure that if Lucas gets tied up somewhere you can keep yourself going until he can get to you. I found one called 'Hospital Orderly'. It lets you generate magical medicines, like what we had in the first aid box. I think you should take it."

"Why don't I just take what Lucas has?" Matt asked, more out of curiosity than because he disagreed with Olivia's decision. .

"Couple reasons," Olivia held up two fingers. "First, Luc's ability is good, but from what I can see it consumes a lot more coins than other healing abilities would because of its 'cure-all' nature. And you're going to need your coins more for your own battle abilities, because that's what's going to keep the rest of us alive. Like with the mantises. You probably didn't notice, but each time they hit one of your invisible shields? Your coins went down."

Matt's eyes blinked open wide. No. No he hadn't noticed that at the time. But it made sense. The energy to stop those blows must have come from somewhere, after all.

"What's the second reason," he asked after a long contemplative moment.

"The medicines you make will stay good for weeks. You can stockpile them on your downtime, and then use them when we need them. And any of us can use them, not just you. It's also got a cool Skill called [stabilize] which lets you basically put wounds or afflictions on hold for a time until a real healer can get to them."

"Okay, I'm sold," Matt said after a second's more thought. It would be good to have another source of medicines once the Dilligaf's first aid boxes ran dry. "I'll take that one."

"Great," Liv clapped her hands together, and Matt snorted a laugh as on her shoulder Hoolio mimed her action with his wings. "Okay, so next thing. Mom. Your Calling is pure crowd-control, so we should lean into that and get you a class that amplifies or adds to those abilities. You're gonna be in the thick of the fighting, so we want you to be able to take on all sorts of people all at once. So we need to get you–"

"I think I found one, mija," Allie said, and the quirky lilt in her voice made Matt blink and look down at her. Allie was grinning that special evil little grin she got when she knew she was about to do something that would make her children hate her. In a good way.

"Oh no," Bel groaned from where she was now sitting beside the sword. "I know that look."

"Run, Liv!" Luc said from on top of his elephant. "Run for it while you can!"

"Oh shut up," Liv shot a glare to her siblings, then transferred the same glare to Allie. "Okay Mom, hit me. What did you find."

"Hoolio, be a dear and show my daughter the 'Mother Superior' class, would you?"

"Who?" Hoolio blink-blinked, but then turned to Olivia and handed her a scroll. Liv unrolled it quickly, then her eyes rolled so hard Matt was surprised she didn't sprain something.

"Oh, sure, now the system gets a sense of humor." She looked at the scroll again, and the eyeroll turned into grudging acceptance. "Okay, this actually isn't bad. The [Envision The Ruler] skill lets you add one of these debuffs to your regular attack… And with your machine gun and the abilities you got from the Consuming Flame calling… Yeah okay that could be really powerful. And this [Across The Knuckles] Art… Oh wow, it's got variable debuffs. Okay, yeah, no, this is really good." She looked up from the scroll and gave Allie what Gramma Albright would have called 'the hairy eyeball'. "How did you find this on your own?"

"It's simple mija," Allie said with that same grin. "I just looked for something that had 'mother' in the title. Fighting monsters is one thing, but only the truly epic can wrangle a house full of children and live to tell the tale."

"Okay, that's a flag on the play," Luc said, making the sign for 'time out' with his hands. "No fair using real world logic in magical fantasy weirdo land."

"Hoo," agreed Hoolio. And Harry added his two cents by waggling his ears in affirmation.

"Oh hush," Allie said with a smirk. "It's for your benefit anyways. This way I'll be able to keep my children safe longer and better than I had before. So hush up and accept that I am now a superior mother."

"Oh we're never gonna hear the end of this, are we?" Bel said, rolling her eyes.

"Who," agreed Hoolio.

"Okay okay, so that's settled then." Olivia rolled her eyes. "Now we just need to get a profession for you, and we'll move on."

"I have that as well. I am taking 'Nature Guide'."

"Do you even need me here?" Liv asked, glaring.

"Yes," Matt said, and there was no joking at all in his voice.

Liv blinked, then coughed and cleared her throat, her cheeks coloring just slightly. "Uh. Right. Sure. Okay. Uh. Hoolio, gimme the Nature Guide scroll."

"Hoo," Hoolio said, and Matt would have sworn there was a cheerful smirk on the owl's beak as it slapped a copy of the scroll into Olivia's palm just as a pair of snakes slithered down from the branches above Alejandra and handed her the same scroll.

"The main reason," Allie said, unrolling the scroll, "is I want the [eyes of the brush] skill. I will be able to see hidden creatures or enemies in the underbrush around me for… It appears the radius increases the more coins I put into it."

"Okay, kinda like lifesense, but better. Yeah, this is good," Olivia agreed. "Okay, I can get behind that. It'll help you spot bad guys before they can get on us. Yeah, that works. Especially since you're basically our frontliner. If you see 'em first, you can get the drop on them."

"That was my thought as well," Allie said, nodding.

"Okay cool, we've got all that set then. So now it's just me and Dinah that need to finish up, right?"

"I believe that to be the case," Matt said. "You guys know what you're picking?"

Olivia grinned. "Oh yeah, it's all about control for me–"

"Finally she admits it," Lucas sang out from on top of Harry.

"Shut up runt," Liv shot back, giving him the hairy eyeball. "Don't make me come up there."

"I'd like to see you try!" Luc shot back.

"A-hem," Allie cleared her throat meaningfully. "Don't either of you make me come over there."

"Yes Mom," both of them chorused in perfect sync.

"Good. Now, Olivia, what will you be choosing for yourself?"

Olivia started to grin.

=========

The Record of Consul Matthew James Albright, Aedilis

Thou hast been Called as a Warden Of The Hearth.

Thou hast achieved the first rank in thy calling.

Thou art a Standard Bearer of the 1st Rank

Thou art a Hospital Orderly of the 1st Rank

Thy Condition is: Healthy

Thy overall rank is: Peasant

The Arts available to thee are:

- Cover Thy Allies (Warden)

- Unyielding Bulwark (Warden)

- By Their Side (Warden)

- Raise The Banner (Standard Bearer)

- Rally (Standard Bearer)

- Draw Their Gaze (Standard Bearer)

- Healing Draught (Hospital Orderly)

The Skills available to thee are:

- Strength Of Home (Warden)

- Thy Shield Thy Constant Companion (Warden)

- Blazing Banner (Standard Bearer)

- Stabilize (Hospital Orderly)

The Powers available to you as Consul are:

Speed The Work

Shifting Streets And Wandering Walls

Many Hands Make Light The Work

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