Demanding Answers

Alesha stared at the dreaded quest failure screen with a lump in her throat. Here it was, the quest penalty she had tried a full half the day to avoid. All that planning, all that careful sneaking, the scheming and the nerves? All for naught. She had incurred the penalty despite it all. This… was going to suck.

Dennis, for his part, knelt there blinking at the empty compartment in shock. He had followed the Tracer's directions to his sister's room, not wanting to believe she'd have taken TinTin back. He had answered her suspicious questions as little as possible just in case. Then, having found a hidden compartment in her room (which only strengthened his worst fears), inside he found not just his missing plushie, but a few other things as well. And… a creature? Some kind of alien he'd never heard of, probably. There were too many alien species for the Alliance to catalog all of them, so it wouldn't be too strange even if they didn't know what it was either.

While he was disappointed that the creature had taken TinTin with it, the creature having been there with the items made him feel a lot better about his sister. That thing was probably the thief, not Alesha. "Well uh, that was weird," he said.

"Yeah," Alesha said, clearly out of it. "I have no idea what that was… sorry it took TinTin…"

"Not your fault," he said, shrugging as he dropped the flap close and stood. He pocketed the now-deactivated Tracer and gave Alesha a tight hug. "Don't worry, I won't blame you just because it was in your room. It's a dirty little thief and a bad alien."

A moment later, he released her. "Well, I've got to go to bed now, love you Alesha! Good night!"

He left.

Alesha still stood there, dumbfounded. That was an emotion she was feeling a lot recently, she realized; things had suddenly changed in so many major ways that she couldn't keep up. 

Steeling herself, Alesha ventured to confront the System about a couple things. "Alright System, first off, did you have anything to do with that creature? You failed my quest even though the items are still gone, so I want a proper explanation. Then, I want you to tell me more about the quest penalty. How severe will the craving be? Will the craving transform me somehow, like a werewolf, and will I still be in control? The penalty said to prepare myself, so I want to know what I'm dealing with here. What do I need to do to prepare?"

[Host is asking the right questions, well done. While we talk, here's a countdown to the penalty's start. You might feel the hunger building up in the last 5 minutes or so but it won't be intense until the penalty starts.]

A purple display came up. On it was a white bar that had a little space missing on the left, which was slowly growing as time went by. Below that was a countdown aligned in the center of the bar. [28:43] turned into [28:42, 28:41, 28:40], the second place decreasing in value with every passing moment.

Alesha breathed deeply. That was actually really helpful.

[So, in answer to your first question, no, I did not have anything to do with the appearance of the Lesser Chaos Lizardman. Not intentionally at least. While it may have been drawn by the scent of Chaos that lingers in you (aka my scent), I did not summon the creature, nor did I expect it to appear. They are notorious kleptomaniacs, however, so its behavior is to be expected.]

[That said, no, I have no idea how to locate it again and think it unlikely your family's items will ever be returned. I'm sorry. I might be quite a bossy System and am possibly overeager for your growth as a Servant of Chaos, but I'm not that cruel. There's a reason the quest didn't explicitly say the items had to be stolen permanently.]

This came as a surprise. Not only was the System answering all her questions, even predicting her follow-up questions, but it was also apologizing? Maybe the System wasn't quite as bad as she had thought it to be. It seemed to feel true regret for what had happened.

[Yes, I am genuinely sorry. I will now continue, seeing as your time until the penalty begins continues to drop.]

[26:29, 26:28, 26:27]

[The quest failed despite the items disappearing since one of your family members discovered the items before the time was up. He didn't recognize all of them, but he instantly knew TinTin, your mother's volunteer lanyard, and your sister's makeup kit, thus meeting the conditions for quest failure.]

[As for the quest penalty, the craving will be quite severe. You will likely need to consume around quite a lot of raw meat in order to sate your hunger. As for transformation, I'd usually hide this from you just to enjoy your ire, but right now I acknowledge it was not your fault that the quest failed. So I'll tell you. Your stomach will be transformed to accommodate the meat, both in size and in digestive capacity, and your immune system will be strengthened so it doesn't make you sick. It's… also possible that your teeth will experience a temporary change in order to aid in the tearing of meat.] The last part was spoken rather quickly, as if the System was trying to squeeze it out so fast that she wouldn't notice. The System seemed to regret not the fact that her teeth might change during the penalty, but rather that its conscience was driving it to tell her in advance. 

[You won't lose control of yourself, most likely, but it is highly recommended that you not try and weather the craving without consuming raw meat. I can neither predict nor guarantee what you will choose to do while under the influence of extreme hunger.]

The System's answers weren't what Alesha had hoped for. She had been wishing that she would simply crave a bite or two of raw meat, perhaps just a single serving, small enough that she could either sleep it off or maybe sneak a little bit to sate her hunger. But "quite a lot of raw meat" didn't sound like an amount she could ignore. Further, the System's explicit warning not to try and avoid raw meat was ominous. What exactly did it mean by saying it could "neither predict nor guarantee what [she would] choose to do" because of the cravings? Just how intense would those cravings be? 

[23:12, 23:11, 23:10]

The time remaining until the penalty's start was running out. She had to decide her course of action, and quickly. 

Looking at her bare wrist, which contained her Chip, Alesha knew what she needed to do. There was no way she was going to try and do this at home. Not with so many unknowns; not when she couldn't predict the strength of the cravings, nor how much meat she would need to satisfy them, nor how her perception of her family might change while under the influence of the penalty. 

After all, if she were really unlucky, she might just see her family as walking meat bags.