Laundry Divers: An Erotic Lesbian LitRPG

Sabrina was led to a service elevator. It was the classic sort, with accordion-folded metal bars in lieu of a solid door. Oneira had a glimmer of mischief in her eyes as the door closed.

“We really aren’t supposed to let divers see floors that they haven’t unlocked yet. I’ve been pretty busy making you a body, though. In all of the chaos, I never found time to obscure the view of this floor from the elevator. Whatever you do, don’t look,” she said with a playful smirk.

The elevator began to rise. Almost immediately, it was outside, somehow. Sabrina gasped as she took in the view around her. She was in a city, with architecture that in some ways looked reminiscent of Ancient Rome, but also the Aztec Empire, and all with slight flares of Gothic inspiration. Around the city was a wilderness, where kapoks, massive redwoods, and cherry blossom trees all commingled. Orbs of orange and gold light drifted through the air. In the distance, a dragon dominated the sky. The sky?

In complete awe, Sabrina breathily begged the question, “How? How is there a sky? How are we outside?”

“There isn’t and we aren’t, technically. There’s a ceiling, see?”

Sabrina craned her neck and squinted her eyes. Sure enough, there was indeed a ceiling, but it was miles high. It was like a cave’s ceiling: amorphous and laden with stalactites. Sabrina found herself at a loss.

After fifteen minutes rising at ludicrous speeds, the elevator threaded the needle, crossing into a small hole in the ceiling. The only sight now was a concrete shaft racing downward. This gave Oneira a chance to speak once more.

“While I have you,” Oneira began, “I was to thank you for taking care of my darling, Red. She’s been having a rough go of it for a long time, and I’m elated to see how she’s come out of her shell with you.”

“Oh,” Sabrina intoned, surprised. “Of course, I’m happy to have her around. She seems… different. She isn’t what I ever expected from a monster. Oh shit. Sorry. I don’t know if that term…”

“Monster is correct. She is different. The dungeon offers a sort of incentive to its monsters. Dying in battle sends them to a pleasurable afterlife. For the sapient monsters, this can lead to them offering no challenge, and instead using divers for a means of suicide. To curb this, whenever a monster kills a human, they get the first share of that human before they’re scattered to become one with everything.”

Sabrina grimaced sourly at this explanation. Oneira continued, “for a monster that has never killed, it motivates them to try. The vast majority will never succeed, but at least it’s more sporting when they give it a real effort. Sweet little Red is one of the troubled few who… caught their tail, only to find what they’d been chasing was their own pain.”

“The reward is some kind of trick?”

Oneira paused, contemplative. “The reward is simply knowledge,” she finally answered. “When a monster, such as Red, kills a human, they’re rewarded with a large helping of that human’s memories. In doing so, they learn some skills, and some schooling, and some life experience. What they also learn, though, is empathy. Red killed a woman. Once she did, she felt what it was like to be that woman. She learned to love those who the woman loved, and learned how painful it was for those people to lose her. This process matures a monster. Some of them truly do not care. Their own ego and identity is so unshakable that they’re unmoved by empathy. They only learn to be a better monster. Red wasn’t so fortunate. She was consumed whole by her guilt, and swore off violence altogether. She became alienated from other imps, and her days passed in solitude and regret.”

“That’s horrible,” Sabrina said. “That poor girl!”

“Perhaps,” Oneira ceded, prepared to offer the inverse view. “I’m proud of her for it, though. For a long time, I worried. She’d walked herself away to sulk for so long. If that was all that ever became of her, it would have been a tragedy indeed. Empathy is a gift, however. It simply requires the company of other people. She found you and your friends. If she can truly connect to you, she has a chance monsters rarely ever get— to live a real life. She can be a person, instead of just an impression of one. She can be like Blossom, Sloan’s slime friend. Blossom killed, learned empathy, and used it to blossom into a more complete being.”

The elevator slowed as it reached its destination. “This is where you get off,” Oneria said, trying to cloak her mourning. “I may go no further.”

“I… I don’t know…”

“I know. You must be going, though. There are people who need to see your face and feel your embrace. Don’t go dying without a backup body, anymore. This was a one time thing.”

With that, Oneira slapped Sabrina’s ass and urged her forward. When Sabrina turned back, Oneira was gone. The elevator had delivered her to the dungeon’s laundry room. It was quaint, now, and somehow smaller. It was like stepping into her childhood bedroom or her old school.

Just next to the entrance, Red the imp laid curled up like a sleeping cat. Her eyes were closed, and under them her face was puffy. She looked as though she’d been crying.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” Sabrina greeted shyly.

Red’s eyes sprang open and she was at her feet in a blink. She was ready to go on the attack, but seeing it was Sabrina seemed hard for her to process. “It’s you,” she pointed out.

“True,” Sabrina granted. “You could say that about anyone, though.”

“You’re alive. You’re… a demon? Did… how… Oneira?”

“Yep. She says ‘hi’, by the way.”

Finding words no longer sufficed, Red flung herself at Sabrina and hugged her with all of her might. Sabrina held her small demonic friend to her chest like a beloved teddy bear. Still holding her, Sabrina asked, “Why are you waiting at the entrance? Couldn’t you go with the others?”

“No,” Red answered. “I’m your familiar. I can’t only leave with you. Plus, I needed to wait here and guard the exit from that asshole.”

“You’re not my familiar, Red.” Red looked heartbroken at Sabrina’s words, until she finished, “you’re my friend. I love you.”

Red’s eyes portrayed a deep fear. It was the fear of the abused, and the heartbroken. It was the fear that any hope offered was an elaborate setup to lure oneself into more pain. Feebly, she confessed, “I love you, too.”

Sabrina lingered there for a while, holding Red until her tears passed and her rugged façade was put back together. Sabrina offered a smile that said “don’t worry. This is just between us.”

Sabrina emerged from the tunnel and into reality, followed closely by Red. Red was glamoured into the form of a fluffy orange cat. It was a suitable disguise for the mundane world, and Sabrina found her obnoxiously cute.

Sabrina was nervous as she climbed the stairs and approached her apartment. She didn’t know how she’d face Jade, or Alice, or Sloan. They’d surely been through hell these past few days, and it was all her fault.

As she stood in front of her door, she heard Alice call out, “go away! We don’t want any!”

Softly, Sabrina said, “it’s me.”

Within a second, the door flew open, and Alice studied her under furrowed brows. She wore an oversized shirt, and her hair was a mess. She looked like she hadn’t slept the entire time. Finally, Alice asked, “Some kinda Deus Ex Machina?”

Sabrina grinned dumbly. It was so good to be back. “You know it.”

Alice smiled, overwhelmed with relief. “You better get to Jade. We’ll catch up later.”

Sabrina stepped inside. There were two holes punched into the walls. She looked to the holes, and then to Alice. She asked, “Sloan?”

“Yep. What what the fuck? Did you get a cat?” Alice blurted out as Red brushed by her leg.

The orange cat answered, “The cat distribution system has shined upon you.”

Alice looked to Sabrina, perplexed. “It’s Red,” Sabrina explained. This answer seemed to satisfy Alice, who immediately began petting the demon. “How is she holding up? What am I walking into?”

Alice sighed deeply. “We’ve all been hurting. Jade, though? I don’t know, it’s like she’s good at grieving.”

“How can someone be good at grieving?”

“See for yourself. She should be just about done binging every episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion and all of the movies back-to-back.”

Sabrina looked at Alice, bewildered. “What? Why?”

Alice shrugged. “When I asked, she just said ‘Shinji refuses to pilot his Eva’ You know what? I’ll help… hey Jade?”

Through the door, Jade shouted, “Leave me alone!”

“Your food is here,” Alice lied.

Moments later, the door opened, and Jade shuffled out, head down. She was wearing a long black dress, black stockings, and a black veil. She glanced up, locking eyes with Sabrina. She let out a half-cry, half-laugh. “Sabrina,” she whimpered.

The two lovers met in the middle and locked in an embrace. Into Sabrina’s shoulder, Jade whined, “You died!”

“I know,” Sabrina told her. “I’m so sorry. That couldn’t keep me from you, though.”

Their hug became a long kiss, and a grasping at each other’s bodies to confirm that they were real and tangible. Sabrina cracked up a laugh, saying, “I’ve never seen this dress. Did you buy widow clothes?”

“As is my right as a widow,” Jade snapped back. “I did… kind of a lot of online shopping.” Quickly pivoting, Jade demanded, “How do I know you’re really you? Tell me something only Sabrina would know.”

Sabrina answered easily. “Three weeks ago you were hungover and still kind of drunk from the night before and you shit your pants at work. You ducked behind a golf cart for an hour while you waited for me to bring you new ones.”

Jade’s mouth fell agape at the blatant character assassination. Flustered, she began to ask, “What was the last thing you said…”

Sabrina’s fiery scowl immediately shut down the line of inquiry. Jade knew she was poking the bear, but it was the point. If some shapeshifter had Sabrina’s memories, then the answers to these questions meant nothing. Jade knew, though, that Sabrina would never answer that one, or even tolerate it being asked.

“It’s really you.”