ERode

Iris Ascendis

_{@Nanaya@AThousandCurses@Psyker Landshark}

They talked a lot for a bunch of people who didn't even know that they were fighting children without a single smidge of essence in their body, hm? Otis's eyes flickered towards the blood spilled, the way that those grievously injured by bullet or blade now rose up once more as puppets. He fired one bullet towards the closest brigand, watching as it bounced off from the Personal Barrier that manifested. Forced activation. Wouldn't last too long then. The chamber was broken open, more bullets slotted into them with mechanical efficiency. With essence, he could have drowned those men in a swamp. With Ethos, he could have summoned all manner of enchanted tools.

"Would be easier if you could just temporarily deactivate the rings," Otis said to Fianchetto. "But failing that..."

The Strigidae settled deeper into his shooting stance, one hand behind his back, other hand extended, both eyes wide open. Regular bullets could not puncture a Personal Barrier so easily, and he doubted that an unenhanced Iraleth would have much better luck without the boons of the Inheritor. As such, there was only one way to handle this.

Measure the distance between heartbeats, wait for moments of predictable trajectories, and aim to shatter weapons with gunfire.

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

No worries. Take care of your health before your hobbies.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Bwahaha, that one 14.3% on the Modify Resource Output vote. Truly indicative of how a single vote could change everything.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Oh man, super awkward to have tried to edit in hijinks thinking I'd have time to do so before y'all read it.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Finally gotten to filling out that questionnaire thingy zzz

Oh yeah, I've basically sworn an oath not to post on the status bar, but Qia, when it comes to AI, it specifically ISN'T the same scale or case of just an actual artist copying a style that they like. These are big companies that own/rent data centers and such to enable image generation and all. And they do directly profit from people riding trends such as "funny Ghibli style image generation", without paying a cent to the artists/animators/directors that the style originated from.

Even if the end-user's intention is just for 'fun', it's not really the case that there's no profit at all being made from these for-fun moments.

Of course, this has been a problem since the beginning of the broad proliferation of LLMs and AI art generation tools, considering how even back at the start, you could plug in a specific artist's name and say "make something that looks like what they'd make".

⇜ Deicide ⇝ [Dark Fantasy Isekai]

It certainly took more effort than he would've liked to pretend that he was entirely unaffected by the display that the Witch put on. There was freaky, and then there was whatever 'dragging your own nail deep enough into your flesh to slice it open and then utilize mysterious means to fix that up right as rain' was. On one hand, there was a distinct sense that this kinda healing was gonna hurt like hell. On the other hand, it was kinda cute how someone so well-grown remained so oblivious to such advances. It conjured into mind a particular image.

"Not the service I'm interested in," was his response, before straightening back up with a shrug when the scale-armed girl had more questions than personal concerns. "And hey, it doesn't hurt at all. Just think of it as a natural feature of my body." His teeth parted once more into the impression of a smile; was there even a tongue beneath? "More natural than those scales of yours, for sure. If you jam it in, I could remove it, maybe."

But there was a reason that he had straightened back up, even when nothing he spoke of had indicated any real annoyance or irritation towards the lady's questions.

No, it was simply an inopportune time for such matters now.

He had only heard the conversations of the others in the background, picking up snippets that spoke of divinity and such matters, but who needed such exacting knowledge about the state of the world, when one's eyes could explain it all away? The golden-haired princess had triggered something in her spiritual ascent, and in return, the skies answered with flames. Droplets from candlewicks, already enough to cause the withered shaman to enact her aberrant mysticism and form some invisible shield. It was an incomprehensible act, one way or the other, but there were plenty here that defied the reason and sense that his perception set upon, no?

And, certainly, others too, would see their common sense challenged by him as well.

"Look 'round you, dumbshit," he called out to the one who was entirely, utterly, totally responsible for what was soon to befall them. "Plenty o' spears available, eh?"

He stepped out from the shield, guided by an instinct for larceny, and without a thought, snatched one of the falling flames out of the air and slipped them into his head. A pleasant surprise. Perhaps due to the coolness in his hand, it wasn't set aflame like the surrounding environment. Or perhaps it was just like that common 'trick', where you could pass your hand through flames without being burnt, so long as you were quick enough with it.

Whatever the reason, it was fine.

Flames had no mass.

No matter how much there was, it would never sate him.

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

MacKinnon's actual ploy is to give Wilma motion sickness so that she could have the kiddo's share of the soup too tonight.

A New Day; Cozy Fantasy Village Life

//Central Village
_@Xaltwind

"Yeah, but don't worry about it," MacKinnon replied, as if the blacksmith-without-tools was of no concern to her. "He's probably mostly angry because he's hungry, so once he's gotten something in his stomach, he won't be grumbling so much."

Entirely unsupported claims, but delivered with utmost confidence. That was the treasure hunter's approach to everything, truly. As if by saying something with enough conviction, she could make it into a real thing. She patted Wilma roughly on the head, more messing up her hair than anything, before scooping her up and out of the wagon.

"And I'm pretty strong too, you see?" Another bold proclamation, but one that, in the eyes of a child at least, could be backed up with how high MacKinnon lifted Wilma up into the air. "If he causes any trouble at the soup group, I'll lift him up just like this, and then..."

She began to spin Wilma overhead, like an amusement park ride in a world that had none.

Shoujo⁴: Hatsukoi Reunion

There’s literally no one who goes around policing who can post in which sections of the Guild. Honestly, I didn’t even recognize that we were in Advanced until just now.

In any case, if you’re concerned about word count, just add a couple pictures.

Shoujo⁴: Hatsukoi Reunion

Aaand thar.

I actually didn't realize that Fey was also doing the Click-Clack thing, but it's neat how things turned out.