Crusader Lord

My Isekai Costumed Adventures

Oh no, guys! It's a ...



Ratmen have appeared, and the update is out. :)

@Xaltwind

I can finally use a certain Youtube video in response to this, and I could not be more utterly dated happy. :P

My Isekai Costumed Adventures

On a completely unrelated note;

I went t get my hair cut today, and my barber decided to put some oil in my stash... Now I look like one of those villains from the 1920's movies... The ones with the top hat and cape who tied damsels to railroad tracks... :<

@Xaltwind

Or you could be one of those fancy mustached bare-knuckle boxers from the 1920's! Instead of a villain. ....Right?

My Isekai Costumed Adventures

Posted!

My Isekai Costumed Adventures

Charlotte

-Little Clearing, Middle of Some Forest, ???-

A ring-tone.

Or, to be more precise, an electronic ring-noise. Kinda like the one you'd hear in a live-call or when using a chat program and getting a message. But the noise came form inside their own head... Which... Was disconcerting to say the least.

Nevertheless! As soon as the brief, three-piece noise stopped, each of them would notice something even more bizarre. in front of their eyes, blocking their vision, a big envelope-shaped icon appeared. Yeah. An icon. Like the one you see on a home-screen on a smartphone or something. But it was there. Right infront of them. Hovering in mid-air. ANd it was moving. Like an animated gif or something. Then, without their consent, it blooped itself, and a new strange thing happened.

A window opened up. Like on a computer screen. But in their eyes. Their mind's eye? Whatever. They could all see it, that's the important bit. The window looked pretty standard to what you'd expect a window containing an email or message to lo0k like, save it was slightly transparent. But that wasn't the important bit. The important bit was what was written, and that the message started automatically reading itself to each of the girls, still in their head, with no scientifically acceptable reason as to why.

Eh?! Of all the strange things to happen, what in this lala land was thi-

Subject: Welcome!
Sender: God

Message:
Hello, hello, hello! Congratulations, girls~ *Clap, clap, clap*
You've all been selected as the esteemed and fortunate winners of a trip to an entirely different world, yay!

I'm sure you got all sorts of quesitons and concerns, but don't worry even teensy bit! I've provided you with some of my personal wardrobe that'll hlep you make your way in this brand new and exciting world you all find yourselves in.

Just remember to keep those garaments on, ladies~ They're your key to success while you're visting here. Oh, and don't worry, even though you're all form different parts of your world and in a brand new one, I've granted you all the ability to both speak and read the language, so you should all be able to communicate flawlessly! Ain't I something~?

Alright then, have fun and I do hope you'll enjoy your time in this world!

Best of luck to you all, [heart-emoji]!

....Maybe Dante Alighieri really had been terrifyingly correct about more things than he thought when titling his magnum opus of a fanfiction. Perhaps it all truly was, without reservations, a 'Divine Comedy'. Ha. Except she wasn't laughing about this one. The panicking girl who'd been talking about kidnappers seemed to be correct, though instead of simply asking for a ransom this one had kidnapped them and dressed them up in strange costumes. Given that this all seemed oh so strange, Charlotte felt lucky enough to gamble that the 'keep those garments on because they are key to your success here' bit was more than a little bit truthful. Sure it could be full of utter and total B.S., but the cruel irony seemed too ripe and juicy for something like this to NOT be true perhaps.

Being stuck as a bunnygirl though? Seriously?! It was so stupid! She would never want to wear this, and frankly would have torn it off already if not for the warning, but this self-proclaimed deity messaging them hadn't exactly stopped them from one thing. They just needed to wear these silly costumes, right? No reason she couldn't wear a cloak or something over this either? She wouldn't be not wearing the costume, after all, but she'd have to test the theory later...well, if there was any sort of civilization around here at all. Then again, would their personal disatisfaction with these stupid costumes be the only possible entertainment? A stunt, much like a performance or going out on Halloween, always required an audience after all.

Or, well, this was all initial conjecture on her part. A fair bit of assumption and guesswork based on the tone of that blasted message, but she was getting a similar vibe to that of her older sister to some extent and was running with that similar sort of impression for now.

Yet the simple path forward in that sense, she supposed, would thus be the best for the time being. Keep it simple and practical. Maintain the status quo. Play along, see what they could do, and test things practically along the way to feel out the situation. Certainly being gone from home forever wasn't exactly something she wanted to do, but for the time being the utter surreal nature of what was going on was certainly helping ground her in a sense. Somehow? Somehow, some way, whatever it was. Plus they had nothing else to wear for now anyway, etc.

"What?! Did it just say 'God'?! And different world? You — you gotta be joking!"

"What do you mean by personal wardrobe?! Is this… is this your doing?! Were you the one who put us in these ridiculous clothes?! Give our clothes back, you pervert!"

"Keep the clothes on? As if! I'll change out of it the moment I find another, less ridiculous set of clothes!"

"Y-you idiot God!"

The Shouting Is Back Again/Sayu

...That was a fair reaction, as much as the red-hooded girl who called herself Sayu seemed to talk otherwise. Or maybe Charlotte herself had read a few too many manga or something late at night on her phone when she couldn't sleep some nights over the last few years. Etc.

"Whoever this God person is," she stammered, her voice carrying a mix of amusement and bewilderment, "they certainly have a weird sense of humour."

Aria

It seemed all around the reactions from the other females of the group had been diverse enough, and reasonable enough to have in this situation she figured. Anger. Shock. Trying to trade outfits like a kid trying to trade the food they didn't want at Lunch in Elementary School. Hmm. They had most of the stages of grief going on thus far, actually, and she could already feel herself lightly nibbling on her own lower lip without thinking before stopping herself.

No. Just no. Not right now. Toss it on the backburner, and focus on what was going on in front of her. Breathe, breathe in and out. Focus. Whatever the case was, and however they were feeling, they needed to not just sit about idly for now at least. That much she knew for certain, and that much she could shift her focus onto at the bare minimum.

-

Five Minutes Later

-

"Unbelievable! It's completely, totally unbelievable!"

"A new, alternate, parallel dimension world? Are we supposed to just believe that?"

Sayu-nara, My Eardrums

"I had information I never knew before implanted in my head, and I can fire magic dice at a tree while wearing a bunnysuit. Seems more believable. Besides, it technically was a kidnapper like you said before."

Five minutes later and they were not a bit closer to whatever they were needing to do than before. If anything was manageable at this rate anywho. Given fifteen more minutes of, even if understandably, frustrated barking Charlotte felt tempted to just start preparing wood for a basic camp or something. She'd been camping sometimes with her family, not that her older sister had enjoyed any of it in reality outside of a few small bits and pieces. Hadn't been her favorite either, but she'd at least learned a few practical things from her father about it.

"Hey… guys.. Do you hear that? It's coming closer… from that way…"

"I… I think it might be some sort of a wild animal!"

Sayu-later, Alligator!

Hearing things? What, did the little animal ears on her costume actually-

For some reason, she could hear a distant noise coming from... That direction. Well, it wasn't exactly easy to tell which way that was, due to the lack of a compass or map or any other way to discern one way from another. But regardless, she heard something. Whatever it was, it seemed to be getting closer though. Not particularly fast or anything - but bit by bit, she could hear the sound of rustling leaves, thuds on dirt or grass and the muffled noises of what was... Voices? Animal noises? It was difficult to tell...

-...allow her to hear things. From afar. Like an actual animal. Ok, now she could hear it all as well if she was hearing the same things. So the ears had function for this outfit somehow? Or, well, for their outfits in general if the had any? Hmm. That would be something to take note of for later then.

"I don't hear anything in particular."

Aria

“If you don’t like that outfit, we can swap."

“I don’t hear anything either.”

???

"Actually, I can hear something as well. Voices or something, maybe, but it seems maybe the animal ears on these costumes actually work somehow.

There's something moving in our direction, I believe. Perhaps we should try to hide for the moment just in case."

Yes. That sounded like a far better idea than still panicking. In that vein, Charlotte tried to grab the arm of the panicky Sayu to drag over behind the nearest large and wide tree in proximity to them. Well, if the other girl would allow her to anywho. If Sayu didn't allow her to bring her to cover, then Charlotte would just go hide behind such a tree (if any) herself alone as a precaution. Either way, if the others didn't believe them she was going to try to save her skin at the very least (and someone else's in the process if she could maybe).

@Click This@Qia@PiNKPANTHERESS@Hammerman@Xaltwind

Pokemon: Dream

The Ryte Psychic For The Job

Clarissa Ryte

Name: Clarissa Ryte

Appearance: A slender but maturing girl whose expression is usually presented as stoic in front of others, Clarissa has long light-purple hair and a pair of piercing purple eyes in turn to match. Outside of the public eye she can be found to smile more often around her Buneary and family, her smile can be seen to be generally small but rather distinct looking compared to her ‘usual’ self. She has a braid on the left side of her head that is secured with a purple ribbon, given to her by her grandmother, and generally keeps it on her person at all times. As well. In terms of height she is 5’8”, and her weight is 132 pounds.

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Personality: A person whose psychic powers put a strain on her from a young age, pushing her to learn to control them as well as learn to restrain herself to an extent that has shaped her personally. What became the end result was someone who outwardly enforces a well-trained stoic expression on her face, a true ‘poker face’, who might be mistaken as ‘unfeeling’ in the process. Yet despite rarely showing outward expressions of emotion in a public setting at all, behind closed doors and with loved ones and friends and trusted confidants she is more comfortable letting herself express what she is feeling. Indeed, especially since her powers began developing and she began to train with them Clarissa can be an empathetic and kind person indeed….though this, due to her powers, can be both a good thing as well as a burden that wears on her mentally to boot. Generally she will try to be polite to others, though growing up in Orre she was raised to always keep an eye out on and an ear open to the world around her respectively. This mindset of awareness has been drilled in such that to her it's as natural as breathing air, as well as becoming a personal habit in the vein of drilling herself in trying to maintain a sense of self-restraint.

Beyond this, she does have a general ‘spark’ of curiosity in her that drives her to want to learn about things or look into them. The sort of mindset someone like a field researcher or archaeologist or such might enjoy, or perhaps even befitting of a scientist like her father at that. So despite her ‘strong self-restraint’ in the personal sense, she is more liable to poke her head into something that catches her eye well enough than not depending on the particular situation and case in which something does so. In that vein, getting to be paid and looking into things in her new region of residence is certainly a bonus in her mind.

Hometown: Pyrite Town, Orre Region

Background:
One way or another, you find yourself being employed by professor Camphor. That's right, employed. This pokedex isn't a handout you're helping with her research in return for a pokemon. She pays pretty well. Make sure to say how you ended up being hired by her. Skill in battle? Grades at an academy?

Clarissa Ryte was born to Milo Ryte, a man working at the Pokemon HQ Lab in Orre but whose family lived back in The Under, and a mother who had come from Agate Village and met her father in Pyrite Town while visiting to look for different herbs across Orre. Despite living in a version of Pyrite Town that didn’t have CIPHER involved, Clarissa was raised to be aware and wary of the sketchy types and rougher sorts that still definitely called Orre home locally and otherwise. It was a life lived always keeping one eye open, and taking occasional trips to visit her maternal grandmother in Agate Village or paternal grandparents in Phenac a few times a year. There were also many times she went to watch Colosseum fights and such at Pyrite Colosseum, being both a way to get entertainment locally as well as get to see more Pokemon outside of the battles held in Duel Square. On occasion she’d stop by the local fortune teller with her mother, perhaps, or watch TV to see whatever shows were on or whatever the ONBS was saying in the latest news stories.

Living in the Orre Region, she wasn’t exposed to a Pokemon-rich region and most often saw them when it came to watching Pokemon battles or people going about with their own Pokemon. The region itself was, after all, a notable wasteland without much in it to sustain Pokemon save for three curious areas called Pokespots where some ‘native’ pokemon had begun to appear and live in. With her father involved in helping guide the legal and non-criminal importation of Pokemon to Orre, he would also on infrequent occasions get to go to Gateon Port and bring her back some kind of souvenir or trinkets the ships had picked up from some other far-away region. Beyond this, however, her father was often gone due to work most of the time and her mother was the one who was most at home.

At the age of five, however, a young Clarissa would find herself suddenly struck with what seemed like a debilitating condition that made her collapse in the middle of town as she went shopping with her mother. She kept mumbling about voices in her head and feeling all sorts of things even after she would wake up later, but after getting medically checked up the doctors could not find out what was wrong…until she started talking about things they’d been only ever thinking about and never said aloud. Eventually it would be confirmed that she’d begun to develop psychic powers of some sort, which in turn would lead to an attempt to grasp the situation by her parents as they tried to find out how to assist her. It wasn’t exactly an easy thing to raise a child with esp in a region without so much as a school for such things.

Where the most help would end up coming from, though, would be Clarissa’s grandmother and the peaceful serenity that was Agate Town. With herbs to help the frequent headaches a younger Clarissa would get from her powers, and training to try to restrain and control herself as well as tapping into some old contacts from her trainer days who had such powers to come help, Clarissa’s grandmother would help her and even take her on walks to see the Celibi-honoring Relic Stone the village held so dear. It was also here something that would help spark her curiosity would truly occur, back when a twelve year old Clarissa would suddenly wake up in the middle of the night after yet another day of training with a friend of her grandmother.

Feeling drawn to somewhere, the girl would wander to the Relic Stone and see it letting off little sparks of green light…like fireflies even. Yet she could feel a presence there, flitting about around her. Watching her, even, curious and yet keeping its distance. As the girl reached out to touch the Relic Stone, running a hand gently down it, the presence would suddenly appear behind her. Despite falling to the ground from the sudden spook, the younger girl was shocked to see the legendary pokemon Celebi staring right back at her as it flew lower to the ground to get a better look at her. For a moment, the girl would reach up hesitantly, with the smaller legendary pokemon reaching back to touch her hand in turn, before eventually moving back and disappearing as quickly as it had arrived again in a small flash of light.

Upon telling her grandmother, and her dirty pajamas telling some evidence of the encounter as she wandered back out of the Relic Forest in the early morning hours, it was certainly an event that struck her grandmother as unique. Of it she was told that it was ‘a blessing, a sign that [she was] meant for something great’, though the impression of it all left a sense of wonder in the girl that didn’t seem to fully fade away even as she got older.

Indeed, as she got older, and more of a handle on herself and her powers, Clarissa would become more as she has become by current times. Restrained. Reserved. Putting up a wall and a front to help her create a basis for controlling herself. Etc. It didn’t make her many potential local friends, though, but eventually to try to cheer her up she go with her father and mother to one of his visits to Gateon Port. Supposedly a new shipment of Pokemon had arrived, and he hoped to get her a pokemon of her own to keep her company. Only just having turned fifteen at the time, Clarissa came along with her parents hoping that having a pokemon would help her learn to better express herself. It would also be at this time that Clarissa would, as they walked by the Machine Shop, be struck with the feelings of something that was…suffering. In pain. Wanted to live, and to be happy. Something that felt, even if for a moment, all too familiar to how she’d felt years ago.

Without batting an eye the girl darted away down a side alley, her parents in very worried and hot pursuit, only for her to find a Buneary that seemed wounded and starving for food. It was weak, and only getting weaker, and as she took it up into her arms it seemed to look slowly up at her in the process. It was after this that Clarissa’s parents, as they arrived and watched her turn around with this hurt pokemon in her arms, would later look back on as the ‘moment that [they] realized there was some kind of connection she had to this little, injured pokemon from afar’. Clarissa would ask to bring hope the little Buneary, after her and her parents raced it get it to a Pokemon Center in time, and then help care for and bring the little Buneary back to health the rest of the way after taking it to the nearest Pokemon Center in a hurry, and would want to bring it home afterward.

From here, it was a year of bonding and growing with her new Buneary that seemed to bring them both out of a ‘funk’ they had each been in. Allowed them to see more of how each other was, coming out of their shells, and ultimately leading to her Buneary getting a nickname from her and entering a Pokeball as she decided she wanted to become a trainer. Soon after this, Clarissa and her parents would move to the Eidda Region so her father could work a new position he’d been hired on for. Plus moving to a safer region, one full of many more Pokemon, was something that Clarissa’s parents felt would be healthier for her than reaching adulthood in Orre.

And so they moved to Mireth, and her father took up work at one of the bigger Pokemon labs in the south of Mireth. Another year later, and seeking to take up the task of becoming a trainer, she recieved a video looking like it was made by a coffee-addled lunatic professor. A job offer? Well, it would enable her to make some kind of money and get to become a trainer at least. Wasn’t the same place her father worked at, but hey it was an opportunity that she could seize with her own two hands….better to not pass it up then, eh?

Kind of Pokémon you like: Pokemon she can empathize with, or form some sort of bond or connection to. Doesn’t have to all be psychic types, though there is a plan to have her get at least one psychic Pokemon on her team along the way, but as a psychic individual this would make sense with her.

Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other: She works to both become stronger herself (as a trainer and psychic and person) and train with her Pokemon to help them become stronger as well. In a sense, doing for her Pokemon what her grandmother and grandmother’s friends did for her. Become better. Learn. Become stronger. Pursue that path forward, and chase the sun over that horizon!

One way or another, she is going to forge her own path forward. Beat gyms? Definitely Collect and find Pokemon? Of course. Something else too, perhaps? She would have to see, but it certainly wasn’t out of the question.

Items:

1x Potion.

Pokédollars: 1000p

Clarissa's Starter Pokemon: Sir Lopsalot

Species: Buneary

Appearance: A notable scar going over (vertically) his left eye, but that’s all.

Level: 5

Gender: Male

Type: Normal

Ability: Limber

Moves:

Splash

Pound

Defense Curl

Power-Up Punch

Personality and Nature:

Nature: Adamant

Characteristic: Alert to Sounds

Sir Lopsalot is quite an adamant and outgoing little bunny, and is a loyal pokemon that will stand his ground even if faced with overwhelming odds for the sake of the things and individuals he cares about. He likewise generally seems to carry a certain sense of pride for a Buneary, even in the face of defeat trying to hold his head up high….though when defeated he does tend to sulk a little bit in frustration or such. In general can usually be relied upon to be generally courteous and polite to others, unless they are not nice to his trainer (or he perceives them as being such or potentially such) in which case he will take issue with them personally. His behavior reminded his trainer of a ‘little knight, like the ones from tales and bedtime stories’, and thus he got his cute little name as a result and seems to take pride in that nickname as well.

At the same time, he is alert to sounds and his trainer’s demeanor and usually keeps an ‘ear open’ as the saying goes. If his trainer is resting he usually wants to be there keeping a watch on their surroundings. Whether this watchman-like behavior is just out of a sense of care and loyalty, or perhaps due to other things that happened in the life of this Buneary before Sir Lopsalot met his trainer, mostly remains a mystery to his trainer as of current times. He also quite enjoys a good siesta and a good meal

Quirks/Talents/Aspirations/Other:

He Shall Become The One Punch Bunny/One Kick Bunny, For The Win!

-Sir Lopsalot wishes to become stronger and a very mighty bunny indeed, but also seems to want to see other places and things and pokemon and people as well. It is also a curiosity, in this latter case, that he seems to share with his more reserved trainer in turn.

-He enjoys spicy foods and spicy flavors.

-He thinks dancing is kind of cool, due to a human stranger he saw on the streets of Gateon Port one day in the past who had really big and weird spherical hair colored like a pokeball for some reason. This remains true, as much as he is embarrassed about liking it or dancing in front of most anyone.

Held Item: (None; Want to give him a Soothe Bell one day though, or maybe a good combat item like Leftovers or such.)

Sir Lopsalot’s Backstory

Sir Lopsalot was a rather adamant and stubborn bunny back home, the sort who got into little fights here and there and even tried to go on adventures beyond the scope of home. At the same time, after a particularly bad and stormy day its mother failed to come back to the den and disappeared without a trace. While several of its siblings stuck together, Sir Lopsalot included, it eventually came down to the little bunny trying to protect them all as time went on and dangers as well as other wild Pokemon began to close in on where they lived in Sinnoh. Eventually the small band of Buneary moved off to eventually re-settle on route 218 near Canalave City before eventually disbanding and dispersing after being chased by an angry local Floatzel they stumbled across who chased them off all over in different directions before returning to its den.

Ending up in Canalave itself, Sir Lopsalot would eventually scavenge for food and find his way to and onto a strange foreign ship docked in the harbor. A sister ship of the former S.S. Libra, this was a Pokemon-importing ship that was just finishing restocking food for its Pokemon cargo onboard. Said cargo of Pokemon, as it were, were bound to be brought back to the wasteland of the Orre Region, which had rather few native Pokemon at all compared to most everywhere else. It would be here that Sir Lopsalot would sneak his way down and make friends with a small group of Wooper onboard the vessel and end up accidentally stuck on the ship as it left port while he was onboard. It would be a long journey of hiding from crew and trying to sneak food with the help of its new friends, but in the end Sir Lopsalot would make it to Gateon Port proper before being finally discovered trying to sneak some leftovers from the kitchen to his new friends one morning.

Trying to seize or capture the illegal stowaway, the sailors tried to battle it and the little bunny had a scrap with them as it tried to escape. This is where it got its scar. To this end it would at least manage to escape, though, making it into the port town and coming to live there for a few days as it scavenged for food behind the Krabby Club and tried to remain hidden. It was only when a local girl and her parents passed into Gateon Port a few days later that the poor Buneary was finally found, and something about the girl seemed to draw the bunny’s curiosity as she picked it up off the ground. It had been driven away from its little hovel near the Krabby Club by a trainer, only to struggle to find more food to eat and nearly wasting away in a nearby alley behind the local Machine Parts Shop.

Due to being psychic, the girl had felt its emotions and ran to find the poor Buneary with her parents in hot pursuit behind her. Finding the poor thing, the girl took it up in her arms and convinced her parents to help her get it to the nearest Pokemon Center. Even in her arms the Buneary felt something unique about the human girl, and in the ginger care in which she carried him despite her haste, and after it was cared for at the Pokemon Center the girl wanted to take it with her. Take him…home. At first the male Buneary would be mostly quiet and reserved at first, even as the girl brought it food and tried to make it a little bed in her room and everything, all before eventually starting to open up to her more in turn to her. At first it was a happy reaction when she’d come to see him resting in his little sheet-lined box that was his bed, then turned into the bunny following her around, to eventually accepting a nickname of his own as a new name. Bit by bit he began acting once more as he once did back home with his siblings, and she in turn seemed to open back up to him as well. A year later, and with both having grown and changed already since then, Sir Lopsalot would decide to even go into a Pokeball of his own as her Pokemon by the time the girl and her family moved away to the Eidda Region.

What adventures would await them? He didn’t know, but he looked forward to it all the same.

THE WAR FOR MYTHERIA - Isekai Adventure

Lillianna

"Oh, these bags," she moaned as they got to the city gates, grabbing the attention of her friends as she slowed down and fussed with her grip. "They are so cumbersome and I am wearing thin." It felt bad to lie, but she had to get away. "I will take them back to the Mended Drum. I am so sorry I cannot come with you. Here; let me take your things back for you."

She kept it short, took any bags they wanted to hand her and gave each of them a quick hug with a friendly (and pretentiously posh) air-kiss. "I hope you find the answers you are looking for, Lillianna."

The True Heir of the Goddess of Shopping

Eh? MacKensie was leaving already? She'd seemed to have plenty of energy along the shopping spree and their trip toward the Church of Iris thus far. Then suddenly she was too tired and moaning? The Frenchwoman seemed to be in a hurry to leave them, as well as take their remaining bags back, though while friendly it all felt slightly concerningly 'suspicious' to the mage. How so, though, she couldn't really tell. Was just a gut instinct at this point. At the same time, however, she didn't try too say or do anything about it and instead let MacKensie do as she wished before disappearing into Valhheim once more among the people and crowds and the sort.

"Alright, take care. We'll return to the Mended Drum when we're done here." She watched MacKensie walk away until she rounded a corner and then turned to Lilliana. "Let's go to the church, we're almost there."

Felicitous Fenna the Friend

Suddenly snapping out of where she'd been starting off at the direction MacKensie had left in, Lillianna would lightly clear her throat and gently nod back at Fenna in turn. She was right, they needed to get to the Church while they still had the chance. After that? Well, perhaps they could look for MacKensie again to make sure she was ok. Or, er, well, something of the sort at least. Maybe.

"Yes, we should be close if the directions were correct."

Indeed, though, as they rounded the corner the building itself became suddenly and overtly obvious for them to see. If it was the correct building, that is, then it made enough sense to keep it visible on the city's outskirts. Yet as they got closer the mage would absorb herself in examining and taking note of its features along the way.

The building was tall enough to stretch up over the tops of most buildings around it for certain, and surprisingly the style of it seemed to be very 'gothic' in nature. Not as in the sterotypically-pictued 'edgy, black-colored-clothes-wearing, listening to Welcome To The Black Parade' type of 'gothic' course, but rather the style of architecture. Like it was made to be some kind of humble but well-made cathedral, it seemed to her eyes, and on their approach she thought she could see the glint of light and colors in its its windows somewhat as well. Stone bricks seemed to have a nice lighter color to them on first inspection from afar as well, which were fitted tightly to compose a stable stricture yet seemed to be arranged almost as 'smooooth as silk' from the outside according to her same glimpses at the building to boot.

And yet-

She was outside, on a small step ladder, washing the stained glass windows of the front entrance. The women approaching would be just in time to see Juliet bend down to soak her sponge in the bucket and wobble the step ladder into chaos. "W-w-waaaagh!"

Her feet flew out up into the air. The step ladder flew away. The bucket hit the floor, soapy water everywhere. All before the poor Sister landed flat on her back in the wet.

The Sound of Music 2: Electric Boogaloo

Someone fell! Or, well someone who had been trying to wash the front stained glass windows at the entrance. Her outfit seemed similar to that of a nun from back on Earth, to draw what comparisons she could, though also seemed different as well in such a way as to indicate a differing religion of course. Regardless, as the mage was shocked back into reality by the incident and was momentarily stunned Fenna seemed to move in ot try to assist. Right afterward, the mage would likewise hurry over to the fallen woman's side.

Once they reached the church they were just in time to see one of the sisters fall down. "Oh dear..." Fenna muttered and she rushed to the sister's aid. "Are you okay?" At first glance, the sister didn't seem to be injured. Not externally anyway.

The Nun Can't 'Fenna-d' For Herself Right Now, It Seems

Lillianna would without thinking try to help the poor sister sit up, at least, if the help was accepted. Though sparing a glance at the poor now-fallen-over ladder the woman had been on, she could see that it didn't seem the most stable-looking thing. Then again, a wrong shift in weight on even a good ladder was always a risk perhaps. Her father had learned that first hand before, luckily on a small-scale like what had happend to this poor woman here.

"That was luckily not much of a fall it seems.

Actually, we came here to ask about something at the suggestion of Lucinda. You see, there's a dead adventurer I...well...could see back in the Mazy Hillocks. His ghost I mean. Talked to him and- waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

Soapy water under the mage's feet, which was atop the stones on the ground forming a small path to the entrance, suddenly decided to ruin the friction between her feet and the ground. Which is to say, while trying to help and not paying muchh attention to where she was standing Lillianna managed to slip. Falling to her right, and trying to throw herself toward the grass as she did so, the top half of the magic caster;s body would thankfully fall onto the grass as the rest of her hit the stones beneath. It was enough to make her hips hurt that she knew they'd feel sore later, that much would be true, but at least the grass was itself softer to the side...and prevented a head impact if nothing else.

"Uuuuh....should have seen that one coming."

Even on the ground she'd admit that one, even after a light moan of soreness and such caused by her fall. Should have looked where she was stepping before stepping too quickly. But the very power of gravity itself, much like a predator waiting for its prey to come into view, had been merely lying in wait for an ambush against her once more.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

@Unkown58

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Also made another post really fast so I can be early and not think about it this round. Or, well, I got the chance to this particular week at least. Whew. (@_@)

Lazash is trying to pick up the shinies and flak beetle chunks to hold onto, so hopefully they can move on deeper into the cave. Or at least that's where her focus is, outside of sitting down and being grateful to be alive. Somehow. Despite the fact that last time this happened it went horribly according to our dear DM. Dang.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Lazash

Both Vola and Lazash, from their cover across from each other, watched a shockwave of flame, dust, and rock powerful enough to indirectly rattle their bones thunder past them in an instant. The heat felt like opening an out-of-control oven and nearly losing their eyebrows. Their vision was seared white for a few painful seconds as the flames passed. Their ears rang painfully and then all sounds seemed as if they came from underwater.

The explosion lasted a mere fraction of a second, and in its wake as their hearing slowly recovered, Lazash and Vola would notice the sound of rocks crumbling and crashing to the ground...but it wasn’t a cave in. At least, not the kind you saw in the movies that threatened to kill everyone and seal off the whole tunnel. Only the most fragile bits of rock had shattered or fallen down. It made a bit of a mess and spilled slippery gravel and sharp shards all over the ground, but if anything it had actually widened out the narrow tunnel a bit…Because a big chunk of that shiny, green-streaked substance in the side of one wall had been blasted into much smaller fragments that clackity-clacked all over the cave floor...

She had expected the potential for something like this, but the reality of it was certainly something else entirely. Certainly wasn't an 'intact' kill though, and they needed something to bring back intact enough to fulfill the quest. At the same time, they were alive and the 'narrow passage' was now larger than before at the same time. They had avoided a cave-in, somehow, and yet between the scorching heat from the prior Fire Bolt she'd used before and the Flak Beetle exploding like it was going out of style she felt the strain of it all on her body. Certianly surviving a tunnel explosion was no small thing, and at the same time she would notice the strange subtance that had been blown loose from the wall.

And then, of course, there were a few…bits and pieces…of the Flak Beetle left. The rest of the shriveled, burnt mushrooms had been apparently vaporized.

...Not to forget about the bits of Flak Beetle that were actually left though.

After getting back to her senses once more, ascertaining that Vola was ok by looking over at where the other female runt was, and noting the gravel of slippery and sharp sorts on the ground, Lazash would get back to work without another work. She would use her feet to push the light-enough debris to the sides as she went along, as well as being careful where she stepped, but first thing was first and she would start going about to pick up the chunks of the Flak Beetle first to put in her pack of things. If she got the chance afterward, she'd go to pick up as many of the fragments of the shiny, green-streaked substance that were now all over the floor as she could get.

After whatever she could do in these respects, she'd try to clear a path on the floor to the narrow passage itself to sit down next to it for a moment on any non-sharp rock she could find. Well, try to sit there at least for a moment to take a breather. A moment to rest after an explosion and heat blast combination was certainly something to take a short rest from, if anything, in her mind.

Warning: Your MP is low.

SYSTEM

Ah. Likewise, at least this "SYSTEM" seemed to give her a proper indicator warning of having low MP as well. She did not want to push her luck in that respect either though. Losing all of her MP was not, as it seemingly would have mental effects based on prior SYSTEM notifications, a good idea in the end. Only getting two Fire Bolts before she ran low though? It was a low count, sure, but it certainly wasn't useless either after seeing what those things could do. She was, after all, just an Orc Runt at the start of her new life here. She just had to raise her MP more and train and such, etc, before she could really do more with casting spells. That, as it were, was a goal to look forward to to boot.

"My MP is low, so there'll be no more Fire Bolts moving forward on my end."

She would comment aloud to Vola by this point as she sat down next to the widened entrance into the narrow passage.

"And we still lack a sufficiently 'intact' kill to bring back to the camp to fulfil the quest, though I'd wager that blast was audible even on the outside as well.

Still, given the potential for us to have died here from that explosion it seems we have some amount of fortune on our side thus far. Hmm?"

Fortune? Luck? It was probability at least, and they happened to not get hit with shrapnel or killed by a blast wave. Etc. A little miracle of sorts at the tail end of a bad decision that hadn't worked out as badly as she'd thought it would at least. What else was she to do though? They had no other way to retaliate against the Flak Beetle meaningfully, and might've been forced to run out to escape had it pursued them further. What would a pointy stick and sharp stone do against it, irritate the thing before it blew them up with its own 'fire bolt' as it were?

This at least meant they had a chance to go deeper and see what else lied down here, maybe getting a kill of some kind before it got too late in the day.

@Unkown58@Zeroth

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Post was made! And whoever wanted a fire bolt to be used against a Flak Beetle, depending on how things go as Zeroth determines events go down for the next update, might be potentially getting their wish.

Is it a wise idea? No. But maybe 'fight fire with fire' will somehow prove sane in this situation. Or not. XD

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Lazash

Meanwhile, inside the cave, the Flak Beetle hadn't yet reacted to the mushrooms beneath it suddenly shooting their spores all over the place. When Lazash unleashed her Fire Bolt, however, it scuttled backwards further along the ceiling, into the narrow tunnel. It rustled the shell plates over its wings aggressively---but still, it did not attack yet.

Lazash would take a stroke from the lashing tendrils over her shoulder, drawing blood and leaving a stinging welt. Two other tendrils struck the spots where the spores had coated the stones, and immediately withdrew back into the mushrooms that had spawned them.

The Fire Bolt hit the mushrooms---and a leftover cloud of spores. In a phenomenon known as a "dust explosion," the fine-grains of fungal matter went up in a great "whoosh," though thankfully it wasn't exactly a "bomb." Nonetheless, Lazash and Vola were nearly blinded by the instant flash and felt their bodies come close to singing as the heat washed over them. The mushrooms, on the other hand, actually shrieked as they burned---not because they had vocal chords, but because of some property of air escaping their formerly swollen spore pods and tendril "mouths" as the flames consumed them.

Within seconds only blacked, shriveled husks were left.

Lazash's arms came up to protect her face and eyes from the explosion as the palpable wave of nigh-singing heat wash past her as the hot air sought to escape. A dust explosion, here?! The only saving grace was that it was such a small-scale one, given the ones she'd seen in the course of her education about architecture and design. Yet even if the mushrooms weren't nessecarily screaming, the sound being akin to that was certainly something to hear as well as the pustule-like swollen caps burnt suddenly from her Fire Bolt. It was akin to letting air out of a whoopie cushion somewhat to her mind, though the screaming-like quality certainly made it seem more menacing than she felt it was. Still, the female orc runt would lower her arms after the blast had finished.

“Nice shot.”

Vola

For a moment she was almost relieved, giving a momentary nod to the other orc runt with her, though another immediately hit her mind as she held her now-hot pointy stick and kept her eyes up on the narrow passage. Because while the mushrooms had been dealt with, certainly, there was still something else in this cave that had been near and it had the monkier of being a "Flak Beetle". Did that mean it-

The Flak Beetle, having withdrawn even further from the flames, chose this moment to expand its wings and point its mandibles at the two Runts with a hiss.

They saw its glowing thorax expand as the light within it intensified. And then as the beetle released that pressure through its mouth, a second bolt of flame lit up the cave, racing towards them!

"SHI-"

It was perhaps the most expressive Lazash had allowed herself to sound, but mostly the half-shouted curse word only came out as the female Orc Runt dove hard to her left to try to put some distance between her and the Flak Beetle without a second thought. She did not even so much as hear Vola's warning for the most part, survival instincts kicking in as pure adrenaline kicked in. Lazash would try to hit the ground with a roll so she could iun theory get back up on her feet more quickly using the momentum, thus hopefully allowing her better ascertain the situation and again hold up her free hand pointed toward where the Flak Beetle was. The idea was to at leaast be prepared to use a second Fire Bolt, if nothing else, not that it'd probably be the best idea if this thing was ALSO firing off fire bolts.

If she got to this intended point with her actions, if she saw the Flak Beetle try to shoot a bolt at her again she'd fire one right back! Worst case they had to run for the exit, perhaps, if it started a cave-in. Right? Maybe. Was all she had effective against the stupid thing right noow anyway, and it was a rather imperfect situation overall to be most frank to boot.

...But the old addage perhaps rung true here: "Fight fire with fire." Especially since none of them had any water spells or such helpful tools to use right now anyway. She'd rather be alive and grab something on the way back to the camp or another cave entrance than die here at least. Likely her compatriot would want to stay alive, she figured, as well....hopefully.

@Unkown58@Zeroth