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7 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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Aventon — The Fields


Rayne gave a sigh of relief once she’d helped the last of the farm hands get up and on their feet, wiping her brow clear of the sweat she’d built up flying around doing damage control for Fran’s reckless if ultimately, and one might say miraculously, effective cowgirl escapade. Not that it was over, of course, but none of the animals looked to be going anywhere in a hurry, all of them having been conked out just like the cows.

Rayne, naturally, set about helping out. It was while she was doing this, a chicken under each arm, that she happened to float by Fran and paused for a quiet word.

“So, um, I know things worked out, but they were a bit. Well. Chaotic, and I’d really appreciate a warning next time? An idea of the plan?” she asked, trying to be polite even though it really had to be said. The issue was that, well, it seemed that doing so would be tricky for Fran, so she decided that it’d be best to prove that issue, because at this point she was pretty sure it was going to be a permanent one “or as much as you can manage of one? I, um, hope this isn’t touching on a sore spot but the whole, not talking much thing. Can you explain what the deal with that is? Or does the deal stop you from explaining it well? I don’t suppose you can write, or draw or sign language or something to get around it?”

Rayne looked rather sheepish throughout all of this, aware that she could very well be coming off as rude or annoying, asking questions Fran had doubtless have had hundreds of times. Despite this she insisted on pressing forwards regardless because if they were going to be in situations more risky than just herding animals, she really wanted to know where they stood regarding communication.

wordcount: 891 (+2)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (116/100) (+1 bonus pending)
Location:
Warp Charges: 1


Midna and her minions chomped away at their burgers while watching the people go by, all ravenously hungry after a morning of high energy activity. It wasn’t exactly royal fare, but then she wasn’t exactly doing typical royal activities either, and so she needed the energy dense food to facilitate all the running around she’d been doing. It certainly beat the granola bars she’d been fueling a lot of said activities with by a long shot, that was for sure, causing her to idly wonder if it would be ethical to free and recruit a random chef specifically so they could have good food at a moment's notice.

Probably not, she concluded.

At any rate, after eating her fill the princess set about looking for something to pass the time and wind down now that all the essential tasks she’d set herself were dealt with.

Sat astride her wolfos’s new saddle, having been recommended to break it in before trying to actually fight it, she rode through the streets seeking entertainment. Unfortunately, though the town seemed to have a fair amount of things for sale, be it food, drink, or items galore, there was a distinct lack of things like, say, spas, or theaters, or other classy time wasters, at least where the princess ended up roaming. So she ended up mostly window shopping with the time she had before everything went back to hell.

Hell arrived while checking out a set of pens containing colorful creatures that where apparently made of paper mache and confetti (the latter of which Midna had to deduce where the hundreds of little bits of colored paper that made up their fur, as had no idea what either of those two things actually where) and had a big taste for candy. Despite several looking like farm animals, they were apparently being sold as collectors items rather than as creatures to be exploited for food and labor. Very expensive collectors items as it turned out. The call she received in the middle of this might have been bad news then, but it did at least mean that Midna had a good excuse to bail rather than having to talk her way out of explaining she had nowhere near the amount of money needed to buy one, regardless of how pretty they were.

”Sorry, just got a… what was the term… a call! A psychic call. About an urgent meeting with a consul, so I have to rush, bye!” she told the shopkeeper, before dropping her wolfos into a portal, stepping into the shadows, and finally vanishing from sight before the seller could get a word in edgewise.

Moments later, she reappeared on the top deck of the Virgin Victory with plenty of those 2 minutes to spare. Once there she found Sandalphon had already claimed the highest vantage point, and so joined her on look out, pulling out her Therian Viral Rifle to do so. She wasn’t exactly going to hit anything with the marksman carbine, she was well aware of this, but it did have a long range sight on top that she proceeded to use like a spyglass to scope out the situation.

First thing’s first, she looked up to the clouds. Having remembered the way the Virgin Victory had apparently been chased by a storm, she wanted to see if there was anything up there, driving it. Some storm riding ship or great electrical dragon, perhaps. Sadly, even if there was anything up there, the clouds, naturally, obscured if from sight, and so all she saw was lighting arching between those same clouds, causing her to flinch away from more than just the light.

”Right, that” she murmured to herself, a sense of dread creeping up her spine now that she’d gotten a physical reminder of her inherited fear of that element. In response, and almost without asking, her lightning proof Flygon slipped out of a portal and joined her side, hunkering by it both defensively and reassuringly.

Its bulwark against electrical damage was enough for her to raise the scope back up to her exposed eye, sending it roaming across the town again til a tap on her shoulder and a point from Sandalphon set her gaze on the door of the bar Geralt had left behind, right in time for said door to swing open and reveal the armored form of the consul.

On hand was occupied by a large, round, golden shield that made Midna, and only Midna, uneasy merely at the sight of it. The other was unoccupied, allowing it to be casually raised and then snapped. The storm above flashed and rumbled as something above responded to its master’s call, but Midna did not see it, for instead she had dropped her rifle in shock, the weapon clattering to the ground as memories of a death that was not hers arched across her mind. Of sword, shield and lighting all flashing as they took Urbosa’s life.

She stumbled, a hand finding the back of her crouching Flygon, upon which she steadied herself, pressing another hand to her heart in an attempt to still its frightfully fast fluttering.

At least, she thought as she clenched her eyes, blocking sight of storm and master and focused her breathing to calm herself, at least he didn’t have a sword as well.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 906 (+1)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (186/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (69/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Kamek: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (66/130) (+1 bonus pending)
Rika: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (85/90) (+1 bonus pending)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams


”Wait but what about kirby?” that was jrs first question when Kamek relayed the information they’d received from Asgore. They were doing so not upon a paper boat, or on stag back, but instead in a little catcafe (a cafe for cats!) which served all sorts of delightful drinks as well as snacks galore.

Outside cats pulling trains and cats not pulling trains went about their day, fortunately not all swarming to take them down this time. The others were out there somewhere as well, most likely hunting pons, but the troop had delegated that to Minions, specifically Kamek’s toadies.

That left them plenty of time to catch up on important exposition (the trip here having been taken up mostly by first consoling and then listening to Jr complaining about his near drowning experience) hence the resulting Kirby question.

Kamek sighed upon hearing it, having failed to explain general relativity to his king, only to have an idea, pushing his spectacles up, causing them to flash in the light as he grinned.

”Why by using time travel of course young master!” he lied, or perhaps simplified, depending on how you looked at it ”In order to outrun Galeem’s shot, he traveled so fast that he raced into the future, hence avoiding multiversal annihilation by simply not being here when it happened. It being a spur of the moment thing however, it seems he overshot the start of all this by quite some time. Who knows how long really, but Asgor claims it has been a lot. In people years anyway, I imagine it has still been the blink of an eye compared to the age of our own universe, hence how Kirby’s landing was a bit off”

”Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Jr replied with comprehension, while Bowser asked instead ”why didn’t you just say that the first time instead of going on about how, uh, something about going fast making time slow or something?”

”Oh, ah, because I needed some time to process it all, is the thing. My apologies for doing such a poor job earlier” Kamek lied again, before getting ahead of the next question and saying ”and no, I can’t just build another time machine and travel back in time to fix things, because we had no idea where the cliff face upon which Galeem first fought is, if it even exists at all any more”

”Lame” Jr complained, while Rika asked what was probably a pretty key question, which was ”So how are we going to avoid that? The light I mean? Because that’s very fast, right, and papa couldn’t avoid it last time. So what do we do when we go fight Galeem?”

”Last time was a fluke! A cheap shot! This time I’ll, uh, um...” Bowser replied, before failing to actually find an answer and scratching his head and failing to come up with an answer

”Couldn’t we use the time machine for that?” Jr asked, making Kamek grimace for a second about how his white lie was coming back to bit him, only to actually think about it for a moment.

”It wasn’t exactly combat capable. However… Perhaps we could use something like F’s rewind? To undo the beam attack when it occurs” Kamek theorized ”but any kind of time based solution would take, well, time to develop, not to mention resources and a magical workshop to perform my work in, none of which I am sure are available. Gallo and his Tower are the only real instance of magical learning we have really seen now that I think about it, myself and that dingy little dungeon excluded”

Suddenly Bowser pounded the table, causing their half finished glasses to jump into the air and land back down before he declared the solution he’d thought of ”A big mirror! That overgrown disco ball tires to blast us with light but then, ha, gotcha, big mirror to reflect the beam right back at it”

”I, well, hmmm” Kamek attempted to object, and yet failed to find any real objections to the base principle other than that surly Galeem was to powerful to be foiled by meer glass and silver, resulting in the others running away with the idea ”We could make you a big shiny tower shield!” ”or maybe reflective armor?”

”Oh dear” Kamek murmured as he rested his head on the table as they kept going, only to perk back up when his toadies appeared, carrying their collected spoils, namely the pons they needed to get a ride out of here.

”Ah thank badness. Looks like it’s time to hit the road. Or the rails rather” he said as they entered, before rising and saying ”let me just go settle the bill” before going and doing just so.

While he was at it, the royals received their pass paying pons from the toadies, after which Bowser demanded to know if they had seen any mirrors.

They had not.

”We’re going to a desert though, right? And you make sand out of glass… right? So they might have some” Jr pointed out, which enthused his father, who clapped him on the shoulder with a ”That’s my boy!” before declaring ”Let’s move out troop, we have a train catch!” and setting them on the path towards the yellow line.

Then they came back a couple of seconds later because Kamek was still fussing with paying.

But after that was done they were off to sunnier pastures!

Aventon — The Fields


“Oh shoot they can’t hear me, um, Rayne said to herself as she floated above the wall, looking down at the still deaf people. She pressed a contemplative fist to her mouth, while holding the elbow of that arm with her other hand and tapping a foot in the air as she thought, before doing some low grade charades

She used a pair of fingers to mimic a horn on her forehead, before sweeping her hands down a bit like lighting, used two fingers to mime cow horns, made a scared face, mimed something running away using her fingers, did the gesture for Fran again before miming shouting very loud with both hands cupped around her mouth, miming the running away thing falling over, placing her cheek on two hands like it was a pillow, before finally giving a thumbs up.

It looked very silly, but that probably helped stop people worrying more than an actual explanation of the mess the latest addition to the imported heroes number had first caused and then, mostly, solved. It also meant that the woman in question was mostly done electrocuting people into wakefulness when Rayne turned back and had something new to worry about.

The thumbs up really did not help. At least all the loud noises seemed to have stopped

“Gaia give me-” she began to sigh, before pausing, remembering Gaia was gone, and correcting “me give me strength I guess. Not like she was listening before anyway” and then did indeed give herself the strength to go down and keep helping.

“Everyone ok? I think it's over” she asked the farm folk as she drifted to and fro, checking on their health and state of mind, giving a reassuring smile and a helping hand to stand even while she was very unsure about how to handle Fran. Things seemed ok now, but she needed to take the woman aside and try and see if she could impart some caution into her.

wordcount: 1,693 (+3)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (114/100) (+1 bonus pending)
Location:
Warp Charges: 1


After Midna returned to the ship and finally got away from Midgar, she found herself wandering the town, looking for something specific. Not food, she’d done that before, no she wanted to make use of something that had been languishing in her inventory since the split mountain inorder to solve a certain problem she had.

That was how Midna found herself looking up at a powerful looking woman who was running a smithy on one of the town’s streets.

”Hey, I was looking to get some armor made, specifically for a wolfos of mine. Can you do that? I can supply materials” she enquired. The woman looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding and giving a thumbs up, before heading Midna a bit of worn paper, much to the princess’s confusion as to the lack of verbal response.

She asked what it's deal was, only for the woman to point at the paper with cheerful insistence, prompting her to examine a small set of images depicting an amateurish if not half bad depiction of the woman herself and a few other figures first conversing with squiggles in speech bubbles representing their speech, only for some abstract force to ‘steal’ the squiggles, leaving them all unable to speak to each other.

Then there was another sequence where they tried to write to each other instead, only for the force to steal their writing as well, leaving them with just drawing and gestures, something that was represented by, among other things, the women drawing this very retelling of her story.

As Midna’s first exposure to the medium of comics, it wasn’t a half bad one.

”That’s terrible” she said once she was done, only to quickly clarify that she ment ”your curse I mean, not the drawings those are really good” which got a laugh out of the woman.

”So, right, I can work with that, if you can work with these” Midna she said, before pulling out all the disparate crafting materials she’d gotten her hands on over her travels; some Chitinous Shell, rolls of draconic Deegahla Hide, a vial of Mordant Dew (a deadly venom), the strange PSI Core and Card that where probably related, the Ice Geode and, a after a moment, also the Other Suppression Data which felt crafting material-y but she really didn’t know if it would be at all useful.

It did feel a bit like a pile of junk now that she looked at it, and it certainly felt like the moment for making use of the other suppression data had passed which she kicked herself about a bit, but she hoped that some of it might come in handy with making use of the rolls of hide.

She also summoned her wolfos who’d be the subject of the crafting for her to examine, explaining ”I use it as a mount, so making the ride smoother on top of making it tougher is a pretty big priority”

The blacksmith nodded, looking the beast over for a few moments, before then going over Midna’s haphazard items pile. The hide was immediately put off to one side after getting an approving nod, as was the shell after she gave it a sniff. As for the rest, well the venom and Ice Geode were put in one pile, and the PSI and other data got some weird looks before she gave an apologetic shrug.

”Yeah I thought so. Maybe the Midgar refugees will be interested if we run into them” Midna said, and was then prompted to give a quick explanation of what had gone down there (without mentioning her own involvement of course)

”So, what’s that pile for?” she then asked, regarding the geode and dew sitting in their own pile. In response the blacksmith pointed at the hide and shell, and then shook her head, before pointing back at the other items and mimicking a sword slash and then flexing her muscular arm.

”Good for making weapons instead? Strong weapons? Huh ok, I could do with a good sword. What can you make? With them” she asked, only to get a shake of the hand gesture she interpreted as meaning ‘not so much’ followed by the blacksmith flicking her hand up, which she interpreted as ”More? Need more materials?” and getting a nod.

It made sense those two where pretty small, she’d probably only get a knife out of them, assuming you could even make an actual weapon out of just those materials

”Well, I could always get some more stuff. Or do you have anything that would go good with them? Iron or bronze or ..?” she asked. In response the smith vaguely gestured at some supply boxes, before giving a thumbs down. When Midna didn't get it, she pointed at the geode again, flexed again, then pointed at the boxes and made a limp wrist gesture.

”So you don’t have anything as good? You sure it wouldn’t be fine to just go with-” she started to ask but the woman shook her head, and then held up a hand before quickly starting drawing something. Midna waited patiently for her to finish, and was then presented with an equation of sorts, only with pictures instead of numbers, with geode + dew + glowing metal and gems equaling a very impressive sword, and one where those two items + wood and scrappy metal equaled a dull blade. With stink lines coming off it.

”Is it really that bad? Surly the good stuff raises up the bad” Midna replied, which got her a raised palm and a headbob of ‘technically’ before the smith pointed at the drawing of the crap sword, then at her items, and then mimicked chucking them in her bin, which made her point well enough

”Be a waste huh?” Midna understood, before shrugging and saying ”fine fine I’ll keep them and keep an eye out for more strong stuff” before directing her attention back to the hide and chitin and asking ”But is that enough for some good armor”

The smith raised one hand up (held flat to the sky,) pursed her lips and did a bobbing nod to indicate it would be ‘pretty good’ before looking about for a few moments and then finding a measuring tape. With it she took a whole bunch of measurements of her beast to get its exact dimensions, and then did some scribbling of a design. She also cracked open a box to reveal some regular leather which she added to the diagram, indicating it was for a comfy saddle, complete with stirrups and a storage pouch. After a bit of back and forth on whether that would be worth it when she had portals, they’d rejigged it so that the pouch mainly acted as a place she could safely open portals without having to launch and catch things. After showing her a few of her weapons in the process of the prior discussion, they even added a set of dedicated weapon holsters for her two auto-pistols. Oh and also strapped a cardboard missile launcher to the back of the armor, and slapped the spit sticker under the saddle when they identified it as being able to empower creatures, resulting in the beast getting a nice little boost in ranged firepower.

After that, there was a brief moment where Midna wondered how in the world they were going to work out a cost, but fortunately while the smith’s words had been stolen, her numbers had not, and so a price of 500 zenny was agreed upon. A fair chunk of her funds, it was true, but freeing up a hand in combat and toughening up her beast were both definitely worth it.

Once they were all done planning, the actual crafting of the armor took a mere 10 minutes. The hide was tanned, making used of the shell as part of the process rather than as additional armor interestingly enough, and then the resulting material was forged into a set of scale mail that covered her beast from snout to tail, while still leaving said tail and snout exposed for sniffing and balancing purposes, along with its legs for unrestricted mobility.

After a quick little test ride around the smithy, the princess was very satisfied with the blacksmith’s. Good, quick and friendly service, and comparatively cheap to boot. She was very much considering popping a portal here specifically so she could stop by again if she had any more crafting needs.

That said, while eminently affordable, the princess wasn’t exactly flush with cash either, and so the transaction left her pretty close to the red. She was flush with stuff however, and so her next step was a quick ride around town till she found somewhere to make some of her own sales. She ended up outside the wagon of a traveling seller of trinkets and baubles because, when you boiled it down, that was most of what she had on offer. That she wasn’t using anyway. The idea of trading away any of her bulging armory didn’t even cross her mind.

A manikin hand and Jester cap where pure novelties truth be told, while she managed to convince the woman that the psi-card and core where going to become valuable now that there was a load of Midgar citizens, many psychics among them, on the way, while the abandoning of the city would also make the Other suppression data rather rare, and thus potentially valuable.

She then quickly stopped by an armor merchant to sell the Horned Ice Helm no one had been interested in as well.

All told she ended up with 3400 more zenny in her pocket, which was absolutely nothing to be sniffed at, that was for sure. Particularly when she had 3 hungry mouths to feed (hers naturally included).

Rather than find somewhere to sit in for a meal, the princess ended up getting her and her two living minions some Mozzarina Cheeseburgers to go, before finding a rooftop to perch on and watch the people below go about their days. Doing so made it fairly easy to find her when it came to rounding up the group, assuming those doing so looked up, and certainly would make it easier to spot anyone else in the group who was out and about as well.

Aventon — The Fields


“You don’t?!” Rayne, her fingertips on forehead with disbelief, replied with shock to the confused look and “Eh?” she got in response to asking what the stampede stopping plan was, before throwing her hands up in alarm with an equally alarmed cry of “what do we do!?”

She certainly had no idea, and at first it seemed neither did Fran, as both of them were helpless to stop the cows from smashing through what remained of their enclosure. Then when Fran had an idea Rayne had every right to be concerned about what it was, especially when the woman leapt in front of the stampeded she’d made and shouted for them to cover their ears

“Wait look out what are you-” Rayne called after her, before seeing her breathing in deep and going “oh no” before clamping her hat and hands over her sensitive pointy ears.

It only sort of helped.

Unnatural fear spiked through her heart and gripped her throat as the Knight, entirely unused to any kind of magical mental effects, floundered under the onslaught that physically forced the levitating woman back. Only it wasn’t entirely true that she wasn’t used to having her mind affected by others, it was just that the Link’s two way connection was one of hope and heroism rather than fear, and it was to that Link Rayne clung to in-order to steel herself against terror.

Then, all of a sudden, it was all over. The cows, unable to cover their ears even if they had been able to understand the warning, had fallen, while the people still stood. Mostly. Rayne wasn’t entirely sure if her legs would have supported her had she been standing rather than floating.

She was also too busy checking first her own breathing and then that of the farm hands to worry about the cows, but given that Fran seemed to think they were fine after a touch to the neck, maybe they were? She’d leave that to the farmers who would know the health of their livelihoods far better than her.

After half catching her breath she managed to respond “I, well, yes” to Fran’s short declaration that the cows had indeed been stopped. Which they had. But it certainly had been quite the dramatic ordeal, for them, the cows and “Wait. Oh no, the town!”

She suddenly spun on the spot after that declaration, and blink dashed back the way they had come, clearing the walls of the town a few moments later and then calling out to the citizenry who had 0 context for the lightning and screaming: “Don’t panic, everything’s fine! Frankenstein just had a, uh, really noisy way of herding the cows? But again, everything’s fine. Mostly. I mean the cows fainted but I think they’ll be ok?” after which she glanced over her shoulder to check that things were indeed ok back there.

wordcount: 1, 322 (+3)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (111/100) (+1 bonus pending)
Location: Deep Ground
Warp Charges: 1


Unlike the others, Midna didn’t have time to relax away from Midgar right away. No, she was going back again to pick up some Bridges people to bring them out to the Virgin Victory so they could do… some kind of technology thing. She wasn’t sure really what the specifics were, nor why the little portable device she was lent to organize where they’d meet up wouldn’t just do the job either, but she had to assume they knew their stuff.

At any rate, that left her time to kill inside the city itself, and it wasn’t exactly in a state where she could go to the spa either. The mood of the city was… tumultuous to say the least. Not only had the people been told that it would be unwise to stay, they had also learned they did not belong there in the first place. The latter certainly helped motivate acting on the former, but it wasn’t like people could just up and leave on short notice, especially when other people were trying to also do the same. The amount of congestion that was causing also meant that the Bridges people were going to have a problem getting to her.

She spent the start of this just sort of fiddling with the Eliacube, turning it this way and that, putting a little mana into it, and just generally trying to figure it out more. She didn’t get very far, and eventually put it away again, though her mind kept drifting back to it like a puzzle she just couldn’t crack.

TO try and distract herself instead she tried to do a bit of self reflection on how they could have done things better in Midgar, only to realize something ”wait… the psi-fish wouldn't have gotten Karin‘s message down there”

Indeed, the strange psychic creatures, the previous victims of Midgar’s attempts at mass producing psychic soldiers via raising and slaughtering of beings who could grant psionic abilities via fusion before they’d switched to pokemon, were still down in the polluted reservoir. They too were now free from Galeem, and yet unlike everyone up top, entirely unaware as to what that meant, not to mention unaware that the city was being evacuated. Not that they could really evacuate alongside those above, given what had been done to them and the enmity that had caused, but still.

They deserved to know.

Her expected guests might have been slowed by the city’s refugee packed streets, but the princess was not. Traveling first by portal to their Seiran Clinic hideout, and then hopping from shadow to shadow, the princess effortlessly made her way down through the undercity, and then down into the reservoir below.

This had, admittedly, been a bad idea last time, but without any footsloggers in tow, she didn’t have to worry about navigating the perilous walkways and pipes that they’d need to get up and down last time, nor about being ambushed by the creatures living down there in the dark.

That didn’t mean she was safe. Last time she was here one of the bigger psi-fish had done … something to her, that left her with a missing any form of memory regarding a short yet impactful space of time, one during which she’d had to apparently be carried up and out by the others due to her unresponsive state.

Not a thing she could have happened again now that she was on her own.

So, not getting seen, that was for sure on the top of her list of priorities. But that was fine. All she needed to do was be a messenger from the shadows.

The psi-fish weren't exactly hard to track down moving at her speed, what with them glowing and all. So in a short amount of time she’d found, one, and then from it hopped to larger and larger groups till she found a swirling storm of psionic energy managed by numerous psi-fish that was slowly coalescing into a titan of psi-fish kind



It looked to be a slow, slow process, but one that was nearing completion, and whatever it was, she was quite sure it was another point in favor of the people of the city leaving as soon as possible. Still, even if this was built specifically to spell devastation upon those above, the psi-fish deserved a chance to take another path, especially the one that had now opened to them.

So she did her best to share the news via shouting it out of the shadows, and repeatedly changing her location to avoid being located as she did so

”Listen to me. I’m one of the ones you let go before and I’ve come back to tell you that Shinra and psych-OFF are dead and the city is dying because of what we returned to the world above” which she suspected they might take as good news, given the misery that had inflicted upon them. It was hard to tell the actual reaction though, given they did not so much speak as project thoughts, a thing she did not want to happen because it meant they might be able to project other things in to control her. Still, it certainly caused a stir among them, the psi-fish forming up defensively in response to her intrusion.

”The people there are free of the delusions of Galeem, the thing that made the world the way it was, that stole your ancestors from their home and put them in this one where they could be captured and killed by Shinra. Now they are going to leave this cursed trap of a city Galeem put them in, and you should too. With them gone, the Others, those things in the tunnels that eat brains, which rain down onto the city above in far greater numbers, will have nowhere to hunt except down here. You should go, find a better home. The machines to the south are in disarray. Punch through what’s left of them, and find the freedom of the ocean past the mountains to the east, to the left, of their bases. It's a great expanse of clean water, it might even be where they took your people from, where you might even find the rest of your kind” she called down. It was not a safe way by any means, but it was the only way they could go, and, she hoped, one that most of the civilians from the city would not be going to. It would be rough, but it had to be better than here, surly?

Either way, she was sure she’d had some kind of effect now, as the mostly organized defensive line was wavering, turning to what she thought was discourse. Or it was just confused by the way she’d moved after every sentence to avoid being located. They were certainly trying to find her at least, several of the larger hunters, the same kind that had locked down her mind, where roving through the air trying to track her down while the ranged psi-fish held their crumbling defensive formation.

With them narrowing down the positions she could broadcast from, and the information more or less delivered, she decided she’d done all she could, retreating from the storm and going back the way she came.

After that, all she had to do was wait a little bit longer for the Bridges team to show up, and she could get on with her job. The actual task was done in very short order, the princess ferrying the humans from the city to the docked ship in the blink of an eye, and then leaving them to get on with their task.

With that done, it was finally time for some well deserved RnR. Or, more specifically, lunch. She’d helped take down 2 pseudo-gods and an entire city state on just a donut, and she was absolutely famished as a result.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,436 (+3 for J and R) (+5 for B and K)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (184/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (67/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Kamek: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (64/130) (+1 bonus pending)
Rika: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (83/90) (+1 bonus pending)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams


Rika and Jr ended up going with Theon rather than hanging around to listen to whatever Asgor was going to go on about. Kamek would no doubt fill them in on it later, and both of them felt like their time could be better spent hanging around town to see if there was anything fun to do/get while they waited. Like milkshakes. Or toys. Or cool weapons.

To get to the city all they needed to do was go down the pipe near the base of the tree, which should have been a non issue. Except when Jr stepped on it, and remembered that it came out at the bottom of a pool of water, he felt a sudden and unexpected spike of fear.

”Huh what?” the prince said as he found himself pausing before stepping in, not anywhere close paralyzed by fear, but certainly slowed enough that had to stop anyway out of confusion as to why he was feeling that way. ”Why am I…. What is the… oh come on Omori are you scared of water too!?”

That was the only explanation. It certainly couldn't have been Undyne he inherited this fear from, that would have been silly, seeing as she was a fish.

As he was seething on top of the pipe, the prince actively glowing red with an aura of anger, he was actively stopping anyone else from going down it, which was a touch of a problem, and one that caused Rika, next in line, to ask ”You ok? Are we not going?”

”I’m fine I’m just going to prove a point real quick” Jr growled in response as he hopped off of the pipe and matched down to the edge of the water that surrounded the sandbank they were on. Then he took a casual step into it without any concern. ”See! This is fine! Stop being such a wuss” he told himself, even if he was phrasing his ire like Omori was here in spirit and it was all his fault.

He was a little confused as to why he hadn’t felt anything at all from that little dip however, and so took another step into the water. Then another and another till he was up to his neck, and then finally when he moved to move his head under the water, and specifically his mouth and nose, that was when the fear came back, and his mind conjured unbidden images of the water flowing into those orifices.

He stood there for a moment, then violently dunked his head under the water and then came back up and declared ”I’m in control here Omori, not you. Me!”

He then glanced up to find Rika floating on the water’s surface next to him, looking down at him with a mix of confusion and concern. Mostly confusion. No one had ever thought to tell her what a phobia was after all.

”What? I’m good! Omori was just scared of drowning or something, but I’m better than that!” jr insisted as he stomped back on to dry land, water dripping off of him.

”Oh. Well. I mean. Drowning is bad so why wouldn’t you be afraid of it?” she asked as a result of the prior mentioned ignorance.

”I mean he must have been, like, super scared of it. Drowningphobic or something. Freaking out if it ever even seemed like it was going to happen, which’d just make stuff worse” Jr replied, finding himself trying to fill in a gap he wasn’t exactly sure how it worked either. He just hadn’t been paying attention whenever a lot of things were explained to him, making him rather the poor teacher for this kind of thing.

”Huh. Ok. So. Would you need me to carry you up through the water at the other end of the pipe or…?” she asked, but jr shot the idea down, biting back that ”I’m fine! I’m fine. I can do this. I’m tough, not some stupid kid like him”

”Oh… Oh wait, can’t you just turn into Undyne so you straight up can’t drown?” she asked, an idea which gave him pause, and snapped him out of his angry state. The prince raised a finger, lowered, it raised it and then finally said ”No, because I can do this, she’s in heavy armor she she can’t swim and also the town would probably freak out about their guard captain coming back from the dead or going un-missing and that would just be this whole thing we’d have to deal with”

Rika gave a sad little ”Oh…” at her idea being shot down, and Jr was still in a bit too much of a mood to tell her how it was a good idea in general.

At that point they were back at the pipe. There, Jr took a deep breath, then let it out, before stepping up onto it and finally, after another moment of hesitation, descending. Despite having been told she didn’t need to help him, Rika descended quickly after him, just to be safe.



A few moments later they popped out the other side in quick succession, entering into the underwater race track who’s raving searchlights had fortunately already activated thanks to those who had gone on ahead while the prince dallied on the beach.

Immediately fear flared in the mind of the puffy cheeked prince as the water surrounded him. But it was fine, all he needed to do was swim up. He’d done this before. He’d be fine.

Unfortunately last time he had not had an arm covered in metal tattoos, which not only weighed him down as he started to breaststroke up towards the surface, it also bled heat like nobody’s business. As he rose towards the surface, and his air began to go down, so too did the fear rise, and his temperature drop. His right arm rapidly became numb, stiffening, unable to aid in his swim to the surface. Panic started to build, the prince’s controlled swim becoming increasingly frantic.

He wasn’t going go make it, he wasn’t going go make it HE WASN’T GOING TO MAKE IT

Or so his mind began to scream as he floundered, oh so close to the surface and yet oh so far, only for an arm sporting a massive gauntleted hand to reach up from the depths and grab him around the chest. This sparked one last moment of panic before he was suddenly launched clear up, out, and above the water, as Rika tapped her featherfall rune, launching herself upwards and bringing Jr along for the ride, carrying the prince in a single massive metal hand.

The other hand thrust out, launching a grappling hook to spear to the bridge over the pool, before reeling both of them over to it, and letting her deposit them both safely on solid ground.

Jr fell flat on his butt as soon as he was set down, gasping even as he cursed the names of all the things that had led to the situation ”Stupid Omori. Stupid fusion. Stupid metal arm. Stupid pipe builder. Stupid brain not just using Undyne or Dazzle or anything when stuff started to go wrong. Stupid stupid stupid” and clutching his shivering metal tattooed arm.

Rika sat down next to him awkwardly, not sure what to do in this situation. She then opened her mouth to, of all things, start apologizing for helping him when he’s said not to, only to find herself pulled into a hug by jr, by her brother, and taking a few moments to work out how to reciprocate the gesture before hugging him back.

They sat like that for a few moments longer before Jr broke the hug, sniffed, and muttered an awkward ”thanks” to his sister, now looking pretty embarrassed about the whole situation, about his shows of weakness, even as his arm kept shivering.

Again, Rika didn’t quite know how to handle this, at least not till she thought about what would make her happy in this situation (how to practice empathy being another thing she’d never been taught to do either, so this was something she came up with doing entirely on her own), and as a result ended up asking ”Do you... Do you want to go get some hot chocolate?”

Jr blinked a few times, sniffed again, before tuning to her and nodding.

And that was how when the Asgor talking crew caught up with them at the station, they found Jr and Rika had spent their unsupervised time and funds going through several takeaway cups of piping hot coco.
Retracing in Ashes

Primrose’s @Yankee, Ganondorf’s @Double, Bowser and Kamek’s @DracoLunaris, Ms Fortune
Word Count: 4913 (+5)


As the group was preparing to split up, again, the previous split rejoined them. Riding across the dunes on beetle back came the troop, kicking up sand as they galloped over the seekers the rest have just traipsed over. Just above them flew Jr’s latest addition to his poke-team, the primal pokemon known as Flutter Mane to explorers of area zero, and as Peeka to the prince.

They slowed a bit as they approached, the trio of royals calling out greetings while a rather pooped looking Kamek only managed a little wave. Drained of mana from maintaining the 4 steeds all the way through their journey, the Mage dismissed them as soon as they caught up and then proceed to support himself using his broom as he said, tiredly, but with more than a hint of pride; ”and here we are, just as I said we would be”

”We miss anything?” Jr asked as his new spirit hovered around above everyone’s heads, getting a good look at them all, before adding ”You about to go see that old goat guy?”

”Some of us," Therion replied. "I for one can't wait to get topside. I'm gonna go on ahead, find the station."

”I for one could use a break, so if we could stop by the tree, I shall takes seat and try and absorb what information I can” Kamek said in response to this news, prompting the rest of the troop to say they’d come along as well.

”That reminds me,” Ganondorf brought up now that the Troop had returned, ”I believe it would be wise if we create for us a quick way to return to the flame clock in Holograd, as we may need to return to it in the future. But that can wait for now.”

Therion's arms were crossed beneath his poncho and his tail swished back and forth. He had spent most of the trek to the lake in feline form for easier traversal, but now he was back to being human. He was looking forward to leaving the Under behind like he'd said, but he also knew a deluge of water awaited in the city below - which he wasn't looking forward to. Rather than stick with the group he figured he'd get through it as fast as possible and wait somewhere secluded in a hopefully more dry train station. If his friend had been planning to see this mysterious king alone he would have reconsidered splitting, but at least one person had already mentioned sticking around up here. Primrose and Ms. Fortune could definitely handle themselves, so Therion was less inclined to say. Plus he was hardly interested in whatever revelation the king was cooking up - if it was something so important that it would directly impact the team, then they'd all hear about it later.

The thief didn't spend much more time there, moseying toward the pipe that Primrose had indicated earlier. The dancer herself gave him and anyone leaving with him a casual wave before turning back to the rest.

As tempting as it was to follow the thief’s lead, Ganondorf had already resolved to at least hear what this other king had to say before he returned to the surface. Or at the very least get Jr to create one of his warp paintings at Castle Holograd. Only after these things would he finally be satisfied enough to leave the Under.

The path that Primrose retraced was rougher than last time, but they'd all made it in one piece. She felt a little anxious, but it wasn't about to stop her from getting answers.

"Shall we?" she said.

”Yes.” Ganondorf responded, while the Troop mostly nodded in agreement

As the Seekers approached the tree, the sand underfoot changed. It became softer, darker, and colorless, not minuscule grains of silica but powdery flecks of carbon, piled higher and higher. Ascending the dune from which the ancient trunk protruded, the inquirers couldn’t help but kick the stuff into the air with every step, and as it settled on their clothes and skin a mild scent of acrid smoke suffused them. Nadia’s sense of smell might not be much better than the average human’s, but it didn’t take a bloodhound to tell what she was trudging through. “It’s ash,” she murmured, craning her neck upward. This tree, though unimaginably colossal in its own right, had clearly been burned at some point. Its charred, ruined upper reaches fell well short of Ash Lake’s cavernous ceiling, while the other archtrees penetrated through the roof. But Nadia still felt unsettled, unable to put aside the dread that gnawed at her. In this world, there were more ways to get ash than burning wood.

Still the Seekers pushed forward, approaching the crack in the trunk’s exterior through which they could enter. When they finally crested the sooty hill, they found the periphery of the great tree overgrown with small, low-lying bushes. Despite the poor soil, the prickly dark green tangles seemed to be thriving, with abundant yellow flowers in full bloom. The opening in the hollow, much taller than it was wide, still offered sufficient width for the visitors to enter two breast. Within, a bed of ash formed a shallow basin, almost completely blanketed by the flowering gorse plants. Around the center stood seven simple, cylindrical altars in hexagonal pattern, each laden with an instrument of destruction so masterfully made and visually impressive that they could all be legendary weapons in their own right: a fanged daylight greatsword, a lance of purefying light, an insectoid longbow that gleamed like emerald, a decorated staff of enlightenment, a greataxe hewn from stone dragonscale, a massive, overgrown shield of solid gold, and a thunder-crackling hammer. On the far side of the hollow, the ashes rose into a sharp incline, hundreds of feet tall and impossible steep. Atop this pale mountain stood a lonely throne, turned away from the hollow’s entrance and toward a gigantic hole in the back wall, looking out across the still, dark waters of Ash Lake. The sight left Nadia with a vague sense of awe.

In the very center of the imposing scene, dramatically positioned in its natural focal point, sat the exiled king. He looked tall and quite broad-shouldered, if his huge pauldrons were any indication, but a dark cloak, covered in the wear and tear of battle, shrouded his whole body. Only his head could be seen, his goatish, white-furred visage wreathed in shaggy hair and crowned with hooked horns. The former king of monsters sat with meditative stillness, his eyes closed as his chest slowly rose and fell.

The scene looked quite the same as the last time the Seekers had been there. Primrose didn't comment on the weapons or the ash. She had already come to the conclusion that they were the remnants of people that had come to challenge the monster king, but she didn't necessarily want to put her companions any more on guard. It was for the same reason that she didn't bring up the clock nearby - given that Asgore was alive and idle, she didn't think it likely that F had shown up here for it. They weren't looking for a fight.

Bowser did however mention the clock, but only to comment that it was a ”tough nut to crack that thing. Smashed it right out of the tree giant style, and not a scratch on it”

Ganondorf’s eyes narrowed slightly. So there was a clock here as well? Interesting. Something he’d have to remember for the future.

Primrose stepped forward, eyeing the hole in the wall for a moment before she called out to the king. "Asgore?"

His eyes opened immediately, betraying no startlement. Nadia wondered if the old king had really been in some sort of meditative trance, or just happened to be sitting there with his eyes closed, unable to be at peace. Though his white fur somewhat disguised the creases etched into his face and the sunkenness of his eyes, he looked terribly tired. Primrose mentioned that he’d been press-ganged into unwilling service for the Consuls for a long time, and looking at the old goat now, Nadia could definitely believe it. She already felt bad for disturbing him, her uneasiness not helped by the location’s pronounced intimidation factor.

It took a second longer than it should have for him to reply with a weak smile. “You’re back. I was hoping I’d see you again.” His gaze slowly turned to Nadia. “Brought a new friend, eh? Or maybe an old friend, just new to me. If you made it back, does that mean y’all did what you came for…?”

”It is done, and as a bonus so too is the infestation” Kamek confirmed before saying ”Now if you don’t mind, I shall be taking a seat as well” before doing just that, plopping down onto the ground to rest his old bones.

Finally, with noticeable reluctance, the king’s eyes settled on Ganondorf. They hold no warmth whatsoever. His expression held notes of annoyance and resignation, but more than anything else, Asgore stared at the warlord with disappointment. He sighed, his head drooping down. “You again.”

The warlord in question held no particular expression either. Not that it would be seen behind the shadow of his open helmet, ”...Pardon?” he finally asked after a long pause, ”Tis true that my reputation doth precede me. But I hath no recollection of meeting thee.” Although Ganondorf did have to admit that Asgore looked an awful lot like a certain other person that he had met. But surely that didn’t mean anything, or so he thought.

“Well, you wouldn’t. I s’pose I oughta make sure.” Asgore’s right hand pushed through his draped mantle, and as he held it up he turned it so that the back of his closed fist faced the newcomers. His eyes were hard, his focus unwavering. “The Triforce. Show it to me.”

Ganondorf allowed himself to smile a bit behind the shade of his helmet. Silently he held up his fist and revealed the glowing triangle that branded the back of it. Even in spite of the spirits he had acquired, the Triforce had remained unchanged. Finally, after a seemingly eternal pause he spoke. ”Pray, tell.” he said, ”What crime hath I done to thee, a King I hath never even heard of until this day?”

Nadia swallowed nervously, her gaze flickering between the two royals. What should have been a peaceable, even amicable encounter had taken an unexpected and very bad turn. She hadn’t considered the possibility of beef between Asgore and one of their own, though at the same time, the old goat’s hostility came across as confusing -bordering on unreasonable- given Ganondorf’s testimony, provided he wasn’t lying. “The heck’s going on?” she muttered.

Of course, Asgore didn’t hear her. His focus lay on Ganondorf, and despite the warlord’s changes the golden sigil on his hand told him everything he needed to know. “I am no king,” Asgore rumbled. The hint of down-to-earth friendliness he’d displayed earlier had evaporated completely. “Unlike you. Are you not the King of Evil? Born to kill. To conquer, to destroy, to…antagonize. Maybe ‘you’ have yet to slaughter innocents and topple nations…”

His eyes shifted downward to the twin greatswords sheathed at Ganondorf’s hip, their elaborate bronze crossguards unmistakable. “But it’s only a matter of time. I see you failed to heed my warning.” His armor clanked softly as he rose from the ground, reciting familiar words. “Here lie the ashes of the evil king who brought doom to this once-great city. Let these blades stand as a reminder that those who walk the path of evil will always be brought to justice.” At his full height, and quietly menacing, Asgore made for a daunting sight. “A bad seed will always be just that. Whenever it grows a weed in my garden, the only thing to do is pull it out.”

The Gerudo remained completely unfazed as he lowered his fist. He was not going to be intimidated, ”Aye, ‘tis true. he confirmed, ”But thou still hast not named any actual crime that I hath committed against thee.” he added, not allowing himself to show any anger or even malice at that time.

He kept his tone even. He'd been in royal courts enough times to know how to properly conduct himself. And he knew that right now, he needed to show that he was not the aggressor here. ”My quarrel is not with you nor yours.” Ganondorf said flatly, ”I come to thee only to learn more about my real enemies. Nothing more and nothing less. If there is to be war here, then it shall be you who ignites the flame, not I.”

“Yeah, hang on, let’s not fight just yet, please?” Nadia held up her hands placatingly, though she’d also taken a couple steps away from Ganondorf just in case. “We just came to ask you about something. Something you didn’t tell Primrose last time, right?”

Asgore frowned at her, clearly not pleased with her alliance with Ganondorf, but he had yet to make a move.

Being surprised at the animosity, Primrose had kept quiet and just watched. Out of all the "villains" composing their group, she trusted Ganondorf the least. However, what the dark lord said about 'real enemies' rang true. He hadn't betrayed the Seekers this entire time, clearly willing to work with whoever necessary to get to the target of his ire - this being Galeem. She didn't forget that he'd been imprisoned when he was found though, and his earlier comment about staking his claim in Gerudo Town didn't exactly sit right with Primrose no matter how destined it was for him. All in all it made Ganondorf a complicated ally, but for now an ally all the same. And besides, if he was really so dangerous then why had Asgore seen fit to imprison him, rather than add his ashes to the collection here?

Primrose took a deep breath after Ms. Fortune's words and stepped forward even more. Though it seemed Asgore's issue was with Ganondorf only, she splayed her own hands open peaceably as well.

"She's right. You promised to tell us what you knew about the true state of this world. As Kamek said, we've defeated that source of the Infection, the monster the Consuls were protecting inside the temple, and claimed its spirit. One of those Consuls, P, has also met his end by our hand." She didn't mention F, frustrated as they all were by his latest escape. "So it is done. Did you not feel it when the Guardian died?"

After a moment, Asgore allowed Primrose’s news to distract him. “You’ve done good. Just as I hoped. And I do mean to make good on my word. Had this whole little set-up going to ease you folks into it.” He scowled at Ganondorf. “But with him here, that ship has sailed. I’ll still tell you, of course. But the lesson plan’s a little different.” He extended an accusatory finger. “What crimes, you ask? Well for starters, where’s my wife? Where’s Toriel? Whenever I wander the Under, I make sure to check in on her. But when I went yesterday, I found ashes and broken shackles.”

Asgore hung his head in sorrow. “I should have killed you when I had the chance. But violence is a vicious cycle, and I wanted to end it. Figured that if I spared you, maybe things would turn out different this time.” The old king laughed mirthlessly. “All these years, and I’m still the same old fool.” He lifted his head, his expression woeful. “There’s no escaping what we are.”

Slowly, he looked between his various visitors. “So you want to know, huh? Well, I hope you’re ready.” Asgore nodded at Ganondorf. “I know he’ll do bad things ‘cause he did bad things, and he only stopped ‘cause I’m the one who stopped him.” He stared at the warlord, his gaze cold. “Our battle in Holograd. You fought something fierce. But by then, my Level of Violence was way too high.” His eyes drifted toward the holy lance, Gae Assail. “I cut you down, and I left your swords as a reminder that evil will always receive its just reward. And yet, here you are.” He chuckled. “Tell me something, folks. You ever dream…of dying, horribly?”

Something about the way he said it sent a chill down Nadia’s spine, making the hairs on her neck rise. She breathed in sharply, still as a statue.

“When you go to sleep,” Asgore continued. “How d’you know you’re the same person as when you wake up?” He shrugged. “Memories, right? And if you didn’t remember, wouldn’t every day be your first?” Once again he paused, clearly having some trouble finding the right words. “Do you all think you’re the first? The original? The bonafide one-and-only you? Well…what about those awful dreams, of losing lives you never lived?” His voice grew quiet. “What if I told you they were all completely true?”

He stared at the Seekers of Light. “Well, I hate to break it to you. You’re not the originals. Not even close. Those dreams, they aren’t just your imagination. They’re little traces of your past lives. Bugs in the system. We live, die, and live again. Over decades. Centuries. Countless lives, recycled over and over again, for ever. And ever.”

Asgore took a deep breath. “That’s why our timeframes don’t line up. That’s the World of Light. A wheel spinning in place for perpetuity, stuck fast between past and future. The Endless Now.”

”You, uh, you sure those aren't just other versions of us from other words? Because I’ve already punched another me in the face this week for being a dumb jerk. And a Guardian” Bowser asked, before also pointing out ”also it can't have been that long, because of Kirby. Galeem pulled a cheap shot on us, the lil guy got away, and then he showed up here a week ago. And he’s a hungry lil guy so he can’t have been traveling that long”

Though Asgore didn’t know what Bowser meant by ‘other versions’, he said nothing. He had no interest in arguing. The others’ acceptance hadn’t been part of the bargain; only the truth.

While Bowser questioned Asgore, Primrose had gone quiet again. Well, wasn't this a mess? So Ganondorf had killed the old king's wife, and in his anger Asgore had dropped his information on them all at once like a bomb. Primrose wasn't sure if easing into something like that would have made it any easier to take though. It was the truth as Asgore knew it though, and the dancer stood, statuesque with drawn brows and a hard expression, as she parsed the information. Dreams... she hadn't had any like that, but Therion had confessed to her just this morning that he had. The archangel Robin Goodfellow's rambling, the regret that Confessor Jiji conjured, even the words of the Organization member that had helped them seemed to fit the picture Asgore painted. Even so, Primrose hoped it wasn't really true.

By now, Ganondorf was scowling beneath the shadow of his helmet. Who did this whimpering excuse for a goat-man think he was? Spouting off absolute nonsense about dreams being memories of past lives, and somehow using that as his justification for imprisoning him? And oh yes, it seemed that this Asgore had been the one who personally shackled Ganondorf to that black egg. The warlord’s fists both became clenched and trembled with rage.

”You…” he said in a low, bestial tone. He marched right up to Asgore and fixed his malicious and hateful gaze squarely on him. But he still did not draw any weapons. At least… not yet. ”Thou art the one, who shackled me?” he demanded, his tone remaining low and full of malice, ”For crimes thou claimeth I committed in a time that I conveniently hath no memory of?”

And then his booming voice exploded, ”Thou expect me to believe thy drivel? With no proof?” Ganondorf demanded, ”Thou would command thine own wife to execute me instead of being man enough to come down and do it thyself? That is thine own fault! The price you pay for your sniveling cowardice!” and then he lowered his tone once again, almost to a whisper. ”Dread the coming days, Coward King. For after I hath slayed Galeem and his Consuls, I shall come for THEE next.”

The silence that followed Ganondorf’s tirade was heavy, the tension unbearably thick. Once the warlord had his fill of yelling and threats, Asgore began to speak.

“Fine. If that day comes, I will add you to the Clock, as well.” Asgore turned around. “None of our lives matter, not one whit.” He sighed. “In truth…I’ve seen Toriel come and go so many times. I can’t pretend I’m not numb to it all. And after all I’ve done, I can’t pretend to have any principles, either. I’ve never made the right call. Not even once.” He didn’t know it, but Ganondorf’s expression returned to its original blank state, his anger now deflated.

”We’re not so different, it seems.” the warlord replied, ”I hath no more claim to having principles than thou.” he finally admitted, ”Maybe I did once upon a time, but… that was a lifetime ago.” For all his insults toward Asgore, it didn’t change the fact that he was able to relate to him, if only for this fleeting moment.

In the quiet that followed, Nadia slowly let out the breath she’d been holding. For a moment, a fight between the two kings felt like such an absolute certainty that she’d unwittingly braced herself, her every muscle tense. With the situation seemingly defused, Nadia sighed in relief. Contending with Asgore’s words was tough enough.

”I say we destroy them.” Ganondorf suggested, ”F toldeth us that those Clocks give the Consuls their long lives. So their destruction would surely deal them a crippling blow.”

The thought of ever allying himself with Ganondorf in any capacity made Asgore scoff. “Clock’s out back,” he grumbled. “Knock yourself out.”

”Yeah if I can’t do it you sure can’t either” Bowser commented, full of self sure pride, before adding ”But sure, have a swing so I can rub your nose in your failure afterwards”

”And how, pray tell, did you go about it?” Ganondorf asked the Koopa King with an incredulous tone, ”Let me guess: thou puncheth’ed it, very very hard?” then he shook his head, ”Nothing is truly indestructible you fool. Everything has its weaknesses. The flame clocks are no exception. ‘Tis only a matter of possessing the right tool. All I need is but to find that tool.”

”Yeah, but you don’t have it, do you?” Bowser retorted with surprising smoothness, before adding that ”the magic doomsday device has a magic weakness, big whoop, not exactly a super smart take there. Seen it a dozen times” because what the Koopa King lacked in smarts, and wisdom, and general intelligence really, he sometimes could make up with raw experience.

"Oh enough," Primrose finally said, touching a hand to her temple. She narrowed her eyes at both the king of Koopas and the king of evil. "Go outside if you must continue."

Then she looked back at Asgore. "As awful as it is, what you've said... is believable. But..." she faltered, unsure what she wanted to ask. "...how do we... come back? If you know?"

The old goat seemed markedly happier once Primrose sent the bickering royals outside to take a crack at the Clock, leaving him with just her, Kamek, and Nadia for company. After turning back around, he replied. “That’s something that puzzled me for a good while. Sometimes I’d leave a ghost town, then come back the next day to find it full of people. Or somebody I’d never seen before would show up while my back was turned. After a long time, I came to believe it’s got something to do with this symbol.” He walked over and took the Gae Assail lance from its altar, then used its tip to draw in the ash. “It’s everywhere. At least one in every settlement with a Flame Clock, if you look hard enough. Always on a square tile. I’ve messed around with ‘em, but there’s nothing special about ‘em, or anything hidden beneath.” After a moment, he finished his etching. For the most part it looked like nothing more than a sun, but a slight bent to all its outward flares gave it the fleeting impression of some kind of spiral.



“...Huh,” Nadia said after a moment. She really didn’t know what to make of all this, but for some reason, she didn’t feel as bothered by the possible revelation as she maybe ought to be. Asgore’s secret inspired worry in Primrose, downplay from Bowser, and disbelief from Ganondorf, but for whatever reason the feral found herself looking on the bright side. “Well…not doubting you or anything, but if all that’s true, it’s kinda…fine? With me? Maybe even a relief. It sounds like there’s a real possibility that even if we fall, we’ll get another chance down the road.”

“Without any memory of your current life,” Asgore interjected, a little incredulous about Nadia’s attitude. “Not to mention you’ll come back ‘storied’, and have to break free all over again.”

Nadia flipped up her hands and shrugged, a carefree smile on her face. “Hey, better than nothing!”

Primrose let out a ghost of a laugh. That attitude was so very "Nadia Fortune," as the dancer had come to know her.

"I'm glad all this doesn't bother you so much. Truly." She told Ms. Fortune. She didn't look at the other woman though, just stared at the image Asgore had drawn, committing it to memory. "It doesn't sit as right with me."

But maybe the feral's positivity would rub off on her. For now though, Primrose felt a headache coming on. There was so much to think through. And she burned with curiosity about what had happened to her since being spirited away to this world in the first place. How had she died the previous time? What memories had she made that were now lost forever? Now I understand why he thought to keep this information from us.

Primrose grew quiet again for a few moments, still thinking. Then she blinked up at Asgore.

"...as unsettling as it was to hear, thank you for telling us all the same," she said.

The old goat just grunted. He’d known from the beginning that this conversation wouldn’t do anyone any good, but he’d fulfilled his word, for better or worse. A not-so-small part of him still itched to kill Ganondorf, but he knew better than anyone that such an action would be petty self-satisfaction, and not solve anything. But if he had helped the Seekers bring ruin to the Under’s Guardian, and he intended the Consuls to share in her fate, then maybe this motley crew really could tear it all down.

“...Go,” Asgore said after a moment. “And dismantle this wretched world. Good luck.”

Nadia saluted him, and after a glance at Primrose to make sure she was good to go, turned to leave.

”Well, that was not at all restful” Kamek groaned as he massaged his temples and then got back to his feet, burdened now with cursed knowledge along with his general fatigue.

”I still don’t get the kirby thing though” Bower grumbled as he too turned to go, prompting another groan for Kamek, as he then attempted to explain how traveling fast enough to outrun light itself would affect how a person experienced time. They had barely gotten started, however, before they reached the warp pipe leading down to the Home of Tears. Ganondorf joined them, having been unable to so much as scratch the fallen Flame Clock, and together the Seekers descended into the city of dark waters.

Aventon — The Fields


It was somewhat difficult to tell if her ramblings had been coherent and useful to Frankenstine, Rayne found. All she had to go off was a somewhat contemplative look. It was better than one of confusion or annoyance at least, she supposed, so she’d air on the side of optimism and hope that it had indeed helped.

A few moments after she’d finished her spiel, they’d passed through the gate and out into the farmland beyond. She’d seen it before already of course, but it was a bit different to be traveling through the wreck rather than looking down at it in a detached fashion. At least there was farm land further out that was ok.

For the moment.

At least some of it probably got hit as collateral damage as part of what happened next.

Rayne was nodding along with the farmer as he explained the issue with the animals being spread all over, and observing how there was no way to keep them back in their broken pens even if they were herded back, when Fran had an idea. One that started by pulling a massive mace out of nowhere, which was shocking to see anyone else do, and then blasting off in a mighty leap towards the beasts.

“Wait no no no we want them alive!” a panicking Ryne shouted as she started to go after Fran, misinterpreting what her plan was immensely, only for the women to call down the lightning, the thunderous explosion drowning out Rayne’s accompanying shriek of shock and fright. She wasn’t the only one spooked by this, that was for sure, as it prompted the already running about animals to do so even more, now in utter terror.

When Rayne saw Frankenstine proceed to leap and do another lighting flash to spook them in a specific direction, she did at least get what she was doing, but, well it could very much be argued whether Fran was herding the beasts, or just creating a stampede.

The witch knight blink dashed the herd and herdswoman, and, upon catching up, then shouted “Please tell me have a plan to get them to stop!” because that was very much the issue here. Despite her massive misgivings with the plan she didn’t know the specifics of (who knew whatever other powers this metallically augmented lady had after all), the little lady helped out how she could, because she couldn’t exactly stop it.

Thus she went blinking dashing here, there and everywhere, waving her hat, “yaa”ing and even body checking individual animals that weren't worth a flash of lighting. She was also very much on rescue duty, because panicked animals were not at all considerate of smaller, slower animals that might be in their way. As such a lot of her time involved things like chucking chickens out of harm's way, or blink dashing to the side with young animals in tow, lest they be trampled.
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