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DracoLunaris Member

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8 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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In World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover) → 2 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay

wordcount: 1,378 (+6)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(248/140)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(164/100)
Location: The Dead Zone


Jr childishly blew a raspberry up at O as he complained about how much the hippos had cost him, before going ”wait…” as he started to have an idea based off of said comment.

Unfortunately that thought process got interrupted by a 5 meter long alligator lunging up out of the murky water he was floating on.

He was promptly dragged down into the water by the gator, the way his shell spikes stabbed into its mouth flesh being of little consolation as it began death rolling him. What was a consolation was that the nature of the attack, crushing jaws and being rotated to death, meant that his new Stygian Turtle Shell activated almost immediately, giving him three seconds of invincibility, and his sister three extra seconds to save his hide.

Having taken their moment of respite to sharpen her Beast form’s natural armaments, Rika dove in after her brother, her 8 meter long form creating a massive splash as she did so. Over a dozen insectile limbs reached blindly in the murk till they found the beast in the swamp water, and then gripped it tight, stopping the death roll in its tracks. That still left Jr stuck under water, flailing in a blind panic due to an inherited fear of drowning, and the beast wasn’t exactly built to hold its breath either.

Still, at least she knew where the creature was now, and promptly slammed the Beast’s horns into the crocodile, knocking the wind out of it, and getting it to release her brother. Unfortunately it then immediately began to bite at her instead, clamping onto a leg and thrashing about to try and rip it free.

Up above, Jr surfaced and made a mad swim for solid ground, forgetting entirely that he could stand and sail on the water in his panic. Coughing and spluttering on all fours on the marshy ground, the boy tried in vain to get a hold of his racing heart, but there simply was no time. Behind him came splashing as the two massive creatures brawled and bit at each other in the water, yet only one was built for that, and so if he didn’t find a way to help things were not going to go well for his sister.

The prince glanced around for his paintbrush, only to find it floating atop the water, bleeding paint into the swampland, so there’d be no healing Rika from the surface, and with how murky the water was, there was too much risk of hitting her if he just fired harpoons.

He had to get back down there.

He thrust a hand into his bag, put on a set of headphones, steeled himself both figuratively and literally, and then dove back into the water wearing the form of the fish woman Undyne.

Clad in armor, the prince sank fast, and then as he drank in the water in-order to breathe it, almost choked, both on the act and on the thickness of the murk. He endured, pushed forward, spear in hand.

The thrashing in the water intensified, suddenly stilled and then after what could have felt far too long for anyone looking out for the children, both of them burst from the water, both wrenching up water from their battle in the murk

”Urgh, ugh, bleh, I, ug, really don’t like this guy now” Jr complained, as before once again glancing for his staff, and finding the ink bleed had intensified, fouling the water even more.

”I.. Huh… Oh yeah!” he said, completing the thought he’d been having when the crocodile attacked them, which was ”If he’s spending money on this stuff, let’s bleed him dry!”

”Huh? How can we bleed him if we can’t touch him?” Rika asked, briefly switching out of her Beast form to use her grappling hook to retrieve Jr’s paintbrush. The prince accepted this with a nod of thanks, before saying that his idea was ”Simple! We keep breaking all his stuff till he runs out of money!”

”Ohhhh” Rika replied, before getting right to it, promptly singing a fist around and punching the closest tree. Two more strikes broke its bark, boosted her attack speed, and then the fourth smashed clean through it, and sent it tumbling down into the mud, its branches smashing down onto the trough of vegetables in the process.

”Yeah! That’s it” Jr said, having dropped his own cassette-beast form so he could heal Rika, and then joining in on the mess making. With his left hand he swatted his paintbrush around, splattering toxic goop around and poisoning the swamp waters, while his right created iron cans of all things, which he began littering around, both actions together to make a right mess of the place.

”How do you like this, you big jerk!” he yelled up at O, only for one of the consuls' own allies to do way more damage to the enclosure than they were: The Gravemind slammed a tentacle down into the enclosure, wrecking the fences even more, and leaving a great grove in the wet earth that quickly flooded with water as it pulled back.

Thanks to all the speed boost buffs, the kids got out of the way with ease, but the danger didn’t end there, as rushing out of the groove as it flooded came a wave of infector forms, all of them scuttling towards an undead mutant hippo that Blazermate had made. Given that they’d ended up on the other side of the groove from it, the koopa kids were not in danger immediately, but if they got to the hippo, that’d be a problem for sure.

”We gotta stop those!” Jr called out as he formed a flurry of iron knives and began to launch them towards the infected. He mitigated the potential risk of friendly fire by having the knives fly above the infectors, and then pivot 90 degrees in the air to lance down on top of them, showering them with a rain of falling metal.

Rika followed suit with the targeted attack method, launching a shocker swarm from her gauntlet hangers, which buzzed forwards and discharged electricity into the mass of infectors, while also having her scout planes dive down to do strafing runs against them.

As they did this, Jr breifly stabbed his paintbrush down into the mud to free up his other hand, and then blindly grabbed and tossed a pokeball at a fallen tree. The orb bounced once, and then released Peeka, his fluttermane, who he commanded to ”Blast those freaky things!” This prompted her to fire plasma bolts after the infectors, the mon artfully triggering the shot’s splitting ability to have its twin bolts to split apart and hit pairs of targets on either side of her shot, again preventing the risk of said shots flying onward to accidentally hit Blazermate.

It was this set of assets and powers on the field that gave Jr another idea, and so, after the infestor situation was resolved one way or the other, he set this new plan into motion.

”We can’t hit O, but he can still see us, so let’s make trying to even look at us a pain!” he called out in suggestion, before first getting Rika to send up a diversion swarm from her hangers, the electrical fireflies buzzing up to flash and blink in front of O’s eyes in a very annoying accuracy reducing fashion, and then sending Peeka to be a menace to the elderly.

The pokemon drifted up as close as it could to the Consul, and then used Dazzling Gleem in his light of sight, causing a bright pulse of light to flash from her necklace of energy eyes. Whether the offensive fairy light would work to harm O through whatever projection method he was using was debatable, but Jr was quite sure that having a bright light flashed in your face would be annoying. As would having the ghost pokemon subsequently floating around in front of O, pulling faces and “flutter flutter flutter!”-ing as she did so.

”Come on, get mad, and buy stupid expensive stuff in stupid places” Jr quietly urged O, while both he and his sister kept on their toes be ready to deal whatever financial investment the old man made next.
In Nerves In Carbonox: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay → 2 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Rose


Nero wasn’t the only one marveling at the ship the shuttle was approaching, though with the presence of a contingent of engineers onboard that should hardly be surprising. Something interesting that could be gleaned from this, however, was the way that more or less all the Rosnians were set chattering by the sight, marking most of them as engineers. The sound of their chattering would have been described by a 21st century human as sounding exactly like some cheesy b movie alien would make, unaware that the beings before them were very much responsible for that trope due to their ancestor’s abductions and experiments on humans.

At any rate, there was one exception to the nerding out over the vessel, and that was the older lady who saw it as the absurd resource investment that it was, and thought only of how much would have had to be sacrificed to make it possible. An investment and sacrifice she wondered just how long they could endure making.

Still, she didn’t throw a damper on her people’s enthusiasm for the marvel of technology, and especially not that of her daughter’s, Rose’s third eye giving her just the right amount of attention to indicate that yes, she was paying attention, even as most of the technical terms went over her head.

She genuinely wasn't bord or faking attention however, it was always nice to listen to She Who Notices The Little Things In Life And Sets Them Right (who went by Fixi when humans asked) talk about something that excited her, and so she was paying plenty of attention to respond when her daughter said “and to think that She By Whose Hands We Will Forge A New Age Of Wonders has had a hand in it! It is just so amazing! I can’t wait to see her again”

“Neither can I” the woman who was ever so proud of her daughter (who went by Val when humans asked) replied, before telling her other daughter that she was also ever so proud of that “as soon as we’re settled we’ll need to organize time to see her”

As it turned out, such an formality was not necessary, as the pair were ambushed by Val right as they were coming down the ramp (a fairly easy task given that the humans loomed over them all and how she’d had to weave between them all to get to them)

The trio embraced, foreheads touching as part of the hug (which, due to gesture needing them to close their third eyes, was one of great trust and affection) and then broke apart as they began chattering in their native tongue.

“My child! I hadn’t expected to see you here. Do they not have you working?” Rose asked, which got her a negative ear wiggle in response from Val, who then explained “They do, but we got everything sorted for you in advance so I could come greet you. They insisted. It's a human thing to welcome people right when they show up apparently”

“A good human thing then, though it is sad this will be such a short reunion” Rose replied, her third eye having seen both the engineers moving off and the lieutenant preparing to address the Pilots.

Rose pivoted and snapped to attention, ears up and alert, while her daughters stepped behind her. What followed was a very… interesting introduction to the people she’d be working under.

While Ritsu Kaname seemed like very typical human military personnel, she was entirely bemused by the comment about brothels made by the Professor. Rose had been around humans a fair bit, and so she thought she knew a lot more than average about how their body language and the ‘tone’ they used to communicate verbal intent worked than the average Rosnian. Here and now she was, however, entirely stumped and could not tell if this was some kind of joke, an attempt at hazing, or if he was actually flirting with her.

As such she just smiled at him, mouth spreading wide enough to reveal the 2 extra sets of pointed teeth her kind had, while fixing him with a three eyed stare. Smiling was, notably, not a Rosnian thing, and their attempts at it sometimes made humans uncomfortable, especially with the extra teeth. In Rose’s case this was an entirely intentional mixed signal. The way she looked at him with all three eyes (an act normally reserved for threat assessment) meanwhile made it clear, to her daughters at least, that she did nor approve of this man.

Given that she worked around him, Val felt the need to drop in the flimsiest of defenses, quietly saying that he was “He’s a bit eccentric” the last word being a human tongue rather than their own due to a lack of an equivalent term.

Rose would have had words about that later, but she tentatively accepted the explanation with a flick of the ear and dropped the fake smile, while her eye began idly roaming around again, inspecting her fellow pilots, and only periodically flicking over the pair of superiors as they kept speaking.

As such she picked up on the Marques’ subtle gestures, Zane’s wince and heavy breathing, and Elora’s trembling though she received little idea what any of them ment at the instinctual level the third eye was operating at. It also, for some reason, kept looking at Minerva for uncomfortable long stretches of time, as if seeing something it couldn’t quite put its metaphorical finger on.

The sudden change in the professor’s disposition at the end when looking at the white haired woman certainly didn’t help Rose work out what it had been so interested in, but she did mentally file it away for later. Top priority was Elora, because that was the worst case of pre-battle jitters she had ever seen in a human.

Still, while some of the others addressed that directly, adding extra crowding wasn’t going to help at all. Nor was focusing everything on her either, so after reminding her daughters “Don’t stare” she did her best to soothe some fears without, specifically, singling out the person who was gripped the most by them.

Admittedly her style of doing this was, well, somewhat unconventional. Mainly because Ronsian’s lack of natural tone modulation made them sound energetically, bordering on manically, chipper about anything and everything they said, something Rose tended to very much lean into rather than attempt to mitigate.

“Enthusiastic: I’ve heard of these! Will be good to make our mistakes before meeting the enemy!” she began, and then in the exact same enthusiastic tone said “Serious: But if it will feel like the real thing, I’ll treat it that way” before insisting “Confidence: So I, Rose, will be making sure each and everyone of you makes it back alive!”

Val’s ears perked up at that, thinking it might work, while Fixi’s drooped a little.

In her capacity as part of her mother’s pit crew, the younger of Rose’s remaining daughters had heard the woman make and then fail to keep that promise one too many times. As such she knew just how much each failure weighed on her mother and none weight more than the first.

That was, however, exactly why she kept making that promise.
In World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover) → 2 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay

wordcount: 1,679 (+6)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(242/140) (+5) (+5) (+3) (+5)
Rika: Level 10 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(158/100) (+5) (+5) (+3) (+5)
Location: The Dead Zone


Jr and Rika mostly stuck to the center of the pack while exploring the maze. Not really because they wanted to, both wanted to go off and explore a bit too, but because Jr was more or less stuck on healer duty, and thus Rika was stuck there right alongside him.

She, at the very least, made that job a bit easier on him, as she made extensive use of the Beast’s tape, flicking into it whenever they got attacked, and biting the life out of the floodfested in it. Literally, as said bites healed her for half the damage she inflicted, and thus meant Jr didn’t need to expand mana to keep her topped up on health after she’d finished trading blows with them.

Eventually the maze came to an end, and they were confronted with the door, the creepy watching floodfested (which Rika used to full heal after it became clear they weren't gonna fight back), and finally the reveal of three Consuls waiting for them in the region’s boss arena.

”Oh come on! That’s not fair! At least fight us one at a time in a boss gauntlet!” Jr threw up his hands to complain about this state of affairs, while Rika wondered why they were standing around letting the Consus say their pieces instead of just shooting them in the face right away.

Before she could action that idea however, their foes made their opening move, summoning all the floodfested from outside into the room to join those inside in the act of turning themselves into a giant pile of meat. The kids started to try and destroy them, but when it became clear that that wasn’t going to happen, they yelled a quick plan and set about making a little addition to the pile..

Junior first tossed his paintbrush to Rika, and then tossed the girl herself, who proceed to slam down explosively into the doorway using her new H3AD-5T boon, briefly clearing it before whipping around with her splattershot and the paintbrush, coating the threshold to the room burning goop. This didn’t stop the floodfested’s suicide run, but it did mean that they got their feet coated in goop and started tracking it across the floor. Under conventional physics, this should have just left a light smear and messed up just the first few ranks of runners, if it weren't for the goop’s ability to generate swoopin status, the jellyfish like blobs who burst into more goop when they died (via being trampled or hurling themselves at floodested).

And so the more they spread the goop across the floor in a trail towards the forming mound, the more goop was produced in turn, and the more goop was produced, the more of the floodfested got covered in it, and the more that got covered in it, the more of the burning goop ended up inside of the resulting towering Gravemind. Rika added more by hopping up into the air and blasting and splashing more goop down ontop of the runners, till they where all past them and had merged themselves, and a whole heaping of goop, into the Guardian they had come here to destroy: the Gravemind

”Let’s see how you like heartburn, you big weirdo!” Jr called over at the distant titan, despite having not had that much to do with the plan to make that happen. He hadn't been idle while his sister did all the work however.

Placing his right arm on his left shoulder, the surface of it bristled, revealing the entire length of it to be covered in a dozen hedgehogs worth of small metal spikes he’d produced after giving up on floodfested murduring. As a finishing touch, he caught his paintbrush as Rika tossed it back to him before quickly running it over the bed of nails, coating the spikes with more burning goop, before selecting his target

”And now you, get down from there and come fight us!” he yelled up at the hovering O, before unleashing all of the shards at once, unleashing a veritable storm of iron spikes, shotgunning them up at the Consul.

Somewhat to his dismay, each and every single one of them failed to hit anything, the hail of spikes impacting the wall behind the Consul. Not a lick of paint left on the eyes despite dozens having passed right through them, nor had they revealed any sort of invisible solid part anywhere close to them.

"Hmph! Did you think it'd be that easy?" the Consul retorted, briefly fixing the boy with a stare of contempt.

Jr recovered quickly from this failure, deducing that ”Ha, you’re not even really here you wuss!” before tauntingly yelling ”What’re you gonna do, huh, just watch us win from up there?”

Rika was about to point out that it would be pretty silly of O to declare he’d be their doom when he couldn’t do anything, only for O to proceed to do something that seemed very silly. But only at first.

Namly, before his eyes, a 2 meter all iron fence was erected behind the koopa kids (and anyone else who’d come to face him down) before yet more was spawned, being built section by section into a square around some of the seekers, literally fencing them in. Then, grumbling and muttering to himself unintelligibly, O started to change the ground beneath them, painting the terrain into a muddy wetland, including pools of deep, dirty water right beneath their feet. Finally several trees sprouted up as well, along with a trough full of vegetables, completing the enclosure they were now fenced inside of.

”I don’t… what?” Rika said, dumbfounded by this unorthodox strategy, thought to be fair she and her brother were mostly unaffected by the wet terrain that had left them simply floating atop one of the pools.

Others would have bigger issues with the terrain modification, naturally, though what did not have any issue with the train were the enclosure’s intended inhabitants, which O proceeded to pop down several of in quick succession, now truly completing his creation.

”Huh, are those deflated Hoppo?” Jr asked, referring to the pink bounce platforms from the Flower Kingdom, having never before seen an actual regular Hippopotamouse before. He then started to ask ”what are those supposed to do?” only to cry out in alarm as one of the most dangerous animals on earth spotted the intruders in their 5 star enclosure and started charging towards them, mouths opening wide to reveal massive sharp teeth backed up by crushing jaws.

Rika promptly shot one, but the bulky beasts that could give many fantastical monsters a run for their money cared little for small arms fire, and were swiftly upon them.

The one Rika had shot promptly went to try and crunch its jaws down on the short girl who had shot it, only for its jaws to find chitinous scales filling its mouth instead of the entire ship girl, as said girl flicked on a tape recording and became the towering centipedal Beast. As the Beast, Rika arched her long neck around and promptly chopped her fangs into the hippo’s flank, biting a chunk out of it that caused the cracks in her armor to regrow as she healed for half the vitality she’d just drained.

Still, it was a tough beast, and so that wasn’t even close enough to take it down, leaving the now grappled Rika open to further attack.

Neither she nor her brother would allow that however.

Strikers where deployed, the Vespid Ichor Queen and the fist of Blodia appearing and delivering a devastating cleaver chop and bone shattering punch respectively with weapons as large as the hippos where, and there was no enduring that.

Jr meanwhile used his borrowed shipgirl floatation ability to sail around the hippo that came for him, painting goop onto its flank, poisoning the beast, while also forming several spears that he proceeded to launch into its side, driving the deadly goop deeper into it. Rika did much the same to the one grabbing her, breathing globules of poison directly into the bleeding wound she’d bitten in its flank.

After cackling at the sight of the cage match of carnage for a few moments, O floated off and promptly topped the absurdity of his opening move by spawning in a barnyard bash ride next to the hippo enclosure. This quint farmyard themed merry-go-round quickly proved itself to be from a not at all reputable carnival ground as it rapidly spun up to speeds far faster than its own maximum tolerances, before launching the vehicles mounted on it outwards as four large projectiles, two of them crashing straight through the fence and into the hippo enclosure.

Spotting this coming, Jr leapt up and, using Roxas’ flowmotion to guide his parkour, planted a foot on the hood of the tractor and used that to leap even higher, getting the height to clear its exhaust to still be above as it the trailer whipped on by below him.

He landed in a puddle with a splash, only for them to come a crash behind him as the tractor barreled into Rika and the hippo that had had her grabbed. Still, both where big and tough, and so both survived the collision, though while Rika rose up the hippo failed to do so, the Beast’s venom sapping the last of the life from it.

The Hippo that had attacked Jr still had some life in it despite its own poisoning, but all that meant that it was ripe for the eating as Rika scuttled through the mud towards it, falling upon it with a series of bites to restore her HP, while Jr held his mana in reserve for anyone without self healing abilities.

Still, while they had dealt with O’s opening gambit there was no indication he’d stop at building just two attractions, ”So how the heck do we stop him from making more if he’s untouchable?!”

“You cannot!” O cut in to declare, before gleefully stating that “I can toy with you however I wish”
In World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover) → 3 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
The Statue Calls

Ft. Juri, Edelgard and Edward
Words: 3813 (+4 exp) (+2 rapport)


After the seekers had gotten to the Scarlet Swamp they got a little chance for some rest. Most of them. For a pair of them, whispers only they could hear prevented any relaxation from being had.

Edward had heard them since his arrival, and had intentionally followed them with weary interest, wading through swamp water with hands firmly placed on hilts of weapons in anticipation of this being some kind of trap.

They lead him to the island upon which Miss Fortune had tried to wash herself, but by then both she and her companion had abandoned the spot that led him too, leaving only a pool of diluted blood as evidence of her attempt. Instead, he found only the source of the whispers, a talllion-headed statue holding a massive hourglass.

He paused for a moment, examining the artifact with a clinical eye, blood dripping from his wings and clothes, before movement to his right caused him to tense and shift it. He did not find an enemy there however, but instead the armored form of Edelgard causing him to relax, hands moving away from his weapons, and for him to instead rais one in greeting.

”Well met. I’m glad to see you made it out of that gauntlet as well”

Edelgard nodded, eyes focused on the statue before the pair. ”Indeed. It was a…most frustrating experience, if I am to be blunt with you. I hope that your ascent was less unpleasant, at least.” The small talk was helping to keep her mind off of the frustration of being frozen within the Sepulcher, but it could not break her gaze from the statue.

”Another of this tree’s mysteries, you think?” She suddenly spoke after a few moments. ”I noticed that we are the only two so…drawn…to this thing.”

”Hordes and an unkillable hunter, horrors both” Edward replied to the first question, before saying that ”and now this regal statue that would seem rather out of place if not... well…” as he gazed up at the piece of art before them before he glanced at her and asked to confirm ”I assume you hear the whispers too?”

Edelgard let out a huff of air, nodding imperceptibly. ”Were it not for the peculiarities of this place, I’d have thought myself mad. I assume the two of us being the latest additions to this group has something to do with it?” She mused, still staring at the statue. Why was it calling to them? What did it want?

”Hey Ed,” She said, ”If you two like this statue so much, why don’tcha marry it?” She dropped down from where she had been watching. Setting a hand on her hip she balanced on one foot, hooking the other behind. Truth be told she had been hearing whispers, too, but, like, who didn’t? But more than one person hearing voices from the same source was something to investigate.

Edward suppressed a sigh as he turned to face the quarrelsome streetfighter, and then tried to avoid being derailed from the topic at hand, saying ”I suppose that throws a wrench in that theory, unless you joined only somewhat recently as well? Before us, naturally, but how long before?”

”I dunno when you guys joined, you’re all so forgettable. But I was a little over a week ago.” She said.

Edelgard did not suppress her sigh when Juri approached, not looking forward to her intrusion. Thankfully, however, this time her ‘barb’ was more of a juvenile teasing than anything meant to actually rankle a person. ”Regardless, we ought to do something. Does it want us to call out to it? Touch it? I suppose we do not have overly long to wait to test our theories.” And with that, she strode confidently up to the statue and placed her hand upon it.

For a few moments, her vision flashed white and red, before returning to reality. She gasped as the xylem slowly flowed from her arm onto the statue, pooling into a large bubble that floated between her and it. Leaving her hand there, Edelgard watched as her armor was cleansed of the bloodlike substance, which floated into the statue and disappeared. ”How odd…” She muttered, stepping back.



”Even if that is all it does, then this meeting will have been worth it. These wings have already proven a nightmare to keep clean” Edward said as he stepped forwards to touch the same statue, and he too was cleansed of the tree’s stolen vitality. Then he stepped back, blinking as if he’d been blinded by a flash. He waved a hand before his eyes and then looked into the distance, before saying that ”Odd certainly describes it. I think my vision just got sharper?”



”Haaah?” Juri put her fists on her hips and leaned forward, taking a big couple steps before she plopped her hand on the statue. The blood was absorbed from her as well. But in her mind’s eye, she was taken back to her first kill when she was still a freshly orphaned teenager prowling the rainy streets of the criminal underworld in Seoul. Then the one after that, and after that, and after that. Everything she did for SIN and Shadaloo. That long day when she scoured the entire research division of everyone who knew about Seth and the Feng Shui Engine. Every life she’d ever taken. But she didn’t get the impression the statue was judging her. Just acknowledging it, and taking it, and turning it into strength she had yet to remember. The others would see each life represented by a small orb of blood that left Juri’s hand and travelled into the statue, the victim dimly reflected in the orb itself. There was probably a little more than fifty orbs in total.



Juri pulled away her hand and looked at her palm, now clean of blood. ”What the hell?” She asked. But she couldn’t deny, she was brimming with restored power. ”Let’s just hope this lion statue isn’t a snitch.” She looked at the other two.

”You’re tellin’ me neither of you saw anything?” She asked.

Edward glance up at her from where he was checking over one of his floating tomes, one that looked like it could be used as a weapon thanks to the spike lining it, with a questioning look.

”Nothing specific” he replied, before the commander gave it a moment more thought and saying that ”there was something of a blur, as if something was attempting to be communicated, but no discernible details came through” and then asking ”why? Did you see something clearer?”

”I likewise only saw flashes of color. White and red. I have little idea as to what it meant.” Edelgard added, somewhat confused. What did Juri see that they did not?

Juri looked between them. ”I saw every chump I ever merked.” She said, and then cast her eyes upon her own hands. ”Guess the statue didn’t mind all the killin’, though. Hell, I feel stronger for it.”

She set a hand on her hip. ”Either you two goodie two shoes have never killed anyone, or…” She trailed off, letting the implication hang.

The look on Edelgard's face was a mixture of bemusement at being called a ‘goodie two shoes’ and horror at what her empty flashing vision had meant. ”Indeed.” She simply replied, turning away and steeling her gaze.

Edward’s meanwhile was a stern mask, the man effortlessly hiding whatever it was he felt at this revelation, yet not quite well enough to disguise the fact that that was what he was doing. ”I am exactly what I appear to be” the man in military dress holding a tome with which he conjured weapons of war explained simply, before snapping the book shut and moving to affix it back at his hip.

Juri let out an appreciative whistle. ”Mrs and Mr Geneva Suggestion over here! What’s your favorite type of township to raze?”

”Where were you raised?” Edelgard replied with a cold glare, before rolling her eyes and continuing without giving Juri a chance to respond. ”I did what was necessary to root out those who had forced innocent people to toil under an unjust system, hiding a shadow war beneath the noses of an entire continent, all to maintain the last dying throes of the power they once had. And I will do the same to Galeem.”

Juri’s grin widened, feeling like she touched a nerve. ”Oh, forgive my manners, your majesty. Don’t throw me to the lions! You’re right, I’m sure all those dead people are super grateful you came in to save them.”

”and do you consider the deaths at your own hands just, or did you needle them to death with endless provocation for your own amusement?” Edward stepped in to ask, more to diffuse Juri’s attention than to get her to lay off.

Juri swivelled, leaning forward. ”Nah, I killed ‘em cuz I wanted to. Though I’m sure if I asked them, they’d say they were only doing what was necessary.” Juri winked.

”and if you were in our boots, with armies, cities, a whole nation at our beck and call, would you do the same? Kill whoever you wanted too simply because you felt like it?” the man replied, hands folded behind the small of his back as he stared her down.

Juri shrugged, making a face. ”Meh, too much work. I’m not the world-conquering type. Plus, I prefer to kill people with my own hands. Just seems like the decent thing to do.” She added cheekily.

”I will not pretend that what I did was good. Only that it was necessary for people to live a life of their own choosing, rather than being suppressed by hidden societies carrying out a millenium-long war. And if you think I took no pleasure in ending the people who tortured me and turned me into a living weapon, you are as much a fool as you've made yourself out to be already.” Edelgard replied, her voice steady and emotionless.

”I do not need your approval of my actions to assuage my conscience, I assure you. Some of the others gathered here may fancy themselves heroes or champions, but I've a feeling you think yourself their better for your lack of restraint. Such narcissism ill suits a woman of your talents.” Letting out a short breath, Edelgard turned away, a distant look on her face. This woman reminded her of a less magnanimous Ferdinand, though she was just as self-aggrandizing.

Juri raised her hands placatingly, making an exaggerated face of surprise. ”Hey, you’ll get no arguments from me, princess! I’m sure you had a grand old time. That’s why I asked. Not often I get to chat with a fellow carnage enthusiast.”

She took a few steps forward, swooping around Edelgard’s side. ”And so ambitious. And you hate a secret society, too? We have so much in common! Why don’tcha like me, huh?!” Juri asked, pouting.

”I can hardly guess” Edward said with a straight face as he stepped around Edelgard’s other side to keep track of the young woman, and in so doing making circling her like some kind of street shark that much more awkward.

Juri was suddenly in Edward’s face, her eyes bulging. ”She’s a big girl, I think she can handle little ol’ me.” She whispered. ”Maybe you’re just trying to make up for something.” She said with an unimpressed shrug, backing off.

She turned to walk away, raising a hand in a flippant goodbye wave. ”Have fun reminiscing about the good old days, Eds! Don’t lemme get in yer way.”

Once Juri was well out of earshot, Edelgard sighed. ”That woman is insufferable. And I have more than enough to ‘make up’ for than she could begin to fathom.” Gritting her teeth, Edelgard whirled on Edward, before slowing to compose herself. ”Though, I must thank you for attempting to take her attention off me. She is simply a nuisance, and I wonder if she realizes it, or she believes herself clever for managing to get a rise out of us?”

”I spent far too much time trapped in a forest with her and an unkillable mass of bodies, and she was more of a threat to my sanity than it by quite some margin” Edward quipped in response, leaving out the two rogues who had has seen neither hide nor hair of due to their talents. He added that it was ”most certainly not a fate I want someone else to endure, particular when she had latched onto something so… personal” before leaving the floor open for her to vent about or withhold what it was she had made up for, at her own discretion.

Edelgard hummed, nodding. ”I can scarcely imagine how miserable that must have been, Commander. I suppose I should count myself lucky with regards to those I encountered on the scent of this demonic tree.”

Taking the hint, he made no effort to pick up that dropped subject, and pointed the conversation towards the future, saying ”I expect once she is distracted by the chance to commit violence again that’ll be the last we hear of her on the rest of the climb other than the odd bit of inflammatory yelling that the din of battle should mostly drown out” as he scanned the room with his sharpened sense of sight, spotting and then pointing out that ”and there does at least seem to be a path heading upwards. So perhaps we’ll be able to ascend in a more coordinated fashion this time?”

”That would be nice. I grow weary of these strange challenges we face, in limited numbers. I would much rather overwhelm our enemies with unstoppable numbers and power, rather than have to guess at what strange manner of fighting we will need to employ to win.” Nobody ever called her a tactician, that was for sure. ”You remind me of my retainer, Hubert. Only much less…dour in outlook. It might have been easier to get a demonic beast to smile than that man.”

Proving that point, that certainly got a smile from the man, who guessed that ”I take it he was the sort of man to foresee every possible bad outcome? That certainly has its values in a strategist, as long as there is some counter balance”

”He was. After the attack that destroyed Arianrhod, he drafted a letter to release to our enemies should I be felled in battle, giving the location that he determined the weapons had been launched from. It took some time, but he was a military and magical genius, if a bit stone-hearted. He had to be, to do what we did.” Sighing, Edelgard shook her head. ”I look forward to the day I can see him again. If only to have a truly loyal face around. Not that you haven’t been pleasant conversation thus far, but we’ve known each other only a day.”

”Of course” Edward replied matter of factly, along with a slight nod in additional agreement. ”Still, I have so far found your company entirely agreeable. A steady ship in a lake of… eccentricity” he said, choosing the word politely rather than carefully because they were ”competent, certainly, but from different worlds than you and I. More than just literally I mean. This is perhaps the most adhocly run force I have ever been a part of, save perhaps the one that was meant to save my world before Galeem so rudely interrupted our attempt. Some of them where already well past it before starting to style themselves as ‘Godir’ of that I’m sure”

Edelgard let out a small chuckle at Edward’s description of their compatriots. ”Indeed. I am used to people of a much more military bent, whereas this group is very cobbled together from whomever they could find. I understand the reasoning, but it has resulted in a very eclectic group nonetheless.”

”Indeed” Edward agreed, before suggesting ”I suppose we shall simply have to lead from example in the professionalism department”

Shaking her head, Edelgard gave another mirthless chuckle. ”I feel that might be a fool’s errand, Commander. Regardless, let us join the others, it appears that the time has come to mobilize.” Nodding at the group, which had begun to stir and move out, Edelgard likewise followed.

”I suppose, but what else is there to do but try?” Edward asked, only for Edelgard’s point to be hammered down by a tiny turtle yelling ”hurry it up slow pokes!” at them from the exit of the chamber, prompting him to gave a sigh that turned into a slight, genuinely amused, chuckle at the absurdity of it all and add ”If only for the sake of attempting to maintain our own dignity”

”Whatever dignity I had died in the mud, Commander. I have only spite left.” She sighed, rolling her eyes at Junior as she broke into a light jog. The shuffling and clinking of armor heralded her every step.

”Mine alone then” Edward said, only to himself, and then moved to follow, the more lightly armored man catching up and then keeping pace while his mind switched gears to strategizing army compositions.
In Nerves In Carbonox: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay → 3 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay



In World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover) → 3 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Two Women Scorned

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (132/140), Midna
Word Count: 3427 (+4) (+4 rapport)


After some time off, and some folks getting out, the seekers were on the road again. Or trail. Or really on the spelunking path when you got down to it, because neither the tree itself nor the floodfested were particularly interested in providing a straight forward route into the Qliphoth’s upper reaches.

Case and point were the massive valves in the biological structure, tough as vault doors and always placed at the most inconvenient points, as well as being spots that whatever intelligence controlled the swarm had delighted in setting up ambushes. There were enough heroes on hand to slaughter the Floodfested before they could call for backup, though, so the bigger concern for Ms Fortune was the opened valves’ resemblance to large lamprey-like mouths, which gnawed at her lingering phagophobia.

For the most part the biological mechanisms for opening these blockades provided little challenge, but in one early case, after whipping the floor with the monsters that had tried and failed to crush the Seekers in these choke points, the associated puzzle did not turn out to be located in plain view of the door.

Various tunnels snaked off from the tricky valve’s main chamber, including one that lead into a ruined chunk of some kind of high tech facility, though it was only large enough to roll a large ball through, rather than crawl in any practically distinguished manner. Well unless you were a child, however Midna, who had found said hole, wasn’t exactly a fan of the idea of sending the koopa kids crawling through no matter how tough they were, because even for Bowser Junior id’d be a squeeze with his hard shell. After a moment she did however come up with a different candidate based on recent interactions with them.

”Miss Fortune?” the princess(who was hanging from the ceiling from her shadow hand to inspect the duct that halfway up the wall) ”Do you think you can get your bits and pieces in here? If you do I can ride your shadow and we can see if the meat buttons have grown into this ruin?”

By this point the team had been trekking long enough that even Nadia’s motor mouth was running on empty, so when Midna hung down to say hello the feral didn’t mind turning her attention away from Ace for a bit. “In there?” Nadia hopped up to grab hold of the ledge and inspect the opening. She was no stranger to squeezing through vents when it came to heists, but these days she wasn’t quite as skinny as she’d been in her vagabond era. Her head would fit with room to spare though, and while she would be loathe to dispatch her noggin on a solo mission in a hellish place like this, Midna’s company offered a little more assurance. Plus, Midna coming to her for help felt pretty nice–no doubt their battles had shown just how capable the catgirl was!

“Yeah, sure! Good thing I’m not claw-strophobic, eh?” She swiveled her head around then waved goodbye to the others with her ears. “Be right back. Won’t be a meowment!” Then she rolled her head backward off her shoulders and into the duct upside-down, where she used her ears to walk. Meanwhile her body dropped back down, detached her tail, and began to dance.

The farther the duo got in the vent, though, the less happy-go-lucky Nadia became–inwardly, at least. As demonstrated by the team’s various encounters throughout the demon tree, the Qliphoth had consumed a great variety of detritus from Redgraccoon City when it first grew. Now, with the city destroyed, the Qliphoth was a literal vertical slice of the Dead Zone itself, housing everything from demons and zombies to ghosts and goblins, with a healthy -or rather, unhealthy- dose of extraterrestrial parasites to boot. Nadia had never seen an area like this before, though. While it still seemed high-tech from the perspective of these two Seekers, the facility they were infiltrating was a far cry from the clean, sheer, well-lit metallic interior of Alcamoth, or the militaristic utilitarian style of the Avenger. Instead a strange smell filled the air, and deposits of unidentifiable meat grew along the seams and cracks in the duct like mold. When Nadia’s head finally reached an opening, she hopped down into a hallway of bizarre and macabre design, equal parts ghoulish and alien, all hewn from some unidentifiable material in unmistakably organic shapes.

“Huh. That’s new,” the feral remarked, struggling to think puns that might suit this unsettling environment. The floor in here was tilted, making her wonder if this whole area would be a little off-kilter. The more pressing concern was the fleshy mold. She looked around, raising an eyebrow. “Midna? You can come out now. Mind carrying my head? I’ve got no-’body’ else.”

Like a demon called, the princess appeared, monochrome form stretching up out of the feral’s shadow before the vibrant red and gold was painted across her armor as she solidified fully and her heels clacked against the tilted ground. Claws of purple energy snapped out of them, preventing her from sliding down the corridor as she took it all in.

”Can’t remember dreaming about a place like this, not that they were ever that exact. Blurred nightmares those two, except for the start and the end” Midna said as she crouched down and picked up Nadia’s (living) severed head. It took a few moments for her to figure out how to actually hold her in all her arms, resulting in her placing two hands on either side of the neck and holding her up in front of her chest.

”There, if that works? Or would you prefer the back of the neck like a kitten?” she asked with a light tease as she summoned up her shield in one of her remaining free hands to let her better defend her cargo if need be. The head was a little less than she’d hoped for assistance wise, but the lady’s strikers would be a help if nothing else.

“This is fine. The more stable, the better,” Nadia reported. “If something comes at us, just chuck me at ‘em. I’ll head ‘em off.”

”Will do” princess replied as they set off down the corridor

At one end of the hallway sat a strange chair festooned by scraps of skin like Spanish moss, wholly unsuitable for any humanoid occupant. At the other end, past what looked to Nadia like a trough of ground beef, lay a decently-sized room. The growths in here were extreme, and strange organisms the size of human heads clung to the dangling masses like polyps. Repelled by the disturbing sight, Nadia failed to suppress a shudder, even though the rest of her wasn’t here right now. “Ugh…what’re we looking for, again? Some kinda switch?” Her eyes fell on what looked like a some kind of console with a number of lit and unlit nodes arranged around a system of rotating connectors. “Uh oh…that looks like a puzzle.” Nadia grimaced. When it came to logic puzzles, Nadia Fortune was the wrong girl to ask.

”I’ll take that over more meat monsters. Maybe it’ll even be fun?” Midna replied, before taking a second glance at all the twisted machinery and revolting growths and making groan that made it clear she had a hard time believing her own statement

”Whoever built this place probably wouldn’t know what that is with all this grey. Still, might open a way forwards or reveal a hidden chest?” she said instead, approaching and using one of her secondary hands to interact with what seemed to be a controller on the right hand of the device ”Let’s see, what do you do”

The controls weren’t immediately obvious, but with a little trial and error they turned out to be relatively simple. A button could be pressed to change which of the four nodes was currently active, and around the button were two dials. The outer dial would rotate the rod attached to the currently active node, while the inner dial would rotate the node itself. Once each rod pointed to the correct dial, that node would light up, but any node connected to another would rotate it if it itself was rotated. Nadia stared at the intricate device as the rotation of rods and nodes caused lights to flicker on and off, thoroughly baffled. After about fifteen seconds she lifted her eyebrows and blinked a couple times, shaking her head. “Ahem! Well, seeing as I don’t have any hands to fiddle with, why don’t I just, uh, keep watch? Set me down somewhere reasonably clean, will ya?”

”Hmmm? Oh” Midna replied, the expression of confusion mixed with focus on her face obscured by her helmet being wiped away by a few blinks. She glanced around, saying ”lets see” and finding nowhere that really, truly, counted as clean, before coming up with an Idea.

A moment later she’d summoned up her Darknut, and had it hold its shield out in front of it horizontally like a serving tray, onto which she popped the feral’s head, before saying ”There, that should work. You can even order it to serve you up in whatever direction you’d like” before returning to fiddling with the dials somewhat ineffectually. During her stint of dungeon crawling, she hadn’t exactly been the one figuring out the last step of the puzzles most of the time.

Nadia gave the skeletal juggernaut a dubious glance from her new perch. “A little knight-marish, but I’ll take what I can get.” She took the chance to scope out the room, but there was not much she particularly enjoyed looking at. All the alien meat, much more visceral than the reddish-purple plant matter that constituted the Qliphoth, made her stomach churn despite her stomach being a good hundred feet away. A shame, she thought, that she couldn’t have left her nose behind as well. With nothing else worth seeing, the feral turned her attention back toward the puzzle. “So, Midna. You went to the desert and the city, while I hit the sea and the caves. Haven’t seen much of each other before today, but I guess we’re makin’ up for lost time now, huh?” She wore a friendly smile, as usual. “I hear you’re some kind of princess? Lotta royals in the Seekers. At least you’re not snooty like Toni, buuut I couldn’t say I’d blame ya. Not every day a royal gets to hang around some mangy alley-cat, or vice versa.” Her tone had become somewhat pointed, as if leveling a vague accusation.

”Toni… Sectonia?” Midna, who had been humming to herself tunelessly while failing to crack the puzzle during Nadia’s look around, guessed. Rather than being annoyed at being interrupted from her task, she was rather thankful Nadia was here for conversation instead of to ask why she wasn’t done yet.

”Maybe not a cat, but I owe a lot to a flea bitten mutt. Well, farm boy turned wolf turned hero but still. Not that I was as above it all as the Queen before him but I had my own kind of contempt I needed to deal with” she replied with more honesty than might be necessary, before really losing track of her tongue, first saying ”I wish he was here” more than a hint of wistfulness before catching herself, switching gears much to hard, and promptly thumping the machine and declaring the reason for that desire was ”so he could solve this goddess forsaken puzzle!” even if that obviously wasn’t all of it

Either Midna hadn’t understood Nadia’s subtle provocation, or she’d rather effortlessly deflected it. The feral didn’t mind, though; so far, Midna’s behavior had been much more down-to-earth fashion than the team’s other royals, so much so that Nadia might have never guessed at her status otherwise. If the Twilight Princess did not acknowledge any disparity between the two of them, the cat burglar wasn’t going to draw any more attention to it. Instead, she considered asking about the farm boy wolf hero Midna mentioned, but truth be told, she wasn’t all that interested. It seemed like neither of them was suited to this task, but at least Nadia had the excuse of not having any hands to help with.

She couldn’t help but smile at Midna when she vented her frustration with the alien mechanism. “Hey, if you don’t have any ideas, might as well go ham on the controls. Gotta luck out sooner or later, right?”

The princess paused, thought about this and then grinned under her mask, saying ”You know what, I can do one better” and setting about a quick little magical scheme. She placed the false set of arms on the controles, and then her real ones on top, sinking the fingers of them into the fake ones and then rapidly rearranged the glowing green runes and lines that appeared as a result of this action. Then she pulled the fingers back and smiled as the second set of limbs did indeed start to go ham on the controles, while Minda rested an elbow between them, turning her focus away from the puzzle entirely and moving it over to Nadia.

”There, now they’ll do it for me” she declared smugly, clearly quite pleased with her little automation trick, before trying to pick up the same conversation from where she’d interrupted it.

”So, yes, odd how that worked out. Not even those silly games put us together” she noted, adding more to the pile of coincidences, they really had missed each other at every turn somehow hadn’t they, before she thought about how to further rectify that ”But maybe next time? Or something before we launch ourselves back into the fray? I could go for another spa visit or twelve after this grim grimy place.”

Though the spectacle of magical automation stole her attention for a moment, the mere mention of Balan’s Big Top was enough to bring a bright smile to Nadia’s face. “Oh man, those minigames were the cat’s pajamas. We’ve gotta go back some time, or find more stuff like that. I like a good scrap as much as the next gal, but we all need breaks, ‘specially after crap like this, yeah.” She chuckled, her nose wrinkled by the ambient foetor. “I’m sure that angel lady feels bad sittin’ out, but even a live wire like me has her limb-its. After the Maw, all of us on Blue Team spent, like, a whole day on a tropical vacation.” She stared off into the middle distance, the morbid architecture fading away into white sands and crashing surf. A heavy sigh escaped her. “Life’s a beach, eh?”

Just then, the swivels and clacks of the alien machine gave way to a loud click, then silence. When Nadia looked over, she found four yellow lights starting back at her. There came a series of loud, mechanical -or possibly organic- sounds, and after another moment, a door near the hallway began to slide open. The sudden movement disturbed a handful of the head-shaped parasites, which flew up toward the rafters. Nadia made the mistake of looking too closely at one as it passed by, and despite being elsewhere, her stomach did not thank her for the experience. Green-tinged smoke wafted through the doorway as it revealed a triangular room. One wall, even more bio-engineered than the rest of this alien facility, hosted a row of canisters in which ghastly homunculi had been grow to fit their containers. The other wall lay in pieces, exposing the familiar Qliphoth matter behind it, and with it the nerve cluster that would open the valve back in the main tunnel. In between lay some sort of workbench, or perhaps operating table, on which a handful of biotech weapons had been fashioned.

“Guns?” Though leery of the freakish tube-babies that were definitely starting back at her, Nadia edged toward the table to satisfy her curiosity. Of the various half-baked projects on the table, only three seemed to be complete: two pistols of flesh and bone, not quite alike, and a scoped SMG. Nadia seemed especially interested in the pistols, but with no hands of her own to claim them with, she could only raise an eyebrow at Midna. “Finders keepers?”

”Power is power but, urgh, it's hardly ever pretty in this world” Midna replied as she caught up, having had to pause to set her false limbs back to normal. Unsurprisingly she used those to pick up and carefully examine the weapons rather than her own ones. Doing so also let her avoid looking at or thinking about the tank beings, but she’d have to get round to what to do about them eventually.

”Not exactly an expert with guns even if they can be useful” she said, implicitly asking if the feral was.

If Nadia had her shoulders around, she would’ve shrugged them. “Not really my deal, to be honest. Only got one, and it’s more for…’meating’ people.” Though the Bait Launcher was a pretty unforgettable weapon, she couldn’t remember if she’d used it around Midna so far. “But I wouldn’t mind tryin’ them. Got an itch trigger finger lately, for whatever reason.” Maybe that cowgirl she’d fused with was rubbing off on her, but Nadia couldn’t help but feel like she had some sort of potential that she couldn’t tap into without a gun or two.

”I know the feeling” Midna replied, as she pulled her Nightsky Ripper scimitar out of a portal ”Wouldn’t have known the first thing about using one of these a few weeks ago, and now it just feels…right”

She then put the guns down on the table again and opened a portal below them while saying ”Once we get you back to your fingers we’ll see if these fit like a glove. If not, trying to give them to Edward would be funny” before then moving onwards to the nerve cluster and slicing into it with her sword.

With their task complete, there was nothing stopping them from heading back. Nothing except well…

With a sigh, Midna stepped towards the pods with the creatures inside, saying/asking ”OK, can’t avoid it any longer, what are you and are you going to be a problem or burden?”

Though the homunculi within tracked her movements with their bloodshot eyes and bared their lipless teeth at her, they couldn't move an inch inside their pods, having been horrifically molded into ovoid shapes by their own steady growth within their cramped confines. Nadia did not like looking at them or thinking about them. “How about we skedaddle before we find out? ‘Uppies’ me!” She hopped her head up and down to signal Midna to pick her up.

Midna glanced down at the feral, up at the trapped creatures that didn’t seem very friendly all things told, and then up at her darknut that was no longer burdened by its body-less cargo before replying ”Sure” and picking Miss Fortune back up in the same manner she had before.

She turned away from the creatures and strode out of the door without looking back, heading for the vent into which she popped Miss Fortune’s head. Right as she did, there came a crash as her darknut ripped the top of one of the pods trapping the homunculi, and prompting the princess to declare it was ”Time to go”.

Whatever the homunculi did with it's freedom now, it wasn't her problem.
In Nerves In Carbonox: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay → 3 mos ago Forum: Casual Interest Checks



In Nerves In Carbonox: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay → 3 mos ago Forum: Casual Interest Checks
Seems very cool, will be taking a closer look at all the many options later in the eve
In World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover) → 3 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Dredge III

Edward, Therion, Juri
Word Count: 3390 (+4)


In between the monster's ambushes, the alien hollow was unnervingly quiet. There was the occasional ambiance of foliage shifting, copper golems clomping through brush, and the repaired generators chugging, but otherwise there were hardly any other sounds at all. It was clear that besides the Seekers, and the Dredge, there were no other living beings around. If one could even call that thing alive in the first place.

After separating from the others, beast-Therion slunk through the jungle-like area and took note of any of the machines he passed. Even through the trees it was easy enough to see the gate they were trying to power up, so there was no real concern about getting lost. So long as he didn't need to bail anyone out again, he was fairly confident that he could avoid the monster playing hide and seek with them. So far so good, he thought, as he slowly circled his way back around to where Juri had been when she fixed one of the generators. After making sure the coast was clear he padded over to the machine so that he could get a closer look at what an operational one should look like. His feline eyes flickered over the bulbs, the wires, and various other doodads. Assuming that all of the generators were more or less the same, if Therion just copied Juri's work then he wouldn't have any problems fixing a couple on his own.

Therion's ears twitched and he felt his hackles begin to rise. Trusting his instincts he leapt back into the underbrush, concealed enough that when the mutilated mess of a monster drifted by a moment later it didn't spot him.

The Dredge hovered by the generator, slowly turning its head to search for any signs of its prey. Then, it raised its knotted appendage high before slamming it down onto the machine. The generator sparked and smoked as its lights powered down, making Therion narrow his eyes. Maybe it had been too much to hope for that this thing was some kind of mindless killer. Clearly it knew what they were trying to do and was going to deny their escape however it could.

Therion waited until the Dredge had moved on in its search, then waited a little longer, before he emerged once more. He shifted back into his human form, kneeling in front of the generator. Since he'd just seen how it should look, fixing it from this state had to be possible. Otherwise the monster would have just broken them all beyond repair before they'd even got here. Carefully he reattached wires where they'd been pulled from, shifted plugs into their correct places, and hit the plunger that would start the thing back up. There was a drawn out moment where nothing seemed to happen, and Therion's tail flicked back and forth in agitation.

"Come on," he hissed at the generator, smacking the side of it. It came to life then, rumbling as its lights all blinked on.

After confirming it would stay on (unless the Dredge turned back around to sabotage it again), Therion left it to head to one of the other non-functional ones he'd spotted in order to get them working again as well. It had been a little while since he'd heard any cries for help, so he could only assume that the others were avoiding the thing on another side of the hollow.

Edward for one was indeed out there somewhere, as was Juri, the pair making for a rather effective team despite all the thornyness involved in their cooperation. Stress left the already brittle working relationship full of fractures, but with their unkillable foe lurking out there they more or less had to trust the other to watch their back.

Especially when it was left turned and exposed while focused on fixing a generator as Edward was now. With various tools, from pliers to move wires without risk of shock to a soldering iron to more securely fix them back in place, the job was certainly quicker, but it still left ample time for the killer to come across him, and the increase in heart rate its mere presence caused was too late a warning sign.

It was a good thing then, that he had a look out, no matter how abrasive she was.

Juri silently scuttled back and forth across the floor of the ‘house’ they were in, though it was mostly just a selection of half-broken walls at this point. She was on a patrol, moving from window to window to check all the angles. Even the little red wooden locker a short distance away from the house. Besides making a few quiet noises that implied annoyance at how long Edward was taking, she was keeping her voice down.

The man was certainly making enough noise for both of them, clinking and clanking away, till all of a sudden there was a rumble as the generator flared to life, its flickering lights stabilizing and flooding the room. Unlike the times before, however, this wasn’t the only place that the lights came on as, through the ‘eyes’ of his cannon still parked by the gate, Edward saw that the gatehouse own had also stabilized, which to him indicated that ”I think that's enough power to open the gates”

As if to confirm this, only a short while later, the cannon’s existence came to an end, informing Edward that ”It seems our ‘friend’ agrees with my assessment, and will be rolling out the welcome wagon, which is… inconvenient”

”Gee wiz, talk slower. So the monster will be waiting for us. Big whoop, he can’t stop us.” Juri said. ”Let’s go already.” She dropped any pretense of stealth and began sprinting to where she remembered the gate was, coming short to survey the situation.

Edward followed her there in an even less stealthy approach given the flames wrapping around him as he ran, but as Juri had expected, stealth really did not matter right now. The Dredge knew exactly where they needed to go, and had brazenly parked itself exactly there: namely right in front of the switch they needed to pull to open up the exit to its hunting ground.

Even the man’s flaming arrival did not prompt it to break off and come on at them, leaving mortals and monster staring rather awkwardly at each other before the former ducked into cover to try and work out what in the world to do about this.

Juri stood out in the open, hands on her hips. ”There’s medkits and toolboxes all over for this stupid game. There’s probably somethin’ we could find to get it to budge.” Juri said, moving her hands to behind her head. ”Stupid ugly freakshow thinks he’s real smart. I could just pull the damn lever anyway, I don’t care.”

”Only other thing I have found is this” Edward replied, retrieving the flashlight he’d found and then stored in the toolbox, and offering it to her, while saying ”which I am unsure how much help it would be. So far all that has managed to inconvenience it is it blinding itself after all”

Juri took it and looked it over. It felt useful, even if it was just a normal flashlight.

"Go pull it then so we can get out of here," came a familiar voice following Juri's comment. Therion poked his head out from some nearby plants suddenly afterward, having seen the gate's power activate and coming to the same conclusion as Juri and Edward. He then looked from the former to the later, noting the other man's words. "So at least one thing works against it. We can throw off its senses while someone hits the switch."

Unfortunately while he was off on his own the only thing of note he'd been able to find was a brass key. Intriguing but unhelpful at the moment.

”I blinded it by reflecting a curse that it tried to cast on me when I healed myself nearby it, and unfortunately I think it will be smart enough to not repeat the incident” Edward informed him, getting over the important detail of said curse’s existence in the process.

Therion narrowed his eyes at the Dreadnought. He should have said that when he mentioned the blinding in the first place. "Unless you two have any other ideas, it still might be our best shot."

”She was already aware” Edward replied to the expression of irritation, now two for two on annoying people with how he delivered this information, though in this case he did not consider this his fault. Juri chuckled.

”As for ideas, given it seems content to wait us out, I could always put that time to use to make some more expendable bodies to throw at the problem” he suggested, gesturing to the conveniently timed arrival of one of the only remaining copper golem squads to their impromptu meeting.

”So you just pull these guys outta thin air, or what? Break your toys if you want, it’d be funny to give this creep the runaround.” Juri said, letting the flashlight hang from her palm.

”A touch more complex than that I assure you, but practically speaking” Edward replied, before initiating what was, ultimately, a mildly time consuming process of charging back up his mana fuel cells and then reforging his army. Given he was entirely committed to making copper golems, that resulted in them having twelve whole squads at their disposal. Thus, when they commanded operations, seventy two golems came marching out of the treeline, spears down, metal hearts hardened with unwavering will to fulfill their directive.

All the while the Dredge stared unnervingly, standing guard over the switch. It had all the time in the world to prevent its prey from getting out of there after all, while they would have to go for the exit sooner or later. The monster seemed intent on catching and presumably slaughtering all four of the intruders into its domain.

”Seventy two. That’s hilarious. Go forth!” She pointed to the dredge, commanding the robots onward with her own authority.

Whether it be through good timing or Edward unintentionally responding to the command, the legions did indeed match forward at her order, copper feet stepping in perfect rhythm as they did so. As they moved, Edward cautiously advanced after them, the way his wings were slightly spread out in preparation to retreat the only sign that the steely gazed man was not quite as unwavering as his creations.

For his part Therion was more than content to let the copper constructs get torn in pieces in place of them, and he waited, crouched with his tail swishing, for a better moment to move.

The golems closed in, threatening to form a wall of animated metal around the Dredge. Spears were angled forwards not to try and stab it, for that would be pointless, but to try and sneak past the foe and flick the switch. The only question the was this: how close would it let them get before reacting?

The answer was not that close. As they'd already established, Dredge was not a mindless monster. A calculating killer laid, somewhere, beneath its sagging flesh. It slowly looked between the first line, its head twitching, before it raised its hooked limb and moved in swiftly to destroy the first of many.

As the golems made to slip around it, blackness descended on the area. Suddenly it was as if night had fallen, making it hard for the Seekers and the golems to see more than a dozen feet in front of them. No such issue was present for the Dredge, and in darkness it began tearing into the small army, intent not to let any close to their only means of escape.

What Juri lacked in vision, the Dredge more than made up for in racket. She dropped down from above and blasted the things face with light. Their intuition paid off and the Dredge reeled back, now even more blind than its attempted curse. ”Kyahaha! Sucker!” She jeered as the copper army now easily overwhelmed the beast and reached the lever. There was a shower of sparks and the gate lifted. Juri sprinted over and slid underneath it as it was lifting.

That was also the cue Therion was looking for. Without any fanfare he went along the outside edge of the golem pack and moved towards the exit. The Dredge was still taking golems apart piece by piece but driven almost to frenzy by the fact it couldn't see and thus its prey were probably mid-escape the monstrosity turned and lashed out with a wide slice in the direction of the opening. It was easier to dodge than its regular swings; the thief skated beneath the swipe and crossed the threshold a moment after.

”Why in the worlds did that-” Edward began to ask, questioning the logic of why the device had managed to harm the Dredge when nothing else had, but it really was ”No matter” at that moment. With his many many copper eyes the man had been far less impacted by the darkness than the others, and so was more than able to make a beeline for the exit. With a flap of his wings he rose up over his remaining creation’s ranks, using one of their heads as a stepping stone to get the height he needed and then swooped towards the exit as the remaining troops moved to bodyblock the binded horror while they got away.

As soon as its sight was back, the Dredge ceased its destruction and looked at the open gate. There it could clearly see the Seekers behind it, but strangely enough it did not give chase. It stared after them with an eerie blank look on its mangled face. A few moments later the gate's power shorted out again and the door began to close itself up once more.

”Yeah, see! Chump! Coward!” Juri jeered as the door began to close. ”Know you’d get your ass kicked if you faced me out here! Haha!”

That fact raised one sudden question from Edward, who began to ask ”Wait a moment- did anyone ever see-” only for the man in question to suddenly silently step into view, taking everyone by surprise, including the Dredge itself. The hunter got its first and only view of the master infiltrator who had been repairing generators right under its nose for a mere moment, and then the gate was fully shut and they were left out in the small room found beyond it.

He gave them a curt nod, before turning, gesturing for them to follow and striding towards one of the vines in the wall, slashing it with a knife and entering the bloodstream.

”Tch,” Juri said, kicking the ground and approaching the open bloodstream. ”We should carpet bomb this place after we’re done.”

"No objections here," Therion said, though with only a vague idea of what she really meant by it he understood it was something destructive. He glanced at the mercenary who'd quietly joined them, briefly thinking he's good before continuing forward.

When they were well and truly away from Dredge, and only a short distance away from the Qliphoth's veins they'd have to take to ascend, the world darkened once more. This time it was a much more complete darkness, one that offered a choice of rewards for the victorious Seekers.



It was a somewhat selfish selection, but in the end Edward decided that he could only be of value if he were alive, and the goddess Hestia quite clearly wanted to keep him that way, though very much in her own way. “You’ll find it easier to see what your foes are doing when they're lit up, eh? Now keep on climbing so you can burn this place down already”





Therion's choice was fairly quick. Although getting some free money every fight was amusingly tempting, as always if he wanted something he only had to take it. And while becoming invisible was also a tempting choice, one that could definitely be useful in battle, there could really only be one choice. The middle card was almost tailor made for him, so he didn't hesitate to take it. When he did the same creature he'd had a vision of in the last hollow appeared to him again. It loomed large, and the sounds it produced were even louder, but ultimately like before nothing else happened.

Therion touched a hand to his forehead as the world came back into view. "More of the same..." It seemed the others were finished picking as well. The thief nodded towards the huge blood vessel in front of them.

Juri made her choice as well and looked to the others. To prove some kind of point, she got out her big chainsaw weapon and cleaved a huge hole in the wall, revealing another bloodstream. ”I can make an exit anywhere I damn well please with this puppy. Catch ya later, losers!” She exclaimed cheerfully, and dove into the bloodstream. With her new chainsaw weapon she was confident in her safety and her ability to literally carve out her own path in this fleshy tree gauntlet.

Edward merely signed at this continued irreverence, while being quietly relieved she had not followed up on her promise to (attempt to) ‘kick his ass later’ now that they were free of the Dredge’s domain. Then he drew his machete, gave a small flick of a salute and a farewell of ”I’ll see you on the other side” before hacking his way into the vain and diving in.

Therion rolled his eyes as they left. What a group. And they were all going the same way so what was with the theatrics? He followed after them by just simply slipping into one of the openings they'd made, and shortly after him the mercenary followed, though where the blood stream would take them after this they wouldn't know until they got there.
In World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover) → 3 mos ago Forum: Casual Roleplay

Wordcount: 1,891 (+3/+3/+3/+4/+5)
Midna: level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (115/110)
Location: The Dead Zone


While watching Miss Fortune try and clean herself ineffectually was quite funny, Midna decided it would be best to remove herself before her uncontrollable urge to tease/taunt/joke about wet cats got inappropriate/grating. In place of that she headed out to go for a little relaxing ride around the lake.

Not that it was the most scenic of views between meat moss, mushrooms and an overlook of the horror infested city below mind, but at least her mask filtered out the smells of blood and rot. For those with an eye for such things, there were valuable resources to be scavenged, but Midna had little interest or appreciation for the possible uses of the scarlet rot corrupted resin or neurode biosensors.

Neither did she for the strange fish paddling around in the pools, but as it turned out there was someone who was in the area who did. Or someone who had access to the area anyway.

Having allowed her wolfos to wonder where it pleased as she rested on its saddle, arms crossed over atop the bar, chin resting atop it, the beast followed its nose, having picked up the scent of something familiar in the corrupted landscape. This led it, and by extension her, to a mound of dirt marked by a sign saying ‘bait + sell’ that also sported a little bell on top.

Bemused by this, the princess guided her wolfos away from where it was sniffing and scratching at the mound, and then reached her shadow hand over and flicked the bell to see what would happen.

At first, nothing, and then after the sound of digging a fox cautiously poked his head out of the mound of soil, looking a fair bit nervous and not entirely enthused by the presence large predator that Midna was riding atop of.

”Uh, hello? Don’t worry it won’t attack without my say so” Midna told the fox, feeling a little silly about doing so, but having met enough animal people to know she shouldn’t just assume this wasn’t a person, before asking ”What are you doing here? It’s dangerous”

In response the fox leaned to the side and tapped the sign, telling her that it was here to “Sell bait, buy fish” in a soft and impossible to gender voice.

”Those weird ones? They look infested, that can’t be good for anything” Midna replied, understandably leery about the health and safety of such things. They certainly wouldn't be good for eating, of that she was sure.

In response the fox just patted the bucket and told her to put the fish “in here” before explaining simply that it had “crafter clients” who wanted the fish, and then looking at her with a tilted head, which was all it needed to communicate the question of if she was going to help him out with supplying them or not.

Well with that vaguely clarified Midna only really had one more question, which was ”Uh huh, and why do you think I’d spend my time doing that kind of busy work?” to which the fox’s onbrandedly short answer was that it would be “Relaxing”

Hence why, if someone was to come looking for Midna, they would need only needed to follow the sound of Lyre music (or at least attempts at it, the princess hadn’t exactly had much time for practice of conventional music since she’d picked up the habit) and find her sitting by the shoreline, back to her dozing wolfos. There she lazed with her helmet in her lap, chewing on cereal bar held in one hand, strumming at her musical instrument with two more, while the final hand, to which her astral chain was attached, lazily drifted too and fro.

There would then come a tug at her wrist, prompting her to yank it back and, from the perspective of the observer, cause a fish-adjacent creature to leap out of the water and then end up hovering in front of her. Of course, the fish was actually being carried in the jaws of her Beast Legion, which could casually phase through the bloody water, making not a single disturbance, as it hunted down prey for its mistress with supernatural ease.

It would then pad over to the fox who’d stopped needing to be called back after the third fish catch she’d made in short succession and deposit it, still wiggling, into the rapidly filling bucket.

Of course, things could only go swimmingly for so long, and so, right after she’d caught and was busy admiring a ‘fish’ that was far more machine than meat she was rudely interrupted when a Deimos Carnis came bursting out of the lake, clearly displeased at this intrusion into its hunting ground.

Alongside it burst several floodfested baslaisks in its thrall, the freaky beasts crawling and hopping up the beach towards her

”Goddesses, it's always something” Minda complained as she rose, but not having enough time to redon her helmet before she had to toss herself out of the way of incoming acid spit.

With her hands full of helm, lyre, and her beast legion’s maw full of the very shiny and valuable looking fish, things weren't exactly in a great state fighting wise. The first basilisk to approche breathing some horrible black mist caused the cold of death to start gripping her bones wasn’t exactly wonderful either, but a flowmotion leap back out of the fog saw to that.

”Want to dance? Alright let’s dance!” she declared, strumming the lyre up to a combat tempo before launching a blast of electrified sand forwards into the oversized eyes of the closest basilisk. It screeched and started rapidly blinking, giving her space to leap full over said eyeballs and to slam both dragon clawed feet into its back, an extra gust of wind joining the double stomp and fully slamming it into the dirt.

As she struck once with sand and once with feet, her new boon activated, surrounding her with two layers of shimmering rainbow barriers that would soften the next blow she took. Given the swarm of basilisks crawling towards her that looked like it might be coming soon, but not if she could help it. With another leap she repeated her gambit against the next basilisk, and then the next, sanding and stomping them with a rhythmic flow that she even managed to put a tune to using her Lyre.

She got so into the tempo that, in-fact, that she entirely lost track of the Carnis, right up until it lunged in and with a slashing claw knocked her entirely off her rhythm. Rainbow barriers burst as they absorbed about a quarter of the damage, and her armor did much of the rest, but it still stung.

”Ach, thank you whatever your name is” she said to the nameless god who’d granted her that boon, and then immediately cursed as the basilisks sought to take their revenge, black mist sweeping towards her.

She, fortunately, was not alone, as her little performance had been quite the distraction that let her beasts harry the foes rear, which they did so more aggressively now. Claws slashed as the wolfos howled, drawing attention, before they retreated back to draw some of the foes away, the beast legion still carrying the fish in its mouth, which amusingly to Midna meant that said fish must seem like the source of the invisible clawstrikes to the infested foes

”Careful with that thing, thing!” Midna called out, before coughing from having inhaled lingering basilisk mist. That was the last straw, the princess declaring ”Alright, enough messing around” as she yanked herself to her beast legion’s back, and then, while riding it away, finally got her helmet on.

Hand free of holding it, she drew a blade and began charging it with lighting as they wheeled back around towards the horde of hopping horrors and their centipede overlord. Not wanting to put her fresh catch in danger of being death misted however, she leapt off her beast legion as she entered the fray, blade flashing as she sliced it down into one of the eyes of a basilisk. Wind howled and thunder roared, as a wind aftershock sliced into the existing wound, and a lighting blast struck the creature’s back, knocking the wind from its lungs and preventing it from using its death breath on her long enough for her to claw its other eye out.

Neither blow actually killed however, rather intentionally, but it took it out the fight more or less. Naturally there were others, but a circular sand blast gave them just enough pause for her to focus on her primary target: the Carnis.

Her shadow hand punched up, smashing the centipede in the face as it came in to try and slash her again, the strike and follow up wind blast stunning it enough that she had time to summon her darknut. It arrived sized up, sword raised high, and then brought it down in a mighty decapitation strike that was meant to sunder the foe in half, but instead only got some of the rear as it recovered more quickly than she’d liked skittered to the side.

A Basilisk lunged blindly at a frustrated Midna, clipping her and expanding her starward barriers, and causing it to receive a trio of musical bolts to the face from the princess’ lyre for its efforts.

”Not interested in you, you wastes of space!” she yelled at the chaff, before shouting ”I want to try my new thing out, so die already you bug!” at the Canis as she went after it with her sword, hacking at its lower limbs, crippling them enough that, in conjunction with the damage to its rear, the monster went crashing to the ground.

It tried to drag itself away with its remaining claws, but the princess leapt onto its back, running along it, sandblasting basilisks as she went, before leaping head over heels over its horns, and slamming her shadow hand down straight down in a punch right onto its head, crushing its already fractured skull.

This strike launched her up, but she yanked herself to her beast again to get controle of her tumbling flight, and as she did so, behind her, the ashifiying remains of the Carnis suddenly bloomed with lunar flowers and the beast rose again, now, briefly, in her thrall. Towering over its former minions, the reanimated Carnis immediately began to lay into them, claws slicing, acid spitting, as it cut a bloody path through them without Midna having to lift even a finger or put any of her more important monsters in danger.

Instead, content to let it finish the job, she rode up to the dirt mound and sign, and rang the bell to sell the fish they’d so rudely interrupted her selling of.

Unfortunately, that would turn out to be her last sale, as the little battle had unfortunately scared off all the fish. Sure, she could have found another spot, but with the one so conveniently near to the fox merchant ruined, she decided to call it a day.

Thus, with a pocket (or rather portal) full of a few thousand extra zenny, and a few extra spirits to boot, she headed back to the rest stop to see if anyone else had shown up since then.
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