FujiwaraPhoenix

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — Alleyway

Yu's mouth hung open for a moment as he heard Eunice speak and, after realizing the implications of her existence alongside the world, ended up standing in place as he tried to figure out what to ask. There were a variety of lines to tackle—their presence here, her own knowledge about both of the current incidents, and so on and so forth—but in regards to what needed to be addressed immediately...

Before he could attempt to step forward and ask anything, though, both Saito and the other player had spoken their piece, and given the rush that Eunice seemed to be in, Yu decided it best to not add any of his own for the moment.

Eunice, of course, had placed most of her efforts in attempting to mend the injured man's wounds—more properly than the potion could, at least. Listening to both of them speak, the healer sighed and nodded before responding in kind.

"Would that I knew myself. This man's armor is of Pelemean make—of that, I am certain. The spectacle of his descent was hard to miss, though, and as close to the epicenter as I was, it made sense to try and spirit him away for treatment and questioning. Would that I had been faster, though," she began, glancing towards Nova before shaking her head. "If it was only the one incident, I could manage, but the safety of civilians is of higher import to me than the other problem at hand."

There was a moment of silence as her words naturally led her towards Nova's question, and as Eunice slowly stood up, the young woman seemed to fail to meet any of the three adventurers' gazes head-on.

"...If you're asking if I remember you, then... Yes, I remember. To expound upon that question would necessitate more time, though, and we have little of that as is."

Taking a deep breath, Eunice took a moment to center herself before finally looking at the three again, her hands clenched tightly for a few moments before slackening.

"The sounds of battle dim; could I trouble you to lend me your aid? I wish to bring this man somewhere that the others-" she began, a momentary silence as she said that last word, "cannot freely and forcefully press him for information. The Luminary headquarters here is naturally out of the question, but that is not to say I do not have somewhere else in mind."

Yu could tell that there was more to the situation that Eunice was letting on—it was difficult not to, given the way she kept herself among them—but for now, it was hard to not empathize with her reaction.

Not with how she had reacted to the Shenke's question, at least.

"...I'll do what I can," he said, lifting up one of the man's arms and slowly bringing him to his feet. Hopefully, the others would assist him in the process; though he had strength beyond what he was used to, it made sense now as to why the unconscious stranger had only been brought so far with the suppose of but a single person.

---

Aluvera — Inconspicuous House

The path that Eunice took was distinctly roundabout, and it was hard not to notice that all of the side streets and alleyways of the city that they were passing through were... Well, actually existent, as compared to how it had been in the world of the game. It made sense that the scale of the world had expanded to fit all the inhabitants, once Yu considered the matter in his head, but it was still a bit of a shock to see that world given so much more.

Eventually, though, Eunice led those who had followed her to the front door of a house that seemed to have escape a majority of the fighting. The lack of people milling about coupled with the unfamiliarity of the street to Yu and anyone with him made it clear that no adventurer had stepped foot here at all.

That was probably for the best, though.

As the group entered the building, they were immediately met with a single housekeeper—a sharply-dressed male elf in a butler's outfit—who Eunice swiftly directed to bring the man downstairs to both change him into something more easily removed for medical purposes and to keep him out of public eye. The elf gave a curt nod before promptly helping to relieve those carrying him of their burden, walking with them to the basement before directing them to leave his unconscious form to him. Once that had been resolved and the group reconvened on the first floor, though, Eunice took a seat at a nearby table and gestured at the others to make themselves comfortable.

"...First and foremost... I must apologize for my curtness earlier. The situation at hand seemed more dire in the current moment than the grander problem, but that is not to say that I am not aware of that problem—namely, your presence here."

With that, she turned towards Nova before nodding.

"You asked earlier if I remembered you. To be more precise, I—and I can only speak for myself—remember everything. Every adventurer here, in this world right now, having gone through the same trials and tribulations at my side—needless to say, it was overwhelming when all those memories seemed to flow into my brain. It felt as if I might go mad trying to understand it all," she said, a bitter smile on her face before continuing. "But when I asked the others... Nothing. Rather than remember everything, it seemed that their situation was the opposite—nothing, no trace remained. They knew that you had all helped, but the 'you' in their minds was like an empty void.
Of course, I could not well reveal myself to everyone, not knowing how you would all react, and so I kept to the shadows..."

"So why reveal that much to us, then?" Yu asked, arm resting upon the chair he was seated on as he motioned towards Eunice. "Helping the person being cared for downstairs isn't much of an excuse on that front, is it?"

"That person is precisely why I could not stay put. You all have a similar drive to know, and I thought it better that I reveal myself to you all and speak candidly rather than cause a commotion and draw more attention to myself. Lucky that you were not among the more combatative within my memories, of course, but even so..."

There was a sigh as Eunice continued speaking, but despite the turmoil that was plainly showing upon her visage, she continued.

"...I've already told the other Luminairies to keep out of the public eye—at least until things settle down. They seem to think that you're all normal adventurers, but I fear that not everyone may be as receptive to such information as you have. With that said..."

Eunice nodded, looking at the three in turn soon thereafter.

"I need to understand as much as I can about the situation, no matter the cost or how absurd it may sound. So tell me of your stories, then; of what you know: who are you, exactly, what you have seen and why you are here now—though I suspect that final question will find no proper answer here."

@Sho Minazuki@SilverPaw

---

Aluvera — City Streets

It was little surprise that, when given the opportunity to flee, the harpy was more than willing to do so. A few more had taken to the skies and had scattered towards skies unknown. The battle near the epicenter of the city was nearing its end, and the monsters routed, but whether or not there were any left rampaging closer to the outskirts remained to be seen.

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

---

Sen Rynta — Wellspring Park

The Belva male stared blankly at the maid that Myrtle had brought forward before looking at her with a complicated expression. It was hard not to—not after hearing something as heavy as that.
"Er... Okay, you might have a point, then," he said, awkwardly scratching his cheek before glancing at Azure again. "Though I can't say I'm particularly comfortable hearing something like that... But, uh, good on you for getting her out of a bad situation? I guess?"

Given his words, it seemed that he did not doubt Myrtle's claims any further, but what that would imply for everyone else in the world remained to be seen. It was likely that people would come to see as much on their own in the future, given the necessity of having to interact with other people for the sake of living anyways, but it would at least be helpful to learn that much early.

With that, though, his attention turned back towards the man out cold on the dirt, but only for a moment as he shrugged.

"Well, I don't agree with the reaction, but at the very least he might think twice about doing that again. Suppose someone should bring him under a tree or something..." he mumbled to himself before grabbing one arm and unceremoniously dragging him off to the side. "Good luck with whatever you're doing now, though."

@Hammerman

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Aye, you have the right of it.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

@Archangel89: Think... Hm... I guess the best examples that come off the top of my head are FF11's Tarutaru, FFXIV's Lalafell, or Granblue's Harvins? It's really hard to draw a closer analogue to the more Western 'small' races.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Upon seeing the deer's eager efforts to help her gather bamboo, Misaki responded with aught but a slight smile. Adorable as it was to see it rooting about for bamboo shoots, they weren't exactly what she was looking for. With that said, though, depending on how finicky her analysis was, maybe they could actually be cooked...

Better to check than not, though.

With more than enough material to start, though, Misaki mused to herself for a moment before deciding that returning to town to start processing everything was probably the best way to proceed. As useful as automation would be, with the amount of time she had to make a prototype, it was likely better to abandon that sliver of hope and instead go for a more brute-force method.

To that end, Misaki continued to ponder to herself as she walked back towards the town, considering the different methods by which she could go about this whole process in the first place.

"Hm... Maybe... Stripping the bamboo down along the grain and boiling the results for pulp...? Actually, that might be more effective than bashing everything up with a hammer..." she wondered out loud, carefully looking around in case any other creatures wanted to try and attack.

When she returned (assuming she had not encountered any ill fortune along the way), Misaki would promptly beeline back to Lazirha's house and drop everything off before searching for a variety of tools; a cloth large enough to sit on, a knife, a container large enough to soak and boil everything in that would fit the frame, and so on and so forth.

Hopefully the townsfolk had that much to spare, lest she be forced to detour to make her own tools in the interim.

@Rune_Alchemist

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — City Square

Yu nodded his head as he took note of Saito's name, his eyes still fixed upon the monster in front of them as it fell. Seeing its wounded corpse laying there gave the blademaster a moment's reprieve, relieved as he was that the fight had ended without a hitch, before he turned his gaze skyward. The clouds showed no signs of parting any time soon, but at the very least there were no more monsters streaming in towards the city. All that remained, then, was cleaning up what was left.

With little reason to delay, Yu quickly attempted to survey his surroundings, only to find that all of the other monsters were already being pushed back if not killed outright. In a way, that was to be expected; with this many people, there should have been no small number of people who had already finished the endgame grind from last expansion and were decked out in the best that the game could offer.

And so instead, the young man turned to look for the next most suspicious thing—the man who had fallen from the skies to herald the assault. Whether or not he was an enemy was more than worth looking into, especially given the circumstances which had arrived here under.

But when Yu finally made his decision to seek the man, he found naught but blood and rubble. His disappearance, though unexpected, was not without traces of their own; a trail of blood leading away from the epicenter of the city was as good a place as any to begin.

"Well, people look like they have enough under control for the moment, so I'm going to go check that out," he remarked, gesturing slightly towards the marks left behind. "Feel free to follow."

---

Aluvera — Alleyway

With the sounds of battle still ringing around throughout the city, the alleyway provided a safe place to rest, if but for a moment. The larger monsters were still caught up in grander combat, it seemed, and the lessers among them were circling about more open skies. It was there that Yu found where the fallen had gone—or, rather, ended up, given the person resting nearby.

"Unconscious, huh...?" he asked, taking a step forward before noticing someone else had approached from the other side. Wearing a hooded robe over whatever else they were wearing, the mysterious character wasted no time in closing the distance—towards the injured, at least. The speed at which she moved, though, did prove enough to cause their hood to fly back, revealing the face of the person beneath.

The identity of that young woman would become clear to anyone who had played through the game's main story with that alone; Eunice Windstar was, after all, a staunch ally to the player and had been since the latter third of the base game's release onwards. But here...

Here, who knew what she had to say? What to think of them?

"...You look like you have something you want to say to me," she said coolly to those present, kneeling down next to the two wounded before beginning to tend to their injuries. "If you wish to ask questions, do so before the fighting has subsided."

@Sho Minazuki@SilverPaw

---

The harpy that had the unfortunate honor of being skewered and promptly launched at its kin let out another shriek of pain as it collided with one of its peers, knocking the latter out of the sky and sending it hurtling unceremoniously towards the ground. The other two, apparently surprised by the sudden assault, soon found their hesitation to be their downfall.

As it turned out, a bolt of magic large enough to take down both of them was more than enough to stop them in their tracks entirely. Only one managed to barely slip away in time, the other taking the brunt of the magical assault before plummeting towards the ground below. Rather than continue a solo assault, though, the remaining harpy quickly turned tail to find prey less willing to fight back.

The one that had been knocked out of the sky was most certainly still alive, but whether or not to continue to pursue the harpies was a decision left to those who they had aimed for in the first place.

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

---

Sen Rynta — Wellspring Park

It seemed that at least half of the people milling about the argument were simply rubbernecking, waiting to see if a fight would break out and the spectacle that such a thing would provide. As such, when Myrtle finally chose to push through and attempt to stop the argument, most of them simply split off; whether that was because they had more of their own problems to handle or if she had stopped their fun, though, it was hard to say.

Her subsequent preaching (or, well, it seemed as much to them) turned a few more away from the site; more than a few gave her impassioned cry for unity a bit of a nonplussed shrug, most aware that such things should have been a given in the first place. Others seemed less pleased with her response, a few even looking at her with a bit of irritation before choosing to leave. In the end, only a few remained—those who wished to see this incident to its conclusion and those who were at the epicenter of it all.

The Titan woman was the first to speak up, and her distaste of Myrtle's interference was most readily apparent.

"What right do you have to talk down to people like that?" she asked angrily, a scowl on her face as she stared Myrtle in the eye. "We're not some kids on a field trip, so acting like you're some teacher trying to tell us off... Eugh, I can't stand people like you."

Figuring that nothing was actually going to come of this, the woman stormed off, leaving the sighing Belva behind as the remainder of the crowd seemed to leave.

"Ah... Well, at least it ended without a fight," he remarked before looking back towards Myrtle. "I guess I should thank you for that? Though I'm not sure if your claims about them being sapient now have any weight to them quite yet..."

@Hammerman

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

I'm actually going to keep the server closed up save for the people who want to join for now and people already in the RP. Sorry.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — City Square

Though personally unversed in the ways of combat personally, Yu found himself leaping through the air, his body shifting slightly to avoid the sphinx's lionlike paw as it carved through the air where he had been moments prior. He was by no means certain as to whether or not he could survive a hit like that head-on, but given the circumstances, the young man found that he would very much prefer to err on the side of caution for the moment.

Fortunately, it seemed that his outstretched blade had met its mark, cleaving through the monster's wing and forcing it to drop back to the ground with one less limb for its troubles. With his coat trailing behind him, Yu took another breath and readied his weapon—

Only for a samurai to dash by to where he was standing moments ago, lacerating the sphinx's body in the process. There was a brief pause as Yu took stock of the situation before giving a wordless nod towards his sudden companion in combat and running a pair of fingers along the side of his sword towards its point.

"So skills carried over too, then?" he mused to himself, his weapon gaining a pale blue glow before he struck out. The sword effortlessly slid along the sphinx's torso, and with its attention split two ways between the pair of fighters striking it from both sides, the beast found itself hesitating; all the better for them, if anything.

"We can finish this one up and move to the next," the blademaster said towards the samurai, jumping to the side as another paw struck out at where he had ended his slash. "Less like AI and more like proper beasts with that sort of reaction, though... I guess that might mean decisive blows are worth trying for instead of whittling it down through raw power."

With that said, Yu immediately shot forward once more, aiming to deepen one of the wounds on the sphinx's neck that the other adventurer had made moments prior. Though the monster was already bleeding out quite heavily from its wounds, that slash seemed to cause the beast not only more pain, but a slight quiver in its motions. Would that it had the face of something other than a human, though, lest this fight feel less uncannily creepy in its resolution.

"Shokatsu Yu, by the way. Thanks for the assist."

@Sho Minazuki

---

The city around them was swept into a panic, and neither Sefira nor Kokoma would find themselves absent of trouble in the interim. While the larger two varieties of monster were lashing out at the larger groups or whoever seemed to be the biggest threats, the harpies flew around, aggressively screeching with ear-piercing volume as they swooped down to slash at their would-be prey—the stragglers, in other words—with wicked talons. The Shenke's collision had indeed caused one to miss Sefira, but as it seemed to think that was nothing more than a fluke, the monster turned around and dove once more in an attempt to pick up its seemingly-prone target.

It was not alone, though, as three more seemed to break away from circling the skies to follow suit, hoping to catch some unfortunate fool to pick them up and let them fall to their deaths in turn.

@VitaVitaAR@Rune_Alchemist

---

The man, it seemed, had lapsed into unconsciousness after speaking his piece. His body as it was now was being held up almost solely by the armor he wore and his spear, planted into the stone as it was. The potion in Nova's hands was not without merit, though, as though only some of it ran down the man's throat, that which overflowed found itself slipping into the cracks and crevices of his crushed armor and into his wounds. While nowhere near as effective, that much at least seemed to help staunch the bleeding (obscured though that may have been), and the reflexive cough would at least make clear his continued survival despite the din of battle surrounding them.

The griffon that chose to pursue the wounded man, as it turned out, would find itself less pleasantly affected by the explosive lobbed at its face. The heat and shrapnel caused it to screech and rear back, lifting its body up in a mix of pain and rage as the smoke cleared. One eye had been destroyed, as luck would have it, though the other seemed none the worse for wear. Upon further inspection, though, various other open wounds would be visible upon the monster's body—signs of a recent skirmish, perhaps?—but they seemed to not be enough to stop its pursuit of its apparent target.

With the person she was trying to help still unconscious, though, it was on Nova to decide what to do from here. The griffon was still reeling from the surprise attack, but left to its own devices, the monster would certainly look for vengeance.

@SilverPaw

---

---

Sen Rynta — Wellspring Park

The crowd that Myrtle pushed her way through seemed to be centered around what could only be described as a heated argument between two adventurers. There was an unconscious man wearing simple plainsclothes lying on the ground between them, and with little else besides their current predicament to take in, rubbernecking over what seemed to be growing increasingly closer to a duel did well enough to take their attention away from their own problems for the moment.

"Look, if someone leers at you with that sort of look, I just think it's right to teach them a lesson!" one adventurer, a female Titan clad in chainmail said matter-of-factly. "Doesn't matter that I broke his nose or knocked him out, right?"

"I'll agree with correcting their behavior, but jumping straight to a knockout punch is a bit excessive. Even if he is an NPC, there's a limit to how far you should go!" the other, a rifle-wielding male Belva responded, his hands crossed in disapproval.

"All the more reason, then!" she spat back.

It was clear that both sides were losing their patience, though to what end all of this might lead towards was another matter entirely...

@Hammerman

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Aluvera — City Square

"So that's how it's done, huh...?"

There was a bit of relief in Yu's voice as he finally managed to pull up his character information, his gaze panning slightly to the side as the familiar menu popped up in his peripherals. Finagling with some invisible, possibly-extant hotbar had been unnecessary, it seemed; simply desiring for the relevant information to spring up had been sufficient. Of course, where one success was found, others followed suit, and the young man quickly cycled through half a dozen other menus—none of which seemed to be able to access the usual system configurations, of course—before he paused, an odd shadow slowly creeping over the skies above.

Given how it had been broad daylight moments ago, the weather shifting spontaneously becoming overcast was by no means a good sign.

As he closed the windows to give him back full control of his vision, Yu slowed to a halt as he—and more than a few others who had already begun to gather—turned their eyes skyward, only to see those clouds shift to a dark black.

Any amount of hesitation in the air was promptly cut through as something immediately cut through the clouds from above, a gaping hole from which a single red light began falling—right onto the middle of the square. Those who were aware immediately began to move to make room for whatever was descending, and those who were not were promptly dragged away by the tides of people shifting to make room. Of course, no few number among them—Yu included—furtively drew their weapons in response.

The fountain in the center of the square, it seemed, had been the unknown assailant's target, and its subsequent destruction as they landed threw stone dust and debris all over. When it had cleared, however, what was left behind in the rubble was a brown-haired man, his bronze-colored armor twisted and worn as he knelt upon the ruined earth. The pool of blood forming under him showed no such promising future, but what was more troublesome were his words soon after.

"The gates... Have been opened..."

Whether those words were meant as a warning or as a threat mattered little—at least, compared to the creatures flying out from the clouds unto the city. As far as Yu could tell, they seemed to be a mix of griffins, sphinxes, and harpies—none of which he was pleased to see—and were diving towards the city at an alarming rate. There only seemed to be a few dozen in total, thankfully enough, but that small number was still more than enough to lay siege to the city if left unchecked.

As a massive sphinx swept down from the skies above to strike at him, though, Yu tumbled out of the way before looking back at the creature. Though he had no personal experience fighting with the weapon, it felt as if his body did. Hopefully that would actually mean something, given how it seemed to be moving around for seconds.

With his blade at the ready, Yu took a deep breath and focused his gaze upon the monster before moving into a more proper battle stance, his sword pointed forward as he struck out at its' wings in hopes of equalizing the battlefield——!

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

@Eloise: All right, let's see here...

• So, not to imply that the game locks players onto a path or anything, but I'm a bit against the idea of your character being explicitly 'employed' to an NPC. The reasons for this are as follows:
  
  • As this character would be in a master-servant relationship, their ability to directly (and actively) interact with the rest of the cast would be stifled—not to mention everyone else that they might have to deal with, NPC or otherwise.
  • While we do have characters that have relationships to NPCs within the world, those NPCs are not necessarily inherently tied to the world, if that makes sense. In other words, I'd be denying this for the same reason I'd be denying the ability for characters to self-insert in-universe and place themselves as, say, siblings or lovers or what have you towards any NPCs that exist in the world.
• The two 'noncombat' things you posited are not classes, they are spells. Putting aside how they're honestly more emotes and RP actions (like, literal RP actions), they don't... Make a class unto themselves, y'know?

That's about all I have to say on the matter for now.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Discord it is!

@Hammerman@Rune_Alchemist@SilverPaw@Sho Minazuki@VitaVitaAR

Invite here. I've set it to expire in 24h, so if you miss it the first pass, just let me know and I'll throw another one out.