FujiwaraPhoenix

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Kochiya Sanae

Hillside Hamlet

After the merchant caravan was informed of the situation and began turning around yet again, Sanae flew back up into the air to get a look at the area once more. Putting aside the copious amount of damage they had done to the landscape, though, there didn't actually seem to be any trace of those strange enemies they had fought earlier. The young woman had noticed them disappearing into nothingness earlier, but seeing the landscape battered but with no blood to be seen...

Well, it wasn't as if that was all to unfamiliar—danmaku duels usually resulted in a fair bit of collateral damage, after all—but with what they had seen from this world already?

That was strange.

With most of her companions already moving to question the town's defenders, Sanae chose to instead follow in Anne's footsteps and check up on the hamlet and it's residents. By this point, the villagers—though still somewhat on guard—had finally begun to check out the situation with their own eyes and, with any luck, go back to their usual lives.

Floating gently to the ground, Sanae slowly made herself known to the people present and, in much the same way she had informed the group of people she had been traveling with, let them know that everything was indeed safe now. Those who were more curious left to go check the truth of her words, while others chose to stay behind.

At a glance, though, Sanae found no indication that anyone here was any bit out of the ordinary—at least, not among those she had seen exiting the building. The question of why those things seemed to be converging here still stuck out in the back of her head, and the young woman felt like this was a good a place as any to start investigating.

"Um... Do you mind if I take a look inside?" she asked no one in particular as she pointed towards the doorway. "I just want to make sure that everyone's okay; we have a healer with us, so if anyone's injured, we can treat them."

A few cautious glances were thrown her way, of course, but in the end the remaining defenders of the town reneged and let her in.

The extent to which this hamlet was sparsely populated only really dawned upon her as she took a look around inside the room she found herself in now, though. At best, this was probably some sort of communal hall, given how the place looked very much like a somewhat well-decorated home, and given how few people were left inside, it didn't seem like there was any reason to converge here of all places.

"Maybe it's just because there were people here, then...?" she muttered to herself as she glanced around, only for her gaze to fall upon what seemed to be a lone child with pale golden hair, curled up in the corner in a fetal position out of the way of everyone else.

There was a brief pause as Sanae stared at them, then at the other villagers present, then once more at the child before walking over to see if she was okay. As she approached, though, the shrine maiden took note of how delicate they seemed to be; with unblemished, pale skin and none of the usual signs of someone who had seen even a day's work under the sun, Sanae felt that she might as well have been looking at a porcelain doll.

"...Hello?" she asked, kneeling down nearby to try and reach eye level with them, "Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?"

---

"Remilia, Rayne, Fran, and Anne? Such wonderful names!" Gwen replied with a smile on her face as she sheathed her scissors on her back before returning the Knight's handshake in kind. "You're quite right, Miss Anne; neither of us are from here. In fact, we were wandering this land for a few days' time before coming across this charming little town."

After she had replied, though, Maokai grunted briefly, shifting his gnarled body and causing the wood to creak and groan in response.

"...Those things were not unlike the Mist. A curse befouling the land itself... I suppose that even in this realm, mortals would seek to defile nature," he added, glancing briefly at Fran before turning towards where all of the creatures had come from.

"Oh? I suppose that those things were familiar, in a sense, but I certainly didn't feel any of the Black Mist on them. Probably for the best, though," the blue-haired girl quipped before glancing back towards the rest of the group. "Anyways, if you're looking for any injured, I had all the townsfolk gather in their town hall... Or some equivalent therein; it looked to be the largest building here, so it seemed like a reasonable enough place to hide away while we did what we could here."

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Steven Yu

??? — Dirt Road

Though it did feel a bit awkward getting swept up in the situation (despite being one of the causes for their prompt departure from the open road), Steven found himself at least somewhat grateful that he wouldn't have to spend the next who-knew-how-long wandering through the world before coming across anything even slightly resembling civilization. Riding in a cart was a novel experience in it's own right (though obviously it was difficult to downgrade from any sort of modern vehicle), but at the very least it allowed the kitsune time to gaze at the scenery around them as they moved.

The guards that were keeping a close eye on him and his companion all the while, however, left him feeling a bit on edge all the same. They were strangers who were now barely in the good graces of someone who probably held no small amount of wealth (and possibly political power), so their trepidation did certainly make sense...

But at the end of the day, it was something the young man felt was worth being able to get some quick shelter with which to properly start planning for the days ahead.

While he had expected something fairly glamorous, though, Steven did not expect a grand mansion waiting for them at the end of their trip. Something smaller like a villa would have made sense, but something like this...

"...Huh. Impressive."

That brief utterance was all that came to mind as he stared at the building for a few moments, at which point 'Lady Darnell' offered them a place to stay for doing what they had—within reason, of course.

"Of course," he responded, bowing in turn before rising back up and turning to face her. "Might I ask if you have some books or maps of the region here? I'd like to familiarize myself with the area before departing."

Hopefully none of the other servants—or the lady herself—took any offense to that question; maybe his somewhat rugged appearance would help excuse his bluntness?

One could only hope.

@Raineh Daze

---

??? — Smithy

Though the door outside was now open and the sound of the bell ringing had worked prior to their arrival, though, the zombies all seemed to focus on the new sounds being made closest to them—and, in turn, the thing that was making them to begin with. The first zombie to lunge out at the group—or, more specifically, the hammer-wielding girl at their vanguard—found itself rather summarily dispatched by a rather devastating blow to the head. This, unfortunately, had the additional effect of creating a loud enough noise when the hammer met the old hardwood floor (and went clean through it to hit the foundation below) to make sure that the zombies were now well and fully focused on the group.

Or, well, as focused as a group of undead could be.

Rather than simply lurch forward as one might have expected from mindless undead, though, these zombies began to spread out, wielding their weapons with a vague sense of purpose before lunging out towards the group. Though time had not been kind to them or their weapons, being stabbed by rusty metal in a situation like this could very well lead to something less-than-ideal...

Never mind what those weapons could have been stabbing at until being sealed away in this place with their wielders.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

---

Neir — The Drunken Bear

Though it was quite obvious at a glance that 'Peter' was dodging around her questions, Meira chose to do little more than give him a slightly disapproving glance as she polished off her sandwich. Ultimately, it wasn't her place to judge whether someone was in the right for hiding their identity or not, but...

"...Well, to each their own, I suppose," she replied, shrugging her shoulders. "As long as you're not hiding your name because of some sort of criminal activity, I'm not going to fret too much about it... Though I certainly won't give any leeway if that is the case."

Without anything else to say on that front, though, the catgirl seemed more than fine with flagging down the woman serving them and asking for another sandwich to go. Given that they were a popular establishment for adventurers, a request like that was far from unexpected; in a few minutes' time, she had returned with a meal neatly packed in brown paper.

After handing off a few coins to the girl, Meira stood up and walked towards the door, glancing behind her to see if the young man had chosen to follow her or not. The skies above had indeed begun to darken by the time they had left the building, but at least there seemed to be some people starting to light lamps to walk around the evening streets with.

"Do you need to find your way back outside the walls?" she asked, glancing behind her shoulder with one hand resting on her hip. "It shouldn't take too long, and I can just report back to the guild once I'm done."

@Zeroth

---

??? — ??? Forest

After making a (fairly) clear break away from the quartet of otherworlders, the bird would continue to soar above the sea of trees; unfortunately, the extent to which these trees seemed to stretch towards the skies beyond what might have been expected of a "normal" forest did not by any means make catching a glimpse of it as it departed any simpler. By the time Javal had made his way up high enough to a vantage point from which to see the creature, it had all but become a dot that glimmered against the natural greens and browns of the nature around it. Luckily enough, though, the dragoon would be able to catch a glimpse of it disappearing into the foliage—and rather deliberately, at that.

For what reason it entered the forest was anyone's guess, but if he wished to follow, then there was at the very least some sort of direction to start with now.

@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

---

The bird seemed somewhat unreceptive towards Nyana's remarks as it flew above the trees, caring not even when the slimegirl-knight began to—and continued to—talk and laugh to herself. Whether or not it could understand her words didn't seem to matter much in this situation, though; either way, the end result seemed to be the same.

Eventually, though, the metal-plated bird stopped soaring through the skies and hovered in midair, if only for a moment. Then, slowly but surely, it began to descent downwards, towards what was unmistakably a massive nest formed of broken trees situated atop the still-stable ruins of some sort of tower.

Unfortunately, said nest already seemed to be populated by a few residents already. Three chicks, all apparently coated in much the same metal as the creature that had brought her here, seemed to be staring up at their parent—and, naturally, that meant they were staring at Nyana as well.

After descending low enough to land, the bird (somewhat unceremoniously) tossed Nyana towards its chicks. But where one might have expected ravenous pecking and biting, the slimegirl would instead find that the chicks seemed...

Well, 'utterly confused' might have been an apt description at that point in time. Compared to the usual things they must have eaten, something covered in metal like them but also was most certainly not was more foreign than anything else.

@Crusader Lord

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Route 5

Despite the call being rather spur-of-the-moment, Richard couldn't help but pump his fist and let out a shout of approval at Luna's success. The most overtly threatening of the opponents' team was out for the count with that move, which was already a swing in the battle's tempo towards their team.

On top of that, it seemed like seeing the Sneasel that had taunted her get taken out by friendly fire was enough for Luna to stop seeing red; as far as her trainer could tell, things were already looking up for them.

Of course, any hope that their troubles would end there were swiftly thrown out the window as the fainted Sneasel was replaced with a Lileep.

"...Right, why did I expect just one from each of you again...?" Richard chastised himself as the Pawniard refocused it's efforts towards Luna. With Laurel's Munchlax and the Lileep choosing to hunker down, though, the young man found that his Pokémon was locked in yet another pseudo-duel.

Luckily for him, though, their old tried and tested strategy was back on the table.

"All right, Luna, you know how this goes! Glare both of them down and stay at a distance until it's time to capitalize! Use that Lileep as a shield if you need to; it can't move anyways!"

@Rune_Alchemist

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Tenjou Seika

Yamazaki High School

"This should... Probably be good enough?"

With a deep breath as she leaned back in her seat, Seika glanced briefly though the window to her left. The evening sky had already washed over the town, and her high school was obviously no exception to the rule. While everyone else in her class had left for the day, she had stayed behind to make sure that everyone's physical preparations for the upcoming cultural festival were all ready and accounted for. She couldn't really complain about being saddled with that responsibility, though; while her attention had been directed towards flyers to begin with, creating those had been a simple enough task with the power of the internet and a brother with image editing software. The designs had been passed around and reviewed by most everyone else, but while the heads of the class committee came to a verdict on their own, Seika had been given a new task to keep her occupied... Or so she felt it to be.

Either way, though, it was well past time to head back home and relax a bit. The amount of homework had shrunk, no thanks in part to the festival itself, but that didn't mean that her responsibilities had waned with them. With that thought in mind, the young woman grabbed her bag and, after one last pass to make sure that she hadn't forgotten anything, slipped it on and headed for the door.

With any luck, she could get home before it grew too late...

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Kochiya Sanae

Hillside Hamlet

Between the copious amount of firepower that the group was raining down from the skies and the way that the fighters were carving through enemies on the ground, it was not surprising in the least to the green-haired shrine maiden that the enemy numbers were rapidly thinned down from the horde that they initially appeared to be. Their strategy was by no means perfect, granted, though the few that did manage to slip through the cracks in their counterattack were promptly dealt with by Anne if nothing else. Things seemed to be going all right, at least until Sanae noticed—and promptly grazed past—a blob of dark energy that had felt uncannily similar to what she had felt earlier from the mishaguji that Suwako had summoned when they had first left for the capital.

"...Curses?" she muttered to herself as Rayne, taking the initiative before anyone else could, charged off to go deal with the slimes that had shot them in the first place.

Not like they were any threat, of course, but with gravity still being... Well, gravity, any shot that failed to meet it's mark could very well fall back to the ground, and who knew what sort of problems that could lead to. If someone could break away and cause enough damage to stop them from being any issue, then all the better.

It didn't take long after that for the torrent of enemies to finally die out. The largest among them had been the last, it seemed, though it was rather strange that there didn't seem to be any sort of leader (obvious or otherwise) leading them here in the first place. With the matter settled, though, Sanae finally stopped launching her shrapnel-laden frog bullets and slowly floated back towards the caravan, which at this point had refocused from full-on retreat to simply fending off the few enemies that had trickled through the chaos.

"Everything's all clear," she declared, waving her gohei in the air as she approached, "More or less, at least. The settlement's undamaged, but if you want to stop by for a moment, it'd probably be a good idea to stay away from... Uh... All the potholes we made in the process."

Upon hearing that declaration of victory—and in such a short span of time—Syldon glanced at the others present before shrugging his shoulders and conveying the news to the others, mercenaries or otherwise, and getting to work getting them back on track.

While that matter was being settled, though, the two original defenders of the area shaved through the last of the enemies before turning their attention towards the pair of melee fighters that had first drawn their attention. The girl, of course, seemed far more chipper about the whole ordeal than the treant.

"Thanks for the help! Honestly, your arrival was quite the boon; I think we would've been fine, but I can't say the same about the villagers there," the girl spoke first, stepping forward before giving a slight curtsy. "My name's Gwen; this is Maokai. He doesn't... Like people much, though, so it'd probably be better if you let him be."

At the hamlet itself, though, it seemed that all of the villagers—fearing the worst, as would be expected—had all gathered up in one of the central buildings of the area. Naturally, fear of that wave of unnatural monsters steadily marching upon them had kept them from doing much more than trying to get out there and fend for themselves, but with that threat settled, it seemed reasonable to expect a few of them to exit and scope the situation out after the threat had passed.

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Neir — The Drunken Bear

"Parker? Certainly is quite a far cry from the 'C' you provided your acquaintance," Meira replied before taking a bite of the sandwich she had been served and taking a bite. There was a brief pause before she spoke again, though this time with a bit more scrutiny in her gaze as she answered his next few questions.

"The Guild does host some training courses for newcomers—those who come into town from smaller towns with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a dream—but if you want to focus on magic, you'd be better served finding a mentor. As far as I know, only the really dedicated choose to enter the magic college, and that place is well beyond any of my expertise. They do have some basic manuals for fighting at the guild, though, if you're not the type to learn by doing... but that's a different problem altogether," she began to say before leading into her own set of question. "There aren't any wild fae here as far as I'm concerned, though, so I'm not sure why you'd be so worried about names... Or magic like that at all, for that matter. You and Cassius came here together, correct?"

The catgirl retained a casual demeanor as she waited for a response, though, and chose to simply eat her sandwich as she waited for a response in turn.

@Zeroth

---

Neir — Slums

The child that had, until that point, been poking at the odd slime was quickly taken by surprise when it began to talk. At first, they seemed to be shocked, looking around to see if anyone was playing a trick on them; when cursory exploration provided no answers and the slime continued to speak, however, their dirt-smeared face seemed to light up with (understandably) childlike joy.

"It's a talking slime!" they cried out before quickly covering their mouth and looking around to see if anyone had overheard. Nobody had, it seemed, which meant that they were wholly in the clear for what to do next.

Namely, grabbing their newfound pet-slash-toy up and fleeing from the shack where it had been found.

"Your name was Namsil, right?" they asked, having clearly misconstrued the attempt at providing a name as such. "My name's Ain! Nice to meet you!"

@TheMushroomLord

---

??? — ??? Forest

As might have been expected for a creature that appeared to have been donning full plate armor, the massive bird seemed almost wholly unfazed by the barrage of the three wanderers not caught in it's grasp. Though a layer of frost coated one of it's wing for a brief moment, it didn't take much more than another flap as it began to lift back off the ground for the ice to be promptly shorn off and thrown right back at the defenders. The stabs of the knife had at least a modicum more success in stalling the creature, but at best it looked like the stabs only brought about discomfort and small trickles of blood past those tough-as-iron feathers that lined it's stomach.

For what it was worth, though, the force of a human leaping up and onto a tail feather was more than enough to tear it off—but not enough to stop it from doing more than screeching in pain—a horrible sound akin to metal scraping against metal—before lifting off.

Instead of rising higher and higher into the sky to drop the captured knight, however, the bird flapped it's wings a few times before swiveling around and flying over the forest the group had been so keen on avoiding until now.

At the very least, Nyana would have a good enough view of the ground below as the bird cut through the sky—though maybe not quite at the same speed and steadiness it had approached them at.

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Not a Gacha Addict

• Name: Tenjou Seika
• Age: 16
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: "Rather nice out today, isn't it?"
  Seika is a modest 5'6" (~167cm) with a figure that doesn't particularly stand out among the crowd of other Japanese people, much less other students. Her choice of clothing is also often rather low-key, opting for ensembles that are simple rather than gaudy whenever prompted.
• Personality: Seika could be considered to be a rather friendly and outgoing individual, though not necessarily on the level of a social butterfly like some of her other more-popular classmates might be. At the very least, the young woman positions herself as something akin to a 'side character' (as her brother might put it) able to reach across the usual stratifications of friend groups in the class. To that end, Seika has become adept at both leading and maneuvering groups and social situations from the shadows—a distinct oddity given how her popularity might have shot up if what she spent her free time doing in lieu of accepting offers to hang out playing at arcades or singing karaoke came to light.
  That being said, Seika doesn't desire the shallow popularity provided by student cliques; though peer approval is a meaningful part of her motivation to continue as she has, it is a desire to be acknowledged for what she has done and what she can do that pushes her to further and further heights.
• Backstory: Though she originated from a rather mundane household (even by normal standards), Seika's childhood was punctuated more than anything else by the deep impression that the media her older brother consumed as she grew up. Games and anime that were popular among his peers were oft played while their parents were off working, and in so doing they became her introduction to the mass market appeal of otaku culture. In so doing, however, the young Seika found a connection to her sibling... And with that, a penchant for voice acting in turn.
  With the boom in internet media where anyone could become an amateur videographer, Seika's brother found himself dabbling in experimenting with content to toss up on NND and YouTube, and began his slow grind through the content algorithm with something decidedly tried-and-true: gameplay with commentary. Seika, still quite young at this point, had one day chimed in and asked him if she could help. Curiosity of a child notwithstanding, the young man decided it reasonable enough to humor her request and prompted her to try reading some of the lines of a character in the game he was playing at the time. Her performance was surprisingly well-received by both him and by the pittance of an audience he had gathered at the time, which really just meant that she was unsurprisingly asked to do it again.
  One thing led to another, though, and the young Seika soon found herself in talks with her parents about going to afterschool voice training classes to refine the one skill that she might not have ever found otherwise. Since then, though, that ability of hers, as well as the vocational tracks that they often lead towards, have become core parts of her identity and have remained as such since then.
• Skills: Seika's voice could be considered one of her greatest strengths, and even if divorced from any connections to voice acting, her ability to speak and sing clearly could very well have opened other avenues for her to explore over the course of the years to come. Her ability to dance on stage is, in comparison, a bit lacking; while acting and movement through acting seems to 'click' at a glance, those movements serve a "purpose"—to convey the feelings and emotions of a character she is presenting. Modern dancing choreography is a bit too much for her at times, which really just means that being an idol was never really in the cards for her future—at least, not without extensive training to make up for her occasional two left feet.
  Otherwise, though, Seika is rather adept at improvisation. Regardless of what the world throws her way or what tools she has at hand to try and break through a situation, Seika will do her best to figure something out to resolve it.
• Spiritual Energy Grade: B
  
  • Contracted Being: Menreiki
  • Contract Rank: C
  • Contract Abilities: Seika's contract allows her to, after paying a fixed amount of spiritual energy, summon a set of random masks for her personal use. Each mask has it's own set of abilities that can range from "completely useless" (such as increasing her ability to read faster) to summoning weapons (which she could or could not have any proficiency in using) to even increasing her physical capabilities or transforming her outright. The sheer randomness inherent in this ability leaves it's potential as inconsistent, and being coupled with the fact that Seika can only have one mask equipped at a time means that her actual usefulness in combat can vary wildly even over the course of a single battle.
  • Cost: In order to continue using the effects of her contract, Seika she needs to 'perform' in some way, shape, or form to an audience. This can take many forms, be they singing, dancing, or acting to an audience, but obviously anything that incorporates all three provides the biggest benefits. Those 'benefits' primarily take the form of relative increases her "luck" whenever she next needs to invoke said contract, but may be subject to change in the future.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Kochiya Sanae

Hillside Hamlet

With implicit approval given for her (and the rest of the otherworlders) to break away from the caravan, Sanae took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally for combat. The enemies this time were monsters, at least, and not people; though she hadn't been as keen on taking the lives of people as her peers here were, things like those weird slimes definitely did not fall into that category.

After nodding in response towards Anne's rapid division of their forces, Sanae shot off after the others with her gohei at the ready. While the usage of more indiscriminate firepower by means of a spell card in this situation would probably have done well enough at cleaning the nearby fields up of those strange slimes, the young woman felt her pride taking a bit more of a hold as the others who were airborne chose to rely on more straightforward methods of attack.

If massive explosions were the weapon of choice for the day, then it seemed like a good a time as any to use her own, right?

Swept up in the moment as she was, Sanae took a fairly comfortable position in the air alongside Mokou and Rayne and began to fire clusters of frog-shaped bullets into the overwhelming sea of inky darkness—far away from the melee fighters holding their ground, of course. The frogs that landed simply blew up on impact; compared to the ones that she usually used, though, these seemed to have bits of earthen shrapnel embedded in them for good measure.

"Suwako-sama... I know you upgraded those, but... Turning them into grenades?" she mumbled to herself as continued peppering away at the horde of monsters. "I know they blew up already, but adding shrapnel is a bit..."

At the ground level, though, those fighting would see that the "slimes" were less slime-like than one might have otherwise expected. Though they moved and functioned as one might have expected, their bodies seemed to simply dissipate into the air after receiving any sort of particularly lethal blow. They left no residue, no trace of their existence as they died.

Luckily, however, that meant that they could be shorn through in time.

Such was the case for the scissor-wielding girl and the living tree near her, who, after noticing the presence of the pink-haired Berserker by their side smashing through the horde, began to fight back with newfound vigor.

"I had thought this would be a tough fight, but help is always welcome!" the girl declared, a bright smile on her face as she swung her weapon around, stabbing and snipping through any monsters that approached. "But I suppose introductions should wait until after the battle's over."

The treant, however, seemed to be far less enthusiastic about the sudden arrival of newcomers. All the same, though, it continued to fight against the horde with little restraint. With it's prodigious size, the massive being swung it's arms around, slamming into the oncoming horde it's arms and into the ground to release blasts of concentrated magical energy—also directed towards the enemies, of course.

Between all the chaos of handling the slimelike monsters, though, what would be of immediate concern was that there were larger ones crossing over the nearby hills and slowly moving towards the town. They were fewer in number compared to the smaller ones, of course, but their presence would be coupled with something more concerning.

More specifically, of course, that was the fact that they were firing what was unmistakably balls of concentrated, corrupted magic towards those fighting, both in the sky and in the air.

By now, the caravan had already been turned around and had begun to retreat from the battlefield, but the mercenaries seemed to be equally occupied as the number of monsters began to steadily increase.

The hamlet still seemed to be their main priority, however, which meant that anything that wasn't directly engaging with one of the otherworlders was still slowly pushing onward to the center of the settlement. There had to be something there if they were converging, but figuring out what that was would probably have to wait until the area was a bit more secure.

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

??? — Streets

Forcing the door to the smithy open wouldn't take too much effort, owing in part due to the rotten wood that had once held the lock in the doorframe in place. With a conspicuously loud cracking noise as the door gave way, Bianca—and anyone who followed after her—would be met with a cluster of undead soldiers. Scars marked both their equipment and bodies, and none seemed to be in great condition, but that didn't change what they were now.

Given how they had been trapped within the building, however, the bell's ringing seemed to have done little beyond gathering them all in one place up until the door opened.

Now, however, there was a new noise to follow—a new existence to chase after and strike out at. Though their reactions to the noise seemed staggered, it didn't take long for the zombies to begin lurching towards the broken door, rusted and shattered weapons at the ready.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

---

Neir — The Drunken Bear

Though Meira had given a bit of a curious glance towards the young man as he half-shouted for beer, the way he had spent the next few seconds freaking out pushed the assumption that he was desperate out of her mind. At this point, he seemed more awkward than anything—a bit of an oddity for someone who looked as old as he did—but the catgirl chose not to judge and instead offered suggestions for their meal as per his request.

"Menu's up there on that signboard," she mentioned offhandedly as she pointed to a plaque of wood marked with papers nearby, "but if you want suggestions for someone who hasn't eaten in a day... Probably something not too heavy would be fine, so I'd recommend the rabbit stew."

After the waitress returned with their drinks and left with their orders, though, the adventurer would take a sip of water before hearing the young man's next question. By this point, Meira had begun to feel that Cassius' outlandish story didn't seem too far-fetched if someone was asking questions on this level to her, but without revealing any such thoughts she simply replied in turn.

"Monsters nearby... If we're talking about within vicinity of the town and past the slums, you'd probably be likely to find meridian vipers and the silverspine rabbits; there's been a bit of a population boom of both lately, though, so I'd expect to run into those in the plains nearby. If it's Bero Forest, that list grows a lot longer; blackfang boars, whipvine wolves, poison slimes..." Meira trailed off before shaking her head. "Well, they're not too worrisome if you don't cause a fuss. I can't help much when it comes to plants, though, since I'd probably get smacked upside the head by the botanists at the guild if they found out I was explaining those badly. You'll have to get that information elsewhere. That aside... What other non-humans are there beyond beastfolk and elves here? Ogres, dwarves, and the occasional daemon is probably the best answer I could give if we're talking regular residents, but I think I've seen a few lizardmen walking around as of late. Couldn't tell you why they're here, though."

Hopefully, that much would be enough to let the young man ruminate on whatever it was going through his mind while they waited for their meals to arrive.

"Oh, right, I don't ever think I got your name... Or you, mine?" she added in. "It's Meira, by the way."

@Zeroth

---

Neir — Slums

After the chaos had settled and the offending ne'er-do-wells promptly dragged away, the residents who lived or "worked" in the slums quickly got to work. While one body had been dragged away by Connor, the other had been left unattended by Meira in favor of Cassius' survival. This meant, of course, that those who were more curious (or opportunistic) quickly got to work, taking what they could off the corpse (or what remained of it) before moving to dispose of it.

They had the decency to clean up after themselves, at least.

Unfortunately for Petra, however, the focus of the others on the dead did not exempt her from catching the eye of someone else—a young child who had to be no older than ten. Donning dirty hempen clothing and wielding a stick from somewhere or another, the boy began to poke at the slime out of pure curiosity.

Whether or not it would be a problem... Well, that was up for the slime to decide.

@TheMushroomLord

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Route 5

While not as centered upon slowly grinding the opponent into the ground, Richard couldn't really deny how this new improvised method of attacking was panning out. Something like this—forcing a 2v2 into a pair of 1v1s—would probably be worth examining in the future, but the young man quickly brought his focus back towards the battle at hand. With the Sneasel slowly being worn down by the Leech Seed and Wrap on top of the continued barrage of Vine Whips, taking a few smaller blows here and there wouldn't really amount to much after the fact.

A quick glance at the Munchlax at Luna's side, however, showed that the situation wasn't as ideal as the Trainer might have otherwise preferred. The Pawniard that had since been left to run rampant was quickly becoming a problem, and it was only a matter of time before it folded to the pressure.

Given how Laurel's plan seemed to center around turning the fight into a 2v1, though, Richard quickly came to the conclusion that using the opponent to speed things up in the interim was a good an idea as any to do so.

"Luna! Use the Sneasel as a shield for Munchlax and block that attack!" he ordered—and the Snivy he had asked to do so seemed more than happy to oblige.

Maybe that Taunt had done a bit more than just block off any debilitating moves, for better or worse...

@Rune_Alchemist