Gentlemanvaultboy

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Penny looked back at Jude, pondering his offer to make her another shirt or a new cape or something. "Oh yeah, Remix right?" She considered for the first real time what had been done to her sword, the sudden additional weight that had taken her down earlier. Manipulation and duplication. She looked down at what she had on. It wasn't the most breezy of outfits on the best of days and she could feel herself getting good and toasty even before giving the cape away. "That's a pretty useful power, especially in this situation. Couldn't you just make my shirt absorb less then?"

She didn't get far in that line of thought, because Mad Dog had started talking again. Penny immediately wanted to slap a hand over the girls mouth to keep her from bringing trouble down on them by association. What the hell did, she assumed, the head of a soup corporation have to do with anything? Whatever it was, though, she could tell that the girl had ticked the would be king of beach island off.

This is why extroverts were a problem! They went and said what everybody else was thinking!

Jessica, as she introduced herself moments later, didn't seem to be all that concerned though. She had stomped over to one of the volleyball polls leaning in the ground and did...something to it. Penny couldn't tell, because the girl practiced proper epithet etiquette. What she did know was that as soon as the girl swung it around and flipped it on there was an electric hum and Penny could feel her earrings being pulled toward it. That wasn't all though, because the gleaming steel of her bejeweled blade leaped out of the sand like a flying fish and clanged into the side of the thing, wobbling from the impact. If Jessica's epithet wasn't just "Magnets" she was smarter than Penny had thought.

The good times were over in a flash, though. Literally, as the old Sam Axe looking guy across the way started to burn with the hateful gleam of the sun itself. "Gyaaaaa! You dickhead!" Penny shouted, trying to pull her eyes away or close them and finding both impossible. "Do you see what I'm wearing? I just saw my optometrist last month!" She reached up and ripped the glasses off her face, the magnifying power of the lenses doing more harm than good in this situation.

Earlier she had been will to write this schlub off as an annoyance, but now he was actively being a problem and problems tasted cold steel! She tried to step forward, only for the pain to radically increase and force her backwards. Damn it, there was no way to...

Her hand suddenly tightened on her glasses and she reached out to the side to feel around for Jude. "Jude!" She said, slapping the glasses into his chest. "My glasses. Can you make the lenses less clear, then duplicate them?"

dragons versus unicorns

Unicorns are just flat out more useful than dragons. You could get rid of all ocean pollution by keelhauling a unicorn around.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I once fell out of a tree, hit every branch on the way down, and then cratered so hard into my grandfathers shed the entire roof fell in.

Related note, I've never broken a bone.

Topic of the Day/Week/Whatever

Okay guys. This one's gonna be RP related.

"Should likes/dislikes, hobbies, fears, etc. be included/required in a character sheet? What are some of the things that are absolutely mandatory for a character sheet? What are some things that we're better off leaving out?"

@HaleyTheRandom

Name, age, appearance, short backstory, personality overview, and a handful of primary skills. Powers and equipment if they're applicable. That's the mandatory stuff. Everything else is just gravy in my opinion. Likes, dislikes, fears, hobbies, even sexual orientation are something I'd much rather discover as I play the character.

Of course, this is just me. I'd include a bunch of stuff like that in an optional "other" section for people that have a more solid idea of who their character is going in then I typically do. No reason to restrict people if they want to go all out on detail after all.

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

"Shut up it's just sand! They're full of sand!" Penny said, covering up her eyebrows. "It's artificial thickener, it's not real." She gave them a quick rub with her palms. To her credit some evidence of her two face plants into the beach did come trickling down.

It took her a moment to parse the rest of what Mad Dog had, and it was perhaps the only thing that kept Penny from blowing her top at the girl and stomping off into the jungle. At the very least she was willing to help even if she was compelled to keep giving Penny reasons to slap her, such as pointing out her obvious weaknesses for everyone to here. "No I can't just get the sword back. It's not, technically, mine I think."

It wasn't long after that that Mad Dog's friend called out, drawing Penny's attention up the beach to where a small party emerged from the jungle carrying the first half of Penny's quest. She was stunningly relieved to see the girl okay, but less relived when the only person on the beach wearing more jewelry than her started declaring himself the leader of the castaways here. She got a sour feeling just from the way he talked that over-road any qualms she'd had about tramping through the jungle. She turned sullenly back to Jessica. At least when this girl declared herself leader Penny didn't feel threatened by it. It wouldn't hurt to see if they couldn't find teach's missing kids while they were at it. "I'm not in any mood to watch beach politics play out. You still want to help look around? I could probably get my peasants to build a whole coconut grove if I got my sword. Or a boat. Or at least some shelter from this god awful sun."

Speaking of the god awful sun she couldn't help but notice the gradual reddening of the pale writers bare shoulders. Reaching up to the jeweled clasp of her shoulder...vest....thing she undid it and pulled the garment off leaving her black undershirt to absorb the full force of the suns rays. "Here." She said, handing it over to the girl. "I hate the stupid outfit anyway."

World of Light

Linkle

Level 7 - (28/70) + 3

Location: Lumbridge ~ The Starting Gate ---> Subspace Frontier
Word Count: 1713

@Lugubrious@DracoLunaris

---

"No. You heard the princess, you can't come." Linkle said.

Her Chochobo looked at Linkle with big, red, soulful eyes and tried to stand up again. Linkle put her hands on the things feathery back and gently pushed it back down against the outside of the gate. "Kweeh," it went, dejectedly.

"What am I going to do, put you in the back of the kart?" Linkle asked. The chochobo forced itself back up, letting out another excited "Kweh!" and pointing with its beak over her shoulder. Linkle turned around to see the Courier doing just that and frowned. Linkle might have been giddy like a kid when the man had come through on getting her the potion she'd asked for, doubly so when he just threw in the bottle it had come with as a bonus, but she couldn't help but dislike him just a little for undermining her like this and beating her to the idea. She turned back to the chochobo, that now looked at her so hopefully. She crossed her arms. "Well now there's definitely no room." She said, in the same tone her grandmother would use to signal that this particular discussion was over. The chochobo looked unconvinced, and Linkle signed and decided to take a different track. "Between the other chochobo, the big bug lady, and the robot you could get jostled over the side and go under the tires. Why do you think you're Epona II? That thing ate the first one."

Whether it understood the words or something in the girls fearful tone commanded its attention the Chochobo heeded her and sat down against the gate of its own accord, though not without giving her a betrayed look. "Just hang out and we'll be back in no time. Here." Linkle reached into her bag and pulled out one of the plants she'd gotten from Mina, the kind she said chochobo loved. She held out the Gystal Green as a peace offering and after a moment of determined pouting the bird reached out and snatched it from her hand. As Epona II gobbled it down Linkle laid a couple more in front of it. "You'll get some more when we get back, if you be good. Maybe I'll even give you on of those weird peppers."

Epona II finally "Kweehed" in a sort of affirmative way. Linkle nodded to herself, then turned to the gate and whistled loudly. It wasn't but a moment before her three cucoos came running out of the gate to her side. "Let's go girls." She said, headed for the big truck with them in toe.

---

Linkle spent the first part of the journey enjoying herself. The warm sun, the cool breeze, the smell of grass blowing in the wind. It was different riding across this beautiful land while it was still full light. It let you see a lot more things, including the very big monkey monster they had avoided yesterday and the lake with the big colorful tower in the middle. Linkle waved furiously as they passed it, standing and holding onto the handrail to lean over the edge, but had no clue if the owners of that place had even seen her. That was where the familiar sights ended, and the incredibly unfamiliar ones began. Trees filled with what she instantly recognized as those monsters that she'd helped Fi put a stop too, mystery towers, giants buildings that screamed Dungeon at the top of their lungs. There was some kind of giant tree thing big enough to be seen from a great distance. All these things they just rolled past, leaving in the dust behind them. It made her feel a little sad. There were so many things to do and see here she could spend he entire life exploring and still probably never see it all. She could stay here forever.


"Like a pillow." The thought came sneaking into her head. "Like the whole world was some big soft pillow."

She felt her grip tighten on her bag. That did remind her though. She looked up. "Din?" She said over the engine noise and wind. Getting up and make her way unsteadily across the truck bed to plop down next to the girl. In her lateness she'd nearly forgotten. She reached into the sack and pulled out the feather ornament she'd bought from Malo Mart, holding it up between them careful so the wind didn't blow it away. "Pretty, right? I saw this hair thing in the shop and just had to get it for you. Check it out." She held it down next to where Din had her wings flattened against her arms. "It's the same color and everything. I'll bet with this and that mask of yours you'd look like some kind of graceful, beautiful eagle."

---

"KEEEEESE!" Linkle shouted, right before a bomb arrow obliterated a huge swarm of the annoying bat monsters. As though responding to Linkle's new suspicion of it the land had stopped awing her with promises of adventure and started throwing monsters at them. Linkle looked at her crossbow, impressed. The range and speed of the bomb arrow had increased significantly from the simple act of maintenance. Not for the first time she wondered what these babies could do if she could find someone that really knew how they worked.

As more monsters came closer Linkle took more potshot to test get used to the new range and power, targeting any of the ones Junior and the pack (Flock? Cabal? What did you call a group of old turtle wizards? A Retirement?) of Grandpas manged to miss on their quest to gather spirits. No matter how much the performance of the crossbows had been improved they couldn't well hold up against someone that could just fly up to the enemy. She invited anyone else in the bed who wanted to make a contest of getting the monsters before the koopas did, though even she knew to duck down for cover when she saw the little gold boys holding guns. The sound of bullets pinging off the side abruptly stopped as Junior slammed into them, much to her relief.

The finally rolled to a stop in front of a big canyon that sat between them and the orb of darkness in the distance. Bowser, though, had gone right over just like that jump when they were riding through the desert. As the Princess began to reverse away from the edge Linkle grabbed on to one of the handrails, grinning like a madwoman. The Princess sped forward, sending them hurtling off the edge and into the air. Linkle wasn't the only one screaming as they flew. She wasn't even the only one screaming for joy. They landed with a sudden jolt that jerked Linkle forward off her seat and into the bed, laughing.

It wasn't long before battle was joined, though. As she pulled herself off the ground and climbed up onto the roof of the Brother Grimm for a better look she could hear Bowser talking about Tatoo, the world boss, and see the various monsters emerging from the pits of darkness that had sprung up all over the canyon. The Koopas responded in kind, calling forth their own minions and letting battle be joined proper. She couldn't help but note three white figures among the horde of Gooba that charged the first wave, and a quick look around the kart bed confirmed her suspicions. The cucoo's must have been bounced out from the landing and joined up with the first friendly horde of creatures they'd seen. That was all right. The girls could have their fun.

Linkle was about to jump in after them, but a noise gave her pause. A loud horn noise drew her attention to the creatures that had horns for faces and the almost visible sound they were using as an attack. She could see them blowing whole groups of goombas and dry bones away with that noise. She mentally kicked herself for not buying a pair of earplugs when she'd had the chance. If she ran into the middle of all those monsters and got paralyzed someone would have to come in and save her. With Jak and Donnie already swooping around to handle the airborne enemies those horn guys seemed to have the best chance of breaking the bottleneck that the bug lady and the Courier were currently taking advantage of.

Linkle jumped off the Brother Grimm, advancing to behind the front line with the Koopas and pulling out her bow instead of her crossbows. Flipping open her pouch she withdrew one of her arrows, nocked it, and fired. The arrow buried itself right in the chest of one of the horn guys, and another joined it to finish the monster off. She turned her attention to another one, killing it with another pair of arrows just as it was abut to let loose on a squad of big spikey dry bones. She reached for another arrow as she saw a third one.

Out.

She patted around the inside of her pouch, but found only pokeballs. She hadn't restocked on any arrows either! Well, you couldn't blame her for that! It wasn't like she was used to worrying about ammunition. She was about to put away the bow and risk engaging the horns up close when she had an idea. Her hair suddenly flashed blue and she outstretched her hand. Ice began to grow in her palm, elongating and sharpening until it had the rough shape of an arrow. Linkle held it up proudly. It wasn't the sort of ice arrow she was accustom to, but it should do the job. She nocked it and fired at the nearest horn guy. It fell short, falling right into a Primids head. She made the next one thinner, but that one went wide and shattered on the ground. Another, this one striking true but breaking against the monster without doing any damage. She made around fifteen arrows before she started to get a feel for the right weight and shape, but once she was in the groove of it she was putting as many arrows as she could cleanly in the Borboras.

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

As Penny jogged up she ran through what she could possibly say to the crying girl. No matter what she didn't think Godzuki was gonna be happy to see her and she wasn't exactly good at comforting people besides. Fortunately for her the girl roared back to life, snotty nose, eyes red and still watery, letting the whole world know just how much she hadn't been sobbing her anxiety out. It probably helped that her friend from before was there to watch her back, and was kind enough to actually give Penny something to call little miss Mad Dog.

She was about to explain the situation, but to her surprise Jude broke the ice first. From their interaction with the beach cop she'd taken him as the anti-social mumbly sort, an impression that was reinforced as he mumbled the remainder of his explanation after his strong start. She took over for him to answer the dudes questions. "What Jude said. I thought maybe, since you two have both seen her, you could help us look around. As for what happened..." She shook her head, spreading her arms and pointing out all the people and familiar landmarks dotting the beach. "It would have to be an epithet, right? If that had been a normal hurricane we'd all be in a lot worse shape, right?

She thought about the bellow that had rung out over the wind before they'd been swept away. "It was probably an accident. So that at least makes this more Lord of the Flies than Most Dangerous Game." Only slightly better, but she could at least be comforted at thinking that any blood soaked savagery that ensued would be entirely on them.

She shut down that line of thought before she worked herself right back to the edge of a panic attack.

Another stroke of luck was that someone else appeared to distract her from that. The woman from before, the one that moved like a teacher, broke away from a nearby cluster of adults and approached them. Jude backed off as she arrived, stepping a bit closer to Penny. It seemed like he had reached his limit for now. She stepped slightly in front of him to answer the woman. She jerked her thumb at Mad Dog. "This one laughed herself to tears." Penny answered stiffly, humoring her blatant deception in the face of this figure of authority. "But other than that none of us seem to be injured or catching island madness. You haven't seen the little girl she was picking on, have you? Or..."

Now it was Penny's turn to trail off in embarrassment. "Maybe a sword?" she said slowly, eyes on the ground.

World of Light

Linkle and Joker

Level 7 - (25/70) + 3 & Level 2 - (6/20) + 3

Location: Lumbridge ~ The Starting Gate
Word Count: 1365

Collab with @Majoras End

---

Linkle didn’t know it, but she had been going in circles. She had been doing that, to a lesser extent, ever since she separated from Din but now as the sun started moving into the four o’clock position it was starting to be a real problem. The winding loop-de-loop path she took to reach Mina’s and grab a bite to eat was bad enough, but if you marked down Linkle’s journey through the village after that on a map with a green marker you’d find she’d looped and crossed over herself so many times that the map would appear to be of a great grassy field rather than a town. Wandering her way back to the Guild Hall and finding her chochobo hadn’t done anything to help her navigation, but now she was at least looping herself faster. The only upside is that one of those loops of the town had brought her back to the Blacksmith Sisters in time to pick up her freshly restored crossbows.

Linkle, for her part, simply marveled in frustration at how Lumbridge was so much bigger than she’d thought. She had somewhere she had to be! They were going to kill the G class! She slumped forward against her chochobo’s soft neck, groaning to herself. She didn’t want to get left behind again, not like last time. She never be able to face the others again if she missed another big fight like this. She’d even asked for directions from some of the passers by, but the town gates she’d arrived at were always empty.

As they trotted down a street that felt familiar she straightened up and called out “Helllooooo? Can anybody help me?”

As if by coincidence, Ren approached Linkle, having overheard her. “What do you need help with?”

Linkle quickly looked down and smiled as she recognized the boy from the guildhall earlier. “Oh hey!” She said, and leaned down more towards him. “You’re one of the guys from the dead zone, right? Were you out looking for the rest of the group too? I don’t blame you, this town’s soooooo big.”

It wasn’t.

“There are about forty gates.”

There weren't.

“I just can’t seem to find the one we’re leaving from. Do you know?” She flicked her eyes dishearteningly back up to the sun for a second, biting her lip, before turning back to Ren. “You wanted to do that too, right?”

The thief showed slight confusion as Linkle explained. Was the town really that big? Either way, he might as well help her find the others. “I haven’t really decided. But if you can’t find your way to the gate, I can help you look for it if you want.” Ren offered.

“Thank you!” Linkle said, jumping off the Chochobo and offering her hand. “I’m Linkle.”

“Ren Amamiya. Nice to meet you.” the thief introduced himself properly, shaking Linkle’s hand.

The handshake was short, but vigorous. As they started walking, the bird trotting along beside them, Linkle decided to ask about something that had been on her mind ever since she’d heard these three talking at the guild hall. “You’ve got a Persona, right?”

The thief curiously looked back to her. “Yeah, why? Do you wanna know about Personas?”

“Heck yes, but that’s not why I asked.” Linkle replied. “A friend of mine has a Persona. Well, actually she has two. She stayed behind at the castle with who I’m pretty sure was her boyfriend. I thought they might be friends of yours. Did you guys know a Mina or a Junpei back home?”

Well this is a first. Not only was someone actually interested in a part of the whole Metaverse schtick, but there’s actually more Persona users outside of the Phantom Thieves and another wildcard! “Not really. Most of the Persona users I know are a part of my team, but I’m willing to meet them. If they don’t try to backstab me, of course. Long story.” Though the names seemed oddly familiar, he wasn’t exactly willing to have what happened with Akechi happen again.

Linkle’s face fell a bit at first when he mentioned he didn’t know who they were, but lit up immediately when Ren said he was willing to meet them anyway. “No, no, they’re fine. Mina’s really scared of a lot of things and Junpei was a little violent when we first ran into him, but that was because of weird mind control stuff. Also a long story. Other than that they’re regular kids.” She thought about that for a minute, how anyone with a Persona could be considered regular. She flashed back to that fight and couldn't help but laugh a little at the understatement. “Those Persona things are pretty crazy. Junpei’s was shrugging off arrows and explosions. It was lucky for me he had to wait a bit in between summonings or he would’ve chopped me in half for sure.” Linkle’s eyes suddenly shot wide for a second. “You said one stabbed you in the back? There are villains running around with one of those scary monsters?”

Ren chuckled a bit as Linkle told him about when she had first met the other Persona users. When asked if there were corrupted users, he hesitantly nodded. “As far as I know, they’re a rare case. But this one, Goro Akechi, he was manipulated by the same bastard that falsely accused me of assaulting him to cause mental shutdowns in people.” he explained. “Masayoshi Shido, his father and leader of a conspiracy group being puppeted by a god of control, Yalda-something. Yaldabaoth? Pretty bullshit, right?” the thief tried to joke. “But really, me and Akechi were both just the main pawns of that god’s game. I wish I could’ve helped him.”

Some of that went right over Linkle’s head, mostly the part about mental shutdowns, but the real meat of the boy’s story got through. A bad guy manipulating his kid, and pawns of a controlling god. She glanced upward at the sun and frowned. Galeem and this Yalda-some-such would get on like peas in an evil pod. Three more things to watch out for. “Who knows, you might run into him if you travel far enough.” She said, trying to shake off the poor mood she got it whenever she thought of Galeem. “Goro, I mean. Maybe you can still help him out.”

“You think so?”

“I really do.” She said cheerily. “I’m sure he must be here somewhere.”

Ren smiled. “Thanks, Linkle.”

“KWEHHHH!” Came a squawk from the Chochobo. Linkle looked down the street to see The unmistakable shape of the Brother Grimm monster Kart, Peach and Michael and everyone else that had made it gathered around readying themselves to head out. It was amazing what can be easily achieved if you have someone beside you able to keep you walking in a straight line for more than four seconds.

“Woohoo!” Linkle shouted, jumping into the air. “You really know how to navigate.” She said to Ren, punching him lightly in the shoulder. Then she crossed her arms, her expression getting slightly more serious. “I know you said you hadn’t decided, but I know from experience how scary strong you Persona guys are. We’re about to hunt down something really bad and kick it in the head. It's going to be really dangerous, and I think we could use all the help we could get if you’re willing to give it.” She thought back to the first time they’d fought one of Galeem’s guardians, how she’d missed that fight because she wasn’t strong enough to beat Junpei. How people had died. How maybe, if they’d had people as strong as Mina and Junpei in there with them, it could have been prevented.

On one hand, he didn’t think he’d be of much help. On the other hand, Ren had his team back. He didn’t want to disappoint Linkle too. “I’ll let the others know we’ll be heading out with you guys.” the thief finally decided.

“All right.” Linkle said, hopping back up on Epona II’s back and looking the boy in the eye. “It’ll help you out too, I swear.” She nodded and pointed forward. The Chochobo took off down the street to join everybody else.

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Penny tuned to the source of Jude's voice like a prairie dog scanning zeroing in on a hawk screech. God she was happy to see him. She was almost disgusted by how happy she was to see him. In fact, it was that disorienting happy disgust mixture that made her realize just how close she was to tripping over the cliff right into freakoutsville. She had just met that guy after all, under some extremely annoying circumstances, she shouldn't feel like she'd just spotted her pet dog back from the dead and fit as a fiddle bounding up the beach to her.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then another, one after the other, trying to breath the anxiety out. Being a terrified kid wasn't going to get her anywhere. She felt the shakes and quakes of her body settle down into tremors.

She looked back up to answer Jude, a little more composed. "I..uh...I think I'm okay. Yeah, just a little shaken up. Those castaway jitters, you know? You okay?" Was that a joke she'd said just now? Well, Jude was right about one thing; knowing someone else's name around here actually was helping her keep calm. "I don't know where the girl is. If...if you're here, and I'm here, she was so close she'd have to be around here right?" Think this through. Think logically. Penny's mind latched onto the girl, not so much as a person but as a problem that could be solved. A goal to keep her anchored. It didn't help that she felt responsible for drawing the kid back to the sandcastle when she'd been on the way to her parents, presumably. "Unless she got blown up into the treeline." Penny said, staring again into the green jungle just beyond the beach. She cupped her hands and called out, "KIIIIIID?"

Penny didn't even know her name. She kicked herself for not asking her name. Why hadn't the security asked her name and saved Penny the trouble?

She cupped her ears, listening for any kind of response. She did hear something, though. Soft sobbing, quiet, like a scared kid. Bingo! But it wasn't coming from the trees. She turned her head down the beach, her interest drawn to a pair of girls crouched a ways down the beach. Wait, was that...?

Oh no, it was Godzuki. The local bully wasn't so tough after god kicked sand in her face, huh? Seeing her like that was actually making her feel kind of bad about earlier. Only a little. Just a little bit. You couldn't even call this karma. Even if it had just been her this happened to getting dumped on an island for knocking over a kids sandcastle would be completely disproportionate.

Suddenly, Penny had an idea. "Look over there." she said to Jude, pointing out the pair. "We might need another pair of eyes and she knows what the girl looks like. C'mon." She started jogging up the beach towards the pair, feeling the sand shift uncomfortable under her not very beach shoes.

World of Light

@Majoras End Hey Majora, want to do a collab with me to help Linkle get to the meeting spot? I've been meaning to have her talk to him.