1. Home
  2. Gentlemanvaultboy

Gentlemanvaultboy Member

Avatar of Gentlemanvaultboy

Status

User has no status, yet

Bio

I guess my comfort zone is "eccentric side character."

Most Recent Posts

In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Ghosts 'n Moblins


Word Count: 2397


Level 2 - 11/20) + 3


Level 9 - (90/90) + 3






Location: Hammerhead

@Yankee@Dawnrider


Yuri blinked a few times, trying to put together the image the mechanic had described. "I suppose." She said hesitantly as the woman led her inside the garage. That was quite the description, one she was ashamed to say she hadn't gotten before they had left. Her mind instantly shot back to Mr. Arcade Bunny, a person she had run all over Alchamoth for searching for badges that had been misplaced around the city when everything had become mixed up. Was this girl a rabbit like him? No, surely she would have described Linkle as a "rabbit-girl" in that case.

"I'm afraid we've never met. She's gone missing. We're actually here looking for her and a few others that vanished in the Dead Zone. I think the bike may help in my investigation." She continued, trying her best to channel the air of professional confidence Hisoka maintained when speaking with a client. She was by no means the ace detective you read about in mystery novels, but it was always a good idea to see what information you could glean without using supernatural means. "You didn't happen to see anyone else pass through here coming from that way, did you? Besides the four boys?"

The Master Cycle Zero was sitting inside a nearby garage, the deft hands of Cid and Cindy having restored the piece of torn up scrap scattered across the highway into a pristine motorbike. Yuri took a moment to gawk at the unicorn head mounted on the front, almost alive and ready to whinny right in front of them. "May I?" She asked, approaching it, and at the mechanics nod she drew up beside the bike and tried to find the best place. She had never used a token this large before, if it even counted as one. She supposed the best was was...

Lifting her leg, she straddled the Master Cycle and sat down on the seat before reaching out and grasping the handle bars. She didn't turn it on. Truth be told she hadn't the foggiest how it worked, but then again she had no intention of roaring down the road with no protection like this. A ten speed was more her speed. No, she just needed to concentrate. Be where the girl she was looking for had been. Dig into the machine and find some Trace of her lurking within it.

Make a connection.

There was a sudden chill in the garage, inexplicable under the blistering heat of the midday sun, as Yuri spotted the ghostly white figure of a girl before her. Her features were indistinct, save for two long ears growing out of her head. Yuri's eyes followed it as the figure began to move, the odd gliding walk of the trace carrying it quickly out the open garage door and out of sight around the doorframe. Yuri hopped off the Master Cycle, making sure to keep one hand on it at all time, before turning back to Cindy. "Can we roll this outside, please?"

With the mechanics help they walked the cycle out into the sunlight. Yuri concentrated again, the chill less noticeable out here but still present as Yuri watched the Trace move through Hammerhead. It walked up the road a ways, and Yuri's heart sank as she thought it could be heading up the same path they had just used to return from the Dead Zone. It turned off the path, though, and started to trek out into the desert. She watched it go for as long as she was able, until it vanished into the heat haze. It never stopped moving straight north-west, only deviating when it had to avoid a scrub brush or a particularly large rock. When Traces moved they took the shortest unobstructed path they could to where they were going, as though they were living humans. She wracked her brain picturing the big map that had been shown to them, remembering what was in the direction it had so unerringly pursued. Neither of the teams had embarked in that direction. Peach's Castle could be ruled out, she understood it was connected my roadway to Hammerhead. It would have taken the road in that case. No, wherever it was going had been very far away to make it choose to trek across the badlands.

She let go of the bike and bowed to Cindy. "Thank you very much. It might not look it, but you've been a great a help. I've managed to narrow down the search area considerably, and confirmed she wasn't lost in that explosion." Of course, that search area was still a quarter of the whole world but she didn't feel the need to spoil the mood. She stood back up. "If you wouldn't mind, would you be willing to hold on to this bike for just a little longer?"



Yuri returned in brighter spirits, though given how reserved she was it was nearly unnoticeable. A small, childish part of her brain enjoyed playing at detective. This didn't feel like Mt. Hikami, which she supposed would be counted as her last "big case". That had been less of an investigation and more of a war of attrition against the mountain, slowly chipping away at its defenses until she was strong enough to make it all the way to the top. Any mysteries she unraveled were more of a byproduct of her bullheaded pursuit of Hisoka. This time she felt like she was actually doing the job Hisoka had trained her for.

As she arrived back at the Van she found the others waiting, pit taking the opportunity to sun himself on the roof like he didn't have a care in the world, and Nero ready to lay out a new mission from Vandham. For a moment she wondered how he had gotten in contact with the mercenary captain until she remembered the moogle network. Nero didn't look pleased, but Pit was all for continuing their investigation and it was hard not to get infected with his attitude considering her previous train of thought. As her started to head off, she piped up with a quick. "Um, speaking of investigating..."

She stopped. "Mr. Vandham should hear this as well, I think. Moogle?"

The moogle that appeared before them was a morose looking fellow that Yuri noted, uncomfortably, had a Hitaikakushi wrapped around its head. "Kupoooooo?" it groaned.

Yuri straighter her shoulder. "I've confirmed that Linkle was not caught in the Dead Zone explosion." She said, delivering her report perhaps too formally given the circumstances. "I believe she is somewhere in the Northwest quarter of the world. So, The City Without a Name, the Frozen Highlands, The Swordland, or the northern part of The Under. Or the Empty Space. Anyone traveling to those area should be informed and rminded to keep on the lookout. This concludes my report."

"Pooooooo..." replied the Moogle as it faded away. Yuri desperately hoped it would be able to actually relay that as she relaxed and looked back toward the small rest stop. "Do you suppose any of these shops sell lunch boxes?" She asked as she watched Pit's back. "We should get something to carry with us, along with water. Some first aid wouldn't be unwelcome either."



Linkle


Merge Rate: 33%


Location: Frozen Highlands ~ Wildwood Glades




"Whoa, a whole bunch of people?" Linkle said as Albedo explained the concept of a Hospital to her. Linkle had gotten sick very rarely, but when she had gotten scraped up Grandma had been the one to take care of her. It was like that with most people in the village. If something really bad happened, like a broken bone or a fever that would break, they sent for a healer from castle town who would reset the bone or mix up some concoction out of herbs and monster guts to give them. Healer's had to knw all kinds of things, so a place where a lot of people got healed should be a great place to find something holding All Human Knowledge. Even if it didn't look like such a nice place according to Albedo she didn't imagine it contained anything she couldn't handle. She had been to the Dead Zone, after all. "Why don't you like the look of it? Is it full of monsters or something?" She asked as the pair made their way out of the cottage.

Of course, Freya had no intention of making their trip any easier. Around the third time a branch had snuck up on her and jerked her into the air she let it know her frustrations with an explosion. Now that this place was actively hostile to them it seemed like Linkle had no compunctions about spoiling the natural beauty. She continued on, crossbow in hand. If something looked ready to lash out at them, it got a bomb. If something rose up in their way, bomb. If they were doused in nuts and fruit, well, those trees got off with a warning. It was like weeding. If you let plants start attacking you eventually your field would get overrun with Deku Baba's. Even still, it took some doing to finally emerge from the goddesses territory and Linkle could stop eyeing the tree with suspicion. Linkle sighed with relief. She had imagined that the entire forest might have turned against them. She didn't want to spoil the scenery for everyone else that lived here just because one God was upset with them.

The Goddess Freya, it seemed, had no such compunctions.

As Albedo had stepped forward to ask Mr. Tuley what is was that had caused this devastation Linkle stood stock still, looking at the briars. The knife. The kind little man. She just stood there, rooted to earth, listening to him talk. Listening to him cry. Shaking. Grinding her teeth. Clenching her fists so hard that, were it not for her gloves, she would have pierced the palms of her hands with her fingernails. When Albedo turned to look at her, to get her opinion, he was met with a great intake of breath. The sound before a scream of pure and righteous, the prelude to a volcano blowing its top, but it never came. The air caught in her throat, held there as Linkle became very, very still. Slowly her hair changed. Not with a flash. Gradually, from the top of her scalp all the way down to the tips of her braids, her hair became icy blue and when she released that breath it came out as a cloud of mist that drifted down and settled around her feet. It was joined soon enough by mist that began flowing off her body as though she were made of dry ice. The air temperature dropped sharply in her immediate vicinity, and when she finally looked up her eyes did not blaze with any kind of emotion. She wasn't calm, however. Just cold.

"That brat."

She reached out and put her hand to one of the briar vines ensnaring the old badgers house like twisting serpents. Then, with a effort of will, it began to freeze. Ice burrowed its way inside, bursting from inside the plant as the water within froze and expanded. It raced along the vine, spreading down into the roots and then back up along every part of it until the plant was completely frozen inside and out. Satisfied, Linkle drew back her leg and kicked it. At her touch the entire plant shattered like glass, what remained of Mr. Tuley's house collapsing into the space it had once filled. Without even looking up she knelt down and began shifting the stones, searching the wreckage for anything that might have survived.

"It looks like she's not so much of a coward she won't pick on the helpless." She said, even her voice cold, as she placed everything salvageable into a neat pile off to the side. It wasn't clear whether she was talking to herself or Albedo, but he next words were direct. "Albedo is right, Mr. Tuley. I don't think she's coming back. She's a liar. But you shouldn't be here if she does and finds out you didn't cut the rope. I don't know why she didn't just cut it herself."

Do you wish to?


Linkle looked up, spotting the vaguest impression of a shadow swirling in the mist in front of her.

Had she cut it herself after taking her vengeance he could have lain all his anger and regret at her feet. But in making him choose he is now accomplice to his own suffering. To cut the rope and abandon your morals, or to remain steadfast and see everything you have built crumble forever? No matter which he choses he has inflicted a wound upon his own heart, and he will always be afflicted with those most accursed of words: What if? Presenting the choice itself is the goddesses true vengeance.


"You're sure?" Linkle replied quietly, and she felt a certain sense of smug satisfaction from the back of her mind where the whispers lived.

It's what I do. I quite enjoy seeing you in this state, let my insight feed your rage a little longer.


She didn't reply, just kept at her work until she was done gathering what was left of Mr. Tuley's life. "I'll carry this stuff. Albedo, you have to carry Mr. Tuley. I can't right now." She looked down at her arms, a fine layer of frost falling off as she moved her fingers. "I'm sure the Goats would love to have your thumb." Carrying the load over to the stump, she knelt down and picked the knife up off the ground. "I'll be informing her mother about what she's done here." She said, slotting the knife into her her belt. "And I'll return this, when I see her."

It was at that moment that horrible realization hit her, though it didn't show as anything more than snap of her head in Albedos direction. "I told her where she could find Skadi." She said in a voice approaching urgency. Standing up she secured everything she had gathered and started for the rope line. "We have to go. Now."
In What are some of the most confusing/cringiest OC's you have ever encountered? → 3 yrs ago Forum: Roleplaying Discussion
My first OC came in a pair. The first was just me, but I was a Heartless. Like, one of those ones like Ansem where I got to keep having a human body and I fought people entirely by blasting them with different types of beams. They were all named "Clash (something). "Clash Buster." "Clash Destroyer." "Clash Annihilator." That last one was actually a purely defensive move, a swirling barrier of energy. He lived on a space station orbiting the earth with a bunch of heartless and hung out with a moogle with a gun for a hand, a princess that could pull hammers out of nowhere, a guy that was essentially just a shapeshifting mass of worms in a coat, and a few other people I can't really recal its been so long.

The other one was my Nobody, who forwent special powers entirely and just got really really really good at kicking. Like halfway to Saitama level kicking, a complete physical beast. In contract I did the whole wandering vagrant thing with him, never stayed in one place for too long. Did a lot more fights with him, though, and ended up interacting with a lot more people than the Heartless version as a result even though I was playing him as the bad guy. Him and the Heartless were mortal enemies and every time they were in the same place they would make fools of themselves trying to kill one another.

I often think back to those days and get a little nostalgic smile on my face.

As for other peoples stuff, if I had a Nickle for every edgy Yoshi with a sword I've seen I'd have a whole quarter. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's weird that it happened five times.

Whe. I was much younger, I was a huge Jurassoc Park fan. I ran a message board about it and everything, and it had a roleplay section. I made a roleplay character whose parents crash-landed on one of the islands when she was a baby. She was then orphaned after her parents were killed by velociraptors and she was "adopted" by the raptors and grew up to be part of the pack. She could talk to all the dinosaurs on the island and could run as fast as the raptors and InGen wanted to capture her to find out why she survived among the dinosaurs for so long....


This is wholesome as hell.
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay


Word Count: 2714


LEVEL UP x 2!!! Level 7 - (7/70) + 3


Level 9 - (87/90) + 3




Link




Location: Carcass Isle


@Potemking


It was cold here. That was the first ting he noticed. It was cold, and wet. He could feel rain falling on him, mud and muck clinging to his body. Despite it all, he somehow wasn't so numb that he couldn't feel the pain. His body was a patchwork of aches and pains, but that was the only thing that let him know he was alive. That was all right, he supposed. He had to get up. He still had work to do. He forced his eyes open.

He wasn't surprised. The scene was exactly what he had expected. Green fields. A boundless sky, one that could be beautiful if it weren't for the storm blotting it out. The only lights he could see where the sparks that flittered across landscape from the fires, so distant yet so large. Hyrule was burning. His majesty was dead. All of his friend's had surly perished, taken as off guard as the castle had been by Ganon's overwhelming assault. The only living things on this plain were him and the crawling Guardian's the circled the tree he had been leaned against. Four. Five, it looked like. It was hard to tell, the way they crawled over and behind the dozen or so carcasses of the ones he had already killed. They circled him cautiously, like scavengers unsure of whether their next meal could still muster up the strength to still take at least one of them with it.

The Princess, at least, must have gotten away. Sought shelter at Fort Hateno with what was left of the Royal army after he had fallen. The rest of the Guardians must have traveled on, leaving just these few cowards to finish him off. If he moved at all he didn't doubt they would fire on him, but for now they scurried and waited. Part of him wished they would just get their nuts in order and go in for the kill, he couldn't swing his arm to parry one of those beams if he had tried, but he also knew that every moment they were warily watching him was one more moment the fort didn't have to deal with them. He could hold on, just a little longer. For that at least.

The staredown continued, with only the noises of the rain and their footfalls echoing across Ash Swamp. The longer it went on the more unnerved Link became. What were they waiting for? Were they really afraid? He had never seen them act like this before, had never known them to appear so...eager. It made no sense, but that was the only way to describe it. Thought their mono eyes betrayed no emotion he could tell. They were waiting in barely contained anticipation. What what going on? It was too quiet, as well. He should have been able to hear the sounds of battle from Fort Hateno, the rallying cries of men, the slicing sound the Guardians beams made as they shot though the air, the explosions from where they found their mark. There was nothing, though. Had the fort already fallen? Was Zelda all right? Why were they keeping him alive.

It was then that, through the sparks and the bodies, he caught movement. Just a flicker of a shadow disappearing behind one of the Guardians corpses. He scanned the field, alert now, unease building to terror. He saw it again, the edge of some kind of robe peeking out from behind another Guardian that slowly slid behind it. Closer this time. Coming closer. The shadow flicked around the rows of Guardians, always just glimpses. A dainty hand, a slender form half obscured by a guardians still sparking leg. A flash of white that was gone the next moment. Closer. Always moving closer.

Finally he spotted it full on, the form of a familiar woman gliding down the row right towards him. He struggled, tried to get his arms to move. This was it. This is what they had been waiting for. What was she doing here?!? He lifted his back off the tree for a instant, but felt himself slam back down as the lady increased her speed. She stretched out her black hand towards him, and just as she was about to break the semi circle of Guardians and force her way into the small patch of field Link had claimed with his blood one of the still living Guardian scurried past. He lost sight of her, and by the time the guardian had passed the Lady was gone again. But where? Where?

His answer came in the form of a frigid hand wrapping around his chin and pulling his head to the right. His entire flied of vision was taken up by that dreadful white mask poking out from behind the tree as The Lady extended her other hand and laid her fingers upon his forehead. Immediately there was pressure, unbearable pressure, as his skin was forced flush to his skull, as as he felt cracks began to form in his bone. His head sang with pain as the force came down, crushing, crushing, crushing...



Crushing pain seared its way into his cranium as Link's eyes flew open, his screaming half in terror and half in agony. He could move though. Now he could move, for as much good that would do against her. His hands flew to to his head, where he felt his knuckles knock into something metal. Metal? He grabbed onto it and pulled, and after a few moments of desperate struggle the pressure abated as he wrenched off the helmet and threw it forward. It bounced off the sand a few times before splashing down in the surf as Link sprang up, sword in hand and eyes wild.

The beach around him was desolate, filled with dead animals and the wrecks of great sailing vessels. Where was he? He looked down to the sword in his hand and felt a sting of surprise. Why was that surprising? He looked over at what had been on his head and found his answer. The helmet from The Maw sat there, moved gently back and forth by the surf. So snug as it had been as a little child, as a teenager it had nearly crushed him. What a terribly embarrassing death that would have been.

He signed. For one brief moment he had thought The Maw had been nothing but an awful nightmare, but it all came flooding back to him. The mage, the Kid's sabotage, the awful jolt as they had run aground. He instinctually reached down to make sure he still had his sheikah slate, and when he found it hanging there he caught a brief bout of euphoria. It felt like it had been months since he had been properly equipped.

His spirit was lifted even more when he realized that it wasn't just he that had made it. He trudged over to where he saw Mirage, lying on the beach sharing warmth with some disgusting looking dead fish. Down the way he spotted Ms. Fortune, the Abyssal's, and their precious cargo trying the same thing to greater effect somewhere out of the rain. Bending down he shook the sodden man. "C'mon Mirage. Get up. You're gonna catch you death out here."

Right, death. They were all still in danger here. He had to act quicker. "Butcher!" He commanded, but no craven cannibal appeared to aide him. What?

"Were you looking for someone else?" came a voice from beside him. Cia stood there, concern written on her face. She reached out to pace her hand on his briny, mud covered face. He jerked back from it, instantly on edge, much to the sorceresses displeasure. "What happened?"

"Help me with him." Was all he said. Maybe it was something in his tone but Cia complied, helping untangle the legend from his makeshift pillow and drag him part of the way to the outcropping before vanishing in a shroud of darkness and leaving him to drag mirage the rest of the way. He spotted a few more comrades on the trip over, and by his count it seemed like everyone was still alive. Everyone that hadn't died in the Maw, anyway. Geralt was going to be a pain to move for anyone that wasn't Bowser, and Bowser was in a hard spot anyway.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, ladies." Link said as he laid Mirage under the corals before stopping to take a breather. It kind of looked like the practical exam of a Voe and You class under here. "It looks like we all made it. Have you seen anybody else. The Chefs? The kids? Any of the guests?" He cast a glance as the massive, wrecked form of The Maw sitting just off the beach along with the of the ships as he shivered. He could probably climb back into the house of horrors to check if it wasn't for this rain. He hated the rain. The shipwrecks looked promising, though, even if they did cause images of Shippy in a similar state invade his mind. They needed a fire or heavier cloths to shake off this chill before it did any permanent damage. "Stay here," He said. "I'm going to go see if I can find a way to keep warm."

With that he set out back into the rain toward the wreaked vessels to search for...he didn't know. Flint? Cloaks? Anything flammable? He would take anything.



Linkle


Merge Rate: 32%


Location: Frozen Highlands ~ Wildwood Glades




It was lucky for both of them that the Legends had never shown the hero to have any reservations about digging through someone's private things. In fact, to the critical eye, there were a lot of cases where The Hero had just outright gone into peoples house and taken things that weren't strictly his. Never anything big, but rupees, bombs, arrows they had lying around, a book one time. Linkle had gotten curious about this once, asking why it was okay for him to take other people stuff. Her grandmother had made a curious expression, then explained that it was "like taxes." People could afford to chip in a little bit of what they had lying around the house when it came to saving the world. Linkle had then asked why the Hero didn't just tax the potion shop, or the bomb shop, because surly they had some extra just lying around.

Her grandmother had then quickly whether or not Linkle wanted her to finish this story and Linkle had clamed up and had never brought it up again. The point was stealing was okay so long as it was for the sake of saving the world, provided you didn't steal too much.

The witches hut, unfortunately, didn't really have anything worth stealing. As Linkle searched, being sure not to make even more of a mess than she already had, she just found a lot of normal stuff and a ton of herbs she was sure a witch god would know what to do with but whose purpose eluded here. There wasn't even any real food, and considering it was lunchtime by the way Galeem hung in the sky that was almost as disappointing as the lack of clues.

At least, there wasn't anything strange until they discovered the basement. Even the basement wasn't so strange until they found the alter. Linkle lit up as they approached. "Now that's what you should find in a witches house." She said as she approached. She leaned over the alter, thinking this must be where they find something, and as she did the pair of bones on the alter began to quiver. She tilted her head, then jumped back with as "Aack!" as the two bones jumped up at her and spilled onto the floor.

Interesting.


Linkle looked down at her chest, scowling. "Did you do that?"

You did that. Your power grows steadily, and the bones wish only to serve. That one especially.


Linkle got the impression of the shadow of a finger moving across her eye pointing down at the round one with the odd carving.

Your nature goddess has been consorting with something dark. And the other bears the stench of undeath.


Linkle frowned, and decide to get a second opinion. "Albedo, do you smell anything on those? The Skull Heart says they're evil."

Regardless of the Alchamist' opinion, she wouldn't object if he wanted to keep them. They were the closest things to clues the pair had found. The only other thing of note was the sad worm. Linkle crouched down next to it, staring through the glass as it wriggling its arms at her. Linkle had never particularly liked bugs. She had eaten a few on dares before so it wasn't like they disgusted her or anything, but she had never been into collecting them like some of the village boys had. This one, though, she to admit was kind of cute. "If she doesn't come back, poor little thing is gonna starve." She examined the top of the jar to see if there was any mechanism to open it, but failing to find one she just hopped back and and kicked the side of the jar. The side of the jar shattered, then the whole thing crumbled around the grub. It managed to hump twice in the air, arms spready joyously wide, before diving into the earth in front of her and burrowing away as she watched. "You're welcome." She yelled down into the hole, only to find it refilled behind the grub.

That was it if they didn't want to keep going deeper into the cave, and Albedo didn't think the witch would have left anything behind anyway. If they wanted answers they would have to search another spot. Linkle considered her options. The Mystic, The Dungeon, or the Hospital? "Albedo, you've seen all these places." She said, happening upon an idea. "Did any of them look, you know, 'modern?' Like Mr. Kashiwagi's place or those pictures that are hanging in the hotel rooms?" She flashed back to the cityscape she had hanging on her rooms wall. "Father Guerra was dressed pretty modern too, like my friend Michael. If we go to a place that's modern, we could find an internet and ask it about all this."





Level 2 - (8/20) + 3


Location: Hammerhead

@Yankee@Dawnrider


New Red Team pulled back into the town of Hammerhead, no missing people stronger but also no worse for the wear if you didn't count some bruising, some wrinkles, and a few new grey spots hear and there. They had certainly come out much cleaner than the last two teams that had tackled the Dead Zone, but then the other two teams hadn't been chased out almost immediately by accursed rain that killed anything that got caught in it. All things considered, after their bumpy escape, it was decided that they should take the opportunity to stretch their legs before the return trip to Smash City Alchamoth.

When the door opened Yuri was the first to step out into the badlands heat, a sensation she almost appreciated after seeing the rainstorm that protected the Qliphoth tree. She noted with satisfaction how calm and cloudless the sky was here as she stretched. This wasn't just a pleasure stop, though. Yuri had something in mind, now that they had confirmed that nothing living was hanging around the former Dead Zone. She stepped aside as the others cam out, turning to Banjo. "You did say that this Linkle girls bike was being repaired here, right?"

At the bear and birds conformation Yuri nodded her thanks and set off toward the garage the pair had indicate with a "Thank you. I'll be right back." Along the way she passed by the garish purple convertible they had initially driven in here, which looked to be under the care of the pretty blond woman that had given them a tow. The mechanic spotted her and gave a quick wave before going back to her work, one Yuri worked up the nerve to trepidatiously return. "Um, excuse me." She spoke up, wary about interrupting the woman's work. "I was told that a girl left a broken motor bike here. I was wondering, may I see it?"
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
A Confrontation with the Goddess


Linkle


Merge Rate: 32%


Word Count: 4244


Level 9 - (82/90) + 5


Location: Wildwood Glades


With @Lugubrius



Linkle didn’t understand that bit about names having power. That wasn’t a sort of magic she had ever heard of, but then again she wasn’t the witch here. So she nodded her ascent to keeping both the witch's name and home secret. That was one witch stereotype the woman lived up to: she was reclusive.

She was a bit confused when the Witch came over with their tea and Albedo didn't take it, his eyes distant. She was about to stick her foot out and give him a quick prod when their host broke his concentration for them. She gently rebuked him for being rude, but when he looked to Linkle she piped up. “Yeah. Albedo is a scholar. He thinks a lot.” She wondered, briefly, what it was he might have been thinking about. Maybe the name thing.

Regardless, when the woman turned her attention to Linkle and asked if there was anything she could help them with, Linkle was all ready to answer. “We came here from the monastery at the top of the cliffs hoping to get help from the Goddess, Freya. And help Freya. Help each other, I guess. Mr. Tuley told us that if anyone knew her, you would.”

Something in the witch’s manner changed instantly, involuntarily. Her posture stiffened, her expression grew guarded, and the muscles allowed to relax in the familiar and secure comfort of home tightened. Though she did her best to hide it, her guests were either observant or empathic enough to notice that even the mention of the name alerted her, maybe even alarming her. When she spoke, her tone was intentionally even, her politeness came as if forcefully extracted, and her encouraging smile, deprived of its warmth, had grown thin. “Where did you hear that name, my child?”

“Her mother.” Linkle said quickly. Even her, oblivious as she was to the tension between the witch and her companion, could tell this was a sensitive subject. “Her step-mother, anyway. Skadi. She lives right up at the monastery.” Was this woman also protecting the goddess, keeping her hidden with the same sort of spells she used to conceal herself? “Please, I don’t mean any harm. I’m sure Skadi would have destroyed me if she thought I did.”

At the mention of another name the witch’s recoiled slightly, her defensiveness turned to thinly-veiled confusion. “...Skadi?” she whispered. “But she…” With a shake of her head she cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure. “Excuse me. I know of this monastery, but I had no idea that Skadi dwelled within. It would seem I must pay the place a visit some time. But if you were acquainted with and on terms with her...well, I must confess that makes me all the more interested to hear what business you might have with Freya.”

“If you do, it might not be the Skadi you’re familiar with. She…” Linkle started regretfully, but then she scrunched up her face trying to figure out how to put it. She guessed the woman needed context. “I think you know that Freya is being hunted by someone. He came there looking for her, and when Skadi refused to tell him where she was he beat her until she went...strange. In the head, I mean. Not like any god I had ever imagined. It was like she was a frightened little kid.”

“When I first got here, he tried to do the same to me. Beat information about my friends out of my head, but he fell into a chasm and I managed to trap him in there with my ice magic so he couldn't get out so easily. I didn’t know anything about him, other than he couldn’t be hurt and that as soon as my friends got here he was going to try and kill them. But that’s when I met Albedo.” She looked over at him, smiling. “He’d made Albedo run some tests on him, and he found out that the guy’s powers were divine. That’s why we went to the monastery, that’s how we met Skadi, but Skadi couldn't even tell us his name. When I promised I’d protect Freya from him, though, she told us the Goddess dwelt down here in the glade. We think that if anyone knows anything about this man, it would be the goddess he’s hunting.”

During Linkle’s whole story the witch of the woods kept quietly attentive, and with a much tighter grasp over her composure no cracks now appeared in her guard through which her true feelings might be glimpsed. Of course, to Albedo that seemed to indicate that she harbored an intense interest for the subject on hand, one that outstripped even the interest she’d taken in the blond teenagers originally. He watched in silence until his new friend finished recounting the last day’s events. For brief moment he spotted the witch’s eyes flicker his way when Linkle brought up his examinations, but even then she betrayed no emotion.

It took a few moments for the witch to put her thoughts together, but when the time came to speak her mind, her face no longer held any warmth. Instead her eyes were icy and imperious, driving back the heat of the fire and provoking an involuntary shiver from Albedo. “I am sorry that this man brought you harm, and I truly regret what happened with Skadi. But Freya does not need your protection, and I can tell you nothing about that man other than this: it would be wise of you to forget about him. Whatever your reasons, I must demand that you leave him alone. Do not speak with him, do not seek him out, do not fight him, and more than anything, cease this...investigation into his ‘powers’, as you put it.” Her frigid gaze turned upon Albedo. “You, homunculus, must be perceptive indeed to have learned so much. But know that not all secrets are meant to be uncovered. Since the dawn of time the quest for forbidden knowledge has driven men to death and madness. It is no different for the likes of you. So please, for your own safety...” She glanced back at Linkle, wearing a worried look. “Stay away.”

She knows. The alchemist had frozen with his mouth half-open and a look of something like fear on his face. He glanced at Linkle, hoping that she didn’t quite catch on to what the witch had at some point determined, but quickly turned his attention back to his host. Gone was the genial, motherly figure who’d invited some children to her house for tea, replaced by someone who insisted that the pair must abandon their path. Something about her manner made him doubt that her words came from a place of concern, at least about them. He began to wonder if this witch was hiding more than she let on.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. I made a promise to Skadi.” Linkle replied, her voice more forceful than before. She didn't know what a homu-whasit was, but she saw Albedo’s reaction to being labeled one. She could only assume she had called him something as bad a whoreson, if not worse. “Besides that, he hasn’t left us with any choice. He’s teamed up with...whatever caused this mixed up world. My friends are trying to fix things, so he’s got to fight them no matter what. He came after me, he’s not going to stop just because I managed to beat him one time. Just like he’s not ever going to stop hunting Freya.”

This is a farce. You will not convince this one with words. Reanimate her and compel what she is withholding from her skull.

Linkle shook her head. That was just what she needed, two upset voices. The witch was obviously just as intimidated by the Stranger as Skadi was. It wasn’t fair. The only reason he had even been able to beat a god in the first place was because nothing could hurt him. The only reason Freya had to be afraid was because she had done something to make him invincible in the first place. If she would just lift whatever it was she had done she and her friends wouldn't have to live in fear like this. It was so selfish, which was a sacrilegious thing to think but it was true.

The Skullgirl’s determination did not rattle the witch, but it did serve to fully dissolve the veneer of concern she’d been wearing in hopes of convincing her guests via empathy. That left the woman openly disgruntled, suppressing the tranquil fury of the mother bear who’d spotted a threat too close to her cub. “Look,” she began. “I am sorry he picked a fight with you. Truly, I am. Nobody knows how difficult he can be more than I. But it’s a big world, and if you leave the Highlands, or just lay low, the chance of him finding you again are slim to none.” With her arms crossed she sniffed in disdain, clearly unhappy. “And the odds of him finding Freya are lower still. This place is enchanted; he’s explored it several times and not once seen the goddess hiding under his own nose. As for the world…” Her sunset-splashed eyes narrowed further still. “It makes no difference to me. If you will not heed my wisdom…” The witch stood and gestured toward the door. “I must ask you to leave.”

Albedo waited a moment before he rose. With his host’s ultimatum laid out, it was the time for action, whether that meant a peaceful departure or something altogether different. Knowing what truly mattered and unwavering in that knowledge, he had no qualms about taking decisive action, but it wasn’t his call to make. Instead he waited for Linkle to make up her mind about what to do, although the alchemist felt rather assured that she wouldn’t do anything unbecoming of a hero.

Linkle stood up, looking hurt but, more than that, confused. “The only reason she has to hide like this is because he’s invincible. She’s a god, without that she wouldn't have anything to fear from him. At least tell me why she won’t just...take it away. Whatever it is that she did, she could remove it. Right?”

At the mention of what Linkle had managed to piece together the witch’s eyes went wide, but the Skullgirl’s question turned her host’s fear into anger in an instant. “NO!” she fumed, her home shaking as the wood itself seemed to twist and flex. Linkle felt herself lean away when faced by the woman's fury. “It is irrevocable. Unbreakable! There is no use in trying. None! Do you understand?” White-knuckled from gripping her chair, the witch breathed a deep breath, then continued, calmer. “I am telling you that you’re wasting your time with him. Whatever it is you’re doing, you’ll have to find another way.” With a wave of her hand she opened the door from afar. “Now, if you don’t mind..?”

“But that has to be a lie.” Linkle replied, getting up. “I know it is…”

A thousand arguments occurred in Linkle’s head, her face scrunching up as she fought with herself. They were so close. At least some of the answers were locked away in this strangely defensive woman’s head. Was she lying? Was Freya lying to her? Why would she do that? Or was this whole thing a wild goose chase after? Maybe there wasn’t a way. He really was invincible, there was no path home, and they should all just give up and find a place to live in the World of Light. Would that be so bad? What was so terrible about the World of Light anyway? Other than everyone being subject to the whims of a big floating monster in the sky? Other than the hand playing despicable games with people’s lives? Other than the fact that Hyrule as she knew it was gone?

The witch didn't understand. The witch couldn't understand. When she looked into her eyes she saw red staring back at her. Linkle could make her understand, she could dome something she had been too cowardly to do for Din a few nights ago. What would be the point? She already said she didn't care about the world at all, what would seeing it for what it really was change? This woman had invited Linkle into her home, had chased the darkness from her mind for a brief blissful moment. It was Linkle’s fault that things had turned so sour between them, could she really attack her after that? Just start a fight, out of the blue, against this woman that had done nothing to her? It was downright unheroic. Besides, what good would Linkle do anyone if the witch turned her into a bunny rabbit and left her to hop around the glade? That made it better though. It wasn’t like she would be fighting some defenceless woman. Linkle had felt the power she gave off, Linkle could very well walk out the worse from the encounter. That made it worse though, too, didn't it? The second they started it meant either winning or dying!

That was only part of the argument that went on in the girl's head. Linkle stood there in agony for a moment and an eternity, the whispers growing more and more excited as the girl struggled against herself. It was like getting front row seats to a pair of equally matched wrestlers, both jockeying for position but neither able to line up a definitive grapple on the other. They went at one another over and over again, sometimes repeating whole sequences, until one lined up the killing blow.

An image flashed in Linkles mind, a frightful image of Snowdin in ruins. The buildings collapsed or frozen over, the tree dead and lying prone in the street, and all the pretty twinkling lights replaced by flickering little motes of rainbow. In the middle of it stood the stranger, still shaking frost from his body, his anger at his entombment taken out of the cheerful little town.

Linkle looked up as the instant passed, eyes sad but resolved. “We have to fight. Afterwards, you’ll understand why.”

For a moment the witch was taken aback, a mixture of confusion and panic overtaken her, but when Albedo backed up Linkle’s declaration by summoning his sword to hand her guests’ intention became real. She stepped backward as if to flee and only managed to halt herself with a fortifying cocktail of anger and pride. “I see how wrong I was to trust again. To believe that innocence still existed, even in the hearts of children. Alas, your deception will have won you nothing. I cannot fight you, and you cannot make me talk. Ransack my home if it pleases you, but it will offer you no answers.” With a sudden vigor she shouted an unknown word, and the entire house began to shake. Vines launched from the floor and ceiling, creating a barrier between the witch and her questioners to buy herself a little time. After a quick about-face, the witch transformed into an eagle and flew for the front door.

Linkle hadn’t expected the woman to cut and run, but then again she was a coward. The witches' condemnation halted Linkle long enough to work her magic, though, even if it was purely defensive. She swallowed the shame, whipped out her crossbows, and fired a pair of bomb arrows at the vines to blast a hole in them. She spotted the eagle a moment later, and plunged her hands to the ground. Her hair flashed blue as a road of frost raced to the open doorway to create a barrier to keep the eagle from escaping.

Instead the wall of ice closed over the door just after the witch escaped through it. Already on the move, Albedo noted the narrow miss and quickly decided on a route of his own, implausible as it might be to catch a bird already on the wing. Rather than try his luck with the blockages he made for the window and threw himself through it, easily bashing apart the glassless aperture’s wooden fixture and then rolling once he touched down outside. He rose to his feet already running, but when he spotted the witch already impossibly out of reach, he slowed to a stop with a sigh. Although his face betrayed no anger, he couldn’t call himself even remotely satisfied with how things panned out. Forget Freya--this woman seemed much more dead set on protecting the Stranger. The encounter invited all sorts of questions, and after crossing his arms the Alchemist busied himself considering them.

Linkle plowed through her own ice barrier a moment later, the ice shattering as easily for her as glass, and scanned the sky to find the witch a spec on the horizon. At that point all the energy seemed to drain out of her as she leaned back against the doorway. Wrong choice again, idiot. With no way to make it right the weight of the Witch's condemnation slowly pulled her down the wall until she was sitting on the ground, boiling alive in a mix of frustration and shame.

Her collapse brooked a confused glance from Albedo, who took a few moments to puzzle out that she must be disappointed and angry with the turn of events. Although this took him by surprise, it made sense the more the thought about it. Rather than rush over to try and comfort her the alchemist allowed her a few moments to cool off, cycling in the crisp alpine air to clear her head. He kept his attention mostly on the immense, flora-covered turtle who stood over the witch’s home, entertaining himself with casual hypotheses about its anatomy and behavior. Only after some time did he head over, standing over his new friend with a mildly curious expression. “All things considered, I believe we profited considerably from that encounter,” he told her.

Linkle looked up miserably from between her fingers. Profited? He was an unfeeling homunculus. I wish he would go away. Linkle was about to dip her face back down when she realized that thought contained a word she didn't understand. She violently shook her head, then sighed. “I killed her trust, Albedo.” She said, “And I’m never going to be able to find her to show her I was only trying to help. Heroes aren't supposed to hurt people like I just did. How did anything good come out of that?”

“Well,” Albedo began. “First and foremost, we should keep in mind how remarkably lucky we’ve been. Out of everywhere in this highland, or even this world, we could have looked, we found crucial information at the very first place we visited. That sent us on a fairly straightforward path to these glades, where we were found by the person we wanted to meet. To think that our luck would hold forever seems rather optimistic to me.”

He paused before continuing, ruminating on what he’d learned. “Besides, even if this witch refused to answer us directly, there’s still a lot she told us, with or without meaning to. Consider her reactions when we confronted her with certain questions. Despite her attempts to keep a straight face, she reacted with fear, anger, and insistence. If our man’s invincibility is truly unbreakable, what does the witch have to fear? Why would she demand that we cease our investigation, and steer clear of this man? I am not convinced that it was for the sake of our wellbeing.” Albedo crossed his arms. “In fact, she seemed much more concerned about that man’s, despite owning up to the problems he’s caused. In a rather familiar way, as well, as if she’s somehow responsible. And this is in addition to him hunting Freya, who is supposedly under the witch’s protection. And yet this Freya is nowhere to be found in this secret, secluded place. Even if the witch has other hideouts, she did seem to treat the matter of Freya’s safety with some flippancy, wouldn’t you think?”

Linkle blinked a couple of times at the boy, but sat up a little straighter as he continued to talk. He had managed to get all that? Linkle had assumed all of the witches' emotions stemmed from fear. People got angry when they were scared, got weirdly insistent and irrational when they were scared, but looking back outside the heat of the moment even she had to admit the woman’s behavior had been strange. Had that all been out of concern for The Stranger of all people? That was completely at odds with her thinking. Who would ever be concerned about him? As for the last point, “Well, Freya is a god,” She said. “If a witch is able to hide from him a god shouldn't have any trouble, right?”

Continuing, Albedo presented his final points and conclusion. “Well, bearing in mind that this woman is covering for the Stranger, prioritizing his safety over Freya’s, and almost certainly withholding information from us if not outright lying to us...taken into consideration with her emotional response, as well as physiological parallels...my hypothesis is that the ‘Witch of the Woods’ is in fact Freya herself, the one responsible for the blessing that protects the Stranger from harm.” He nodded as if to assure Linkle of his findings. “The turning point came when I realized my mistake in assuming that the step-daughter of Skadi must be a little girl. While my experience with gods is highly limited, it would be rash to assume that they age and such like humans do. If my hypothesis is correct, then Freya, as part of her collusion with the enemy, is purposefully trying to manipulate us to keep us from uncovering the Stranger’s weakness--which this encounter has convinced me exists.” The alchemist watched Linkle, trying to gauge her thoughts.

“But...but…” Linkle thought about it, hard. “But that...she has a broom. Her house gets dirty. She made tea like a regular person.” Linkle, who had just recently begun to think about Gods as though they were beings you could touch and speak with, looked back into the house. It was a normal house, if you ignored the turtle. The inside wasn’t that much different than hers back home. A god couldn't live the same way as Linkle, could she? Skadi had lived in a normal room, but Skadi had been broken. Freya was, assumedly, whole.

Then she thought back to when she had first met the witch, the embrace that had flushed away the skull heart for a moment. Just like the goddess Hylia had. Albedo’s mistaken assumption had been that the god they were looking for would look like a little girl. Linkle's mistake was in thinking the god they were looking for wouldn’t look like an ordinary woman, and when she was able to discard that assumption and see all the information in a line a bunch of confusing things started making more sense.

Linkle hopped up. It was strange, but the condemnation of an ordinary woman weighed much more than the condemnation of a selfish god. “She called me a liar.” She said, shame being hastily replaced with offence. “I didn’t lie to her once. She sat there and lied to my face and then called me a liar.” She let out a frustrated little grumble. If this was all true then this woman was their enemy, and it was probably true because Albedo was the one who put it together. “We should have gone with your hunting plan in the first place. It would have saved us so much time, and it’s not like she could be any more upset at us.”

“We weren’t to know,” Albedo said, shrugging. “The history of my world is one long story about the capriciousness of gods. Their words, their deeds, their wars, and their legacies. They weren’t gods because they were pure, perfect, or even good. Only because they were powerful. It stands to reason that it could be the same in other worlds.” Looking at the matter from the perspective of Freya being an enemy, he found it easier to make sense of it all. “I think you’re right to not take her criticisms too harshly. Even if she seemed pleasant at first, it may have been just because it suited her. The kindly, nature-loving hermit...a guise for the calculating manipulator. If anything, she most likely accused you because of your earnest nature, in an effort to put you down. After all, only someone like that would be crushed by such reproach, hm?”

“Just like the Skull Heart.” Linkle said, reproachfully. Though even as she said it she didn't totally believe it. Whatever the Goddesses nature, that embrace had been real. She didn't think anyone capable of comforting another person like that could be all bad. “She’s going to be way more trouble to protect than I thought she would be.” Linkle was angry, but it had settled into the same sort of anger Albedo had seen her direct at the windmill cat gang. She turned back to glance at the open doorway. “We should search her room!” She had basically given them permission to do so anyway. “Turtle!” She called up. “We’re going to search you for clues. Grumble if anything hurts.” The tacit beast, however, kept its secrets to itself.
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay

Link


Word Count: 917


Level 5 - (100/50) + 2


Location: The Lady's Chambers




The butcher hadn't been enough. He had overestimated his weight and the stubbornness of the boards underneath them. Despite his and the demons impromptu wrestling match the floor failed to buckle, break, nor even tip the wardrobe over onto them. He should have been more specific, but from his experience Strikers weren't in the habit of following your exact will and he doubted one could pull off a complex plan especially with the limited time they had. Time that was, in Larry's case, rapidly reaching its end. So what should he do? Did he find a place to hide again, or press what little advantage he had while the monster was distracted? As the butcher faded out and the monster dived for where Link had been he stepped forward knife drawn. This had been his risk to take, and his idea to fail. Ms. Fortune and Ace could escape while he kept the thing busy.

Fortunately for him, those same two were there to un-bungle his plan. A pair of red and blue lights latched onto the metal parts of the wardrobe and pulled the whole thing over onto it. With a deafening crash the wardrobe slammed into the monsters back, straight through the unsteady floorboards. Link rushed forward toward the hole as the monsters screech faded away as it dropped into the...darkness.

Where was the floor?

He had expected another floor. That was how buildings worked, there were floors. He was friends with a few carpenters, he knew how buildings worked, there should have been another floor under this one. Why wasn't there?

No. No no no nonono, this was fine. He could get down. There was bedding here, there were clothes, he could make that work.

Ms Fortune was talking, he voice cutting through his thought process like a razor. A first he agreed with her. Yes, of course they had to go! Obviously they couldn't stay here. They were on the same page. She should stop interrupting him and let him think for a minu-

What the heck did that mean, "can't go down"? Of course they could go down, that was a point he was prepared to argue. "No, no." Why was his voice shaking? "We can tie this stuff together, make a rope. Better, we can make a glider out of her cloths and sail down after him. I saw how it was done back in lim-"

She continued, heedless of his objections. They had to get the mirror to the others. That was the key to beating the lady. Of course, that was important, but they couldn't just leave. They couldn't just run out of the Maw and leave Glenn down there.

Down there?
Was he down there?
Why did he think that?
He knew that wasn't true.

As the current crisis faded further and further into the past, as the adrenalin pouring through his veins ceased to flow, his mind began to consider the previously unconsiderable. With no monster breathing down his neck, with no one currently in danger, he began to feel in his heart what his brain already knew. What it had known since the boy had been devoured, and simply kept from him for as long as necessary. He looked back down. Down into the darkness of the hole, into the very darkness of the ship itself. Glenn was gone. Devoured by the Maw. Now just one more haunted memory.

He was silent for a long moment, a familiar despair rolling over him like the tide. A feeling he knew from one of his few memories, one that had almost overtaken him before back on their friendly pirate ship. This time there wasn't any golden lifeline, manned by cats, to drag him out of the sea. There was just the cold, bitter reality of it. The frog knight's quest was over, just after Link had convinced him to believe it could be fulfilled.

"I was the second furthest back..." He started in a voice like glass, remembering how they had split up to search the room. "It would have been me. If he hadn't been here, it would have been me." Except he would have been more careful. He would have been watching his back. He would have seen it coming. He would have survived, like he always survived. Like he always managed to survive out of everyone.

He felt a warmth in the palm of his hand, looking away from the hole for the first time to spot the cat girl gripping it in her own. He didn't so much run with her as let her pull him along away from the place. He moved on autopilot, breath shaky, eyes distant, suddenly feeling every ache of the day all at once. He remembered this feeling too, of being at his limit. He couldn't afford to stop, though. Not now. Not when calamity was still breathing down their necks.

He didn't say a word as they arrived at where Sakura had decided to hunker down. He didn't say anything about Glenn, didn't add anything to the explanation of what happened in The Lady's quarters, didn't object when the Princess handed off their secret weapon to the despondent Sakura. He was half living in a memory and was sure the girl would shine like a diamond at the very end of all this. That was the way this played out, so long as he kept her alive enough to do it. His body remembered how to do that much.
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay

Link


Word Count: 629


Level 5 - (99/50) + 1


Location: The Lady's Chambers


@Yankee



Glenn wasn't dead.

This wasn't optimism on Link's part, nor was it based on ay sort of logical observation. For Link's sake, for Ms. Fortune, for Ace's, for the sake of keeping his composure, it was a simple fact. A necessity. The alternative was not something he could consider in the moment if he intended to live and so, like cutting off a gangrenous limb before it could poison the rest of the body, his mind shut it out.

It also, unfortunately, meant that just sneaking by the creature also wasn't an option for him. Glenn was in there. They had to kill it. That would get Glenn back. Like killing The Lady and taking back whatever she had stolen from the kid would bring him back, like freeing the familiar crocodile would get him back. They just had to get everybody back. He could this time, just like Sakura and the girls. The only question was how.

So he crouched there inside one of the rooms wardrobes, peering out through a crack in the door at the red demon as it slithered about the room searching for them. He couldn't just stab it, not if he didn't want to end up joining Glenn in it's belly. His eye trailed along with it until it passed by the wardrobe from before, the really big one next to the busted mirror. The one where the floor had creaked ominously when even Ms. Fortune's slight frame tread on it. He wondered how it would fair when put up against something with a bit more meat?

Link slowly opened the door, placing his foot silently on the floor, and softly shut it as he grouched down. It was big, but that crimson light that came out of its "mouth" made it easy to tell where the monster was looking at any given time as he snuck his way across the room to where he needed to be. He knew he had reached the right place when a CREAAAAK that was, to his ears, about as loud as a thunderclap sounded out across the room. Even if the monster hadn't heard that it definitely heard the shrill whistle Link followed it with. The thing rounded on him like a prodded viper, and he stepped back despite the welcoming expression on his face. He briefly considered that if this creature chose to use its claws or that whiplike tail on him instead of trying to swallow him whole this plan would never work, but there was no way it was going to do that. This was The Maw. Nothing at this place was ever sated. It would never be able to stop at just one!

So it slithered up to him as he retreated, pressing his back up against the wardrobe with a thump. He grabbed onto the wooden frame, waited until he felt the suction start to drag him toward that flashing maw. "Butcher! Exotic Meat!" He called out.

The suction suddenly cut out as the butcher appeared, interposed between the boy and the monsters. Instantly the floor let out a strained groan, one that lead Link to jump out of the danger zone as Larry's eager charge was stopped. Strong as the man was he was still only human, and could never hope to budge a creature that could stand up even to the blows of an Umbran Witch. His head, however, did end up clogged in the creatures mouth hole. It was completely unprepared for an adult sized portion, and to his credit Larry did not give up the fight just yet. He wrapped his arms around its slender body and started giving it some backwards belly-to-belly version of the Heimlich maneuver in an attempt to free his head.
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay
Bad Memories


Starring Banjo & Kazooie’s @Dawnrider, Pit’s @Yankee, and Yuri’s @Gentlemanvaultboy
Word Count: 1716 (+3)




Nico, at Nero’s demand, put the pedal to the metal and with surprising power the van jolted forward. It paid no mind to the uneven rocks it thundered over, but the same could not be said for its occupants.

As the van lurched from side to side like a ship caught in a storm Yuri tried to keep hold of her senses as she held close to one of the front seats for security. It was hard, and after a few seconds she was shuttering from more than just the bumpy ride. Each jolt that shot through her body called up memories best left buried. Screams. The crunching of metal. The sickly scent of gasoline and unmoving shapes of people that used to be her family.

She tried to readjust her hold, tried to keep the bumps to a minimum, and when she did Nico rolled over a particularly large rock and the jolt caused Yuri to lose her grip and be thrown backwards toward Pit. He was shorter than her, and doing a poor job of trying to stabilize himself with all six of his limbs spread out, but when Yuri pitched towards him the angel held his arms out to catch her and set her upright again. His mouth was moving, asking if she was alright, but—



—agony was spreading throughout his body, quickly eclipsing the worry and pure desperation that had filled him prior. His whole body, his whole being was lit with pain. Fire coursed through his limbs and he struggled to reach out his hand. His vision was blurred from flames and tears, but still firmly fixed on the shape in front of him, a figure like a dark mirror. He kept his eyes open as best he could, even while shadows crept into the edge of his view - steadily growing larger.

He wasn't free falling anymore, he was flying. And it was getting hard to focus on anything other than the intense anguish that radiated from his wings. He could feel each individual feather burn, the muscles and tendons being incinerated, and his very bones melting away. With every little piece of his wings burning up to ash and blowing away, he could feel his life force diminishing and he cried out.

It hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt but he had to hold on just long enough. It already felt like his wings had been burning forever, spreading the blaze through his back and into his brain, but it wasn't enough yet, not yet, just a little more—



—Too much! Far too much. The world around Yuri came back into sharp focus. She glanced around, wide eyed and ashamed. The entire vision lasted no more than an instant, leaving only a phantom agony in wings she didn't even have. One more pain she had engraved upon her soul. One more despair she had no right to share.

The moment that the angel had caught her, touched her, she had seen into a dark crevasse in his soul. She hadn’t meant to. It wasn’t something she could completely control. She had tried, really tried, to avoid it the whole trip. She had been very lucky up until now, but misery must call to misery and in her agitated state…

He was saying something, asking about her, and she could only look down and shake her head before pulling back far too quickly for fear of seeing more of Pit’s worst moments. “I’m sorry,” she muttered as she stepped out of his grasp before another jolt sent her barrelling over. She bounced off the counter, real pain blooming in her chest this time, before spinning and tipping backwards toward the bear and bird. Banjo--thicker, broader, heavier, more dense than Pit--was better able to catch and stabilize the petite human girl, if only physically. He could do nothing to abate her negative empathic response as--



--A grayscale vignette of still imagery depicted Banjo and Kazooie, shaped differently from their normal selves, leaving home off of an extensive hiatus to… enter the garage? And embark on a vehicular adventure? Pictured was an abridged retelling of an off-beat installment in the bear and bird’s lives that marked a stark departure from form where they seemingly appear to be enjoying themselves all the same... trying to, anyway. Picture came into color and motion, albeit with film grain, artifacting, and crushed audio to match, with a dramatization of the aftermath…

An indefinite period following the anticlimactic conclusion to what they now realized to be and could finally admit to themselves being a decidedly disappointing affair, Banjo had been trudging through the rain on a stormy evening along the trail leading back to their home, Wrench in hand to limply toss into the industrial-sized waste box that sat overflowing outside their house with the accumulated refuse of irresponsible consumerism. Banjo had skipped checking the mail, as he had stopped doing some time ago, him and Kazooie having all but relinquished any hope of ever receiving the one letter they thought could save them from their now apparently depressive life’s circumstance.

Rainwater dripped from Banjo’s fur and threads onto the hardwood floor as he entered his dwelling, unlit save for the fireplace he left burning, absent of means or mind to dry himself off. He hung his backpack like a doffed raincoat on the rack next to his bed, from which Kazooie emerged slowly to look upon her partner with a somber expression of concern as he haphazardly swept the unstable headboard shrine of defective consoles into a waiting cardboard box on the floor in a single, languid dragging motion. He proceeded to drag his bare feet to the center of the room where he dropped down half slumped into his chair, Kazooie tracking him for every step with the eyes of a sad dog. After a moment of staring absently into the crackling fire, at no point returning eye contact with his concerned partner, Banjo heaved a deflating sigh, and Kazooie likewise quietly hung her head.

Normally, through good and ill alike, they would stick together, back to backpack. But normally, they were in better spirits, and for the first time, neither could think of a good reason to stay living, working, or hanging out together. Neither one of them had anything to say about it. Neither of them had to, for they both knew, always, what and how the other felt and thought. Where else would they go? What else would they do? What did they have left besides each other, now that their good name had ceased to mean anything?

That much they had come to realize. Short of the conscious realization, they were questionably lucky to have no mirrors in their house, if only because it saved them failing to recognize themselves in their own reflections, and not liking what they see in them. Such an otherwise immaterial fact would bring them no solace in the face of the subjective truth that had well and truly set in for them: that they had officially, certifiably, with no conceivable recourse, or foreseeable opportunity for redemption, become… has-beens. Life for them now, as they knew it, was as good as it was ever going to get for them again. Their time was over, and their legacy deemed worthless. The past had passed, and forlorn continuance, devoid of direction, purpose, or excitement, had become their new reality…



...A reality that Yuri found herself back in, the shaking of the van dying down as Nico took them farther and farther from the crater. She looked over her shoulder at the bear holding her steady, a look of despair mirroring what she had felt in that Glance plastered on her face.

It was a despair she knew, though she hadn’t felt it in many, many years. She had seen so many visions of the end, violent and tragic and oh so painful that she had built up a slight resistance to it. What she had seen in the two of them, however, had been the pain of having to continue living after your life was over. It was not clear to her what in the vision had inspired such an intense feeling in the pair, but having shared in the despair she could tell it was no less deep than what she had gone through.

“Are you okay, Miss?” Banjo casually asked out of equal parts concern and courtesy, glancing down at the seemingly distressed woman, blissfully unaware that she had just seen him at his lowest, making her now one of only two in existence.

“Thank you.” She said, standing on her own and leaning against Nico’s workbench. “I think I’ll be all right now. I’m sorry.” It wasn’t just for what she had seen, but for a misjudgement on her part. She had found the bird quite rude and had tried to avoid interacting with such a bold personality and the bear that she was attached to at the back, not mindful of anything they may have gone through.

Soon after the tension of the ride was broken, and while Nico gave out about the awful effects of the rain and Nero pushed his way past to make for the shower Yuri turned back to look at her three backseat companions. She was ashamed of what she had let happen, but in a way she was also relieved. Whatever pain lay hidden in their hearts did not show in their faces, and did not bear out in their actions. Perhaps she had spent too long Glancing the dead. These three had moved far past those awful moments of their lives, something that the dead did not have the luxury of. So long as you were alive, you had the opportunity to get better.

She tried smiling, even if she wasn’t that good at it. “You’re all very strong--”

“We know.” Kazooie offhandedly interrupted in snark concurrence, Yuri’s actual meaning similarly lost on her. Likewise, Pit tilted his head, confused at the obvious statement.

Yuri paused, then let out a short laugh. “I suppose you would. Thank you, again. I really appreciate it.”
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay


Word Count: 815


Level 5 - (97/50) + 2


Level 9 - (80/90) + 2




Link


Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw - Larry's Butcher Shop


@Zoey Boey



It was never ending with this place.

For a moment Bella was safe. Engorged, crying, terrified, but at the very least safe and in her right mind. She had run off to embrace the other girls, not devour them. The relief he felt from seeing that nearly brought him to his knees amid the ash that had once been the bald chef, the adrenalin born from trauma ceasing to flow through him. He had bought himself just a little leeway with moldering old carrots, but he knew he couldn't go on like this much longer. He thought for a brief moment that it was lucky she was so big now, because she was probably going to have to carry him out. Geralt looked much in the same boat, the weariness in his eyes reflected in Link's own.

Then the food monsters...

Oh, the food monsters...

Like a man in the desert dying of thirst driven forward by spotting an oasis fresh danger compelled him to move again. He had been right about the chefs below, and these two floating cronies of theirs were likely only the vanguard. The others leaped into action after the Abyssal princess had been transformed, Peach and the Koopas putting up a royal wall between the hungry wizard and its target even as Sakura attempted to drag the Tempurella out of harms way. She was swiftly joined by Glenn, who left his vigil by the door to help get the tempura to safety. Link hoped that transformation wasn't permanent, both because it would kill him inside if she was gone and for purely practical reasons. That tailgun of hers was one of their only effective weapons.

For now they needed something to fill her place.

As Rika and the small group of Koopa's Bowser had managed to scrounge together from somewhere opened up on the second wizard with whatever they had on hand Link's eyes alighted on the rainbow mote of light at his feet. The thought made his stomach turn, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Anything was a weapon.

He reached down and grabbed the fat mans spirit in his hands, stumbling forward behind the mans cutting table to get away from the prying eye of the second wizard. The last thing he needed was to get transformed into fried fish during his hasty negotiation. He kept his pitch simple.

"Listen you." He said, bringing the spirit up to his face. "I'm twice the chef that bushy faced ingrate down there is and can more than appreciate fresh meat. Be my arm and you'll get all the exotic meat you can chop, starting with those two. Come on, you must have wondered if their heads were cooked all the way through or not."

He hoped that was enough to pique the butchers interest. If it was, and this fat psycho did decide to become his Striker, he was going to use him immediately on the wizard rushing blindly after Bella.



Linkle


Merge Rate: 32%


Location: Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline ~ Wildwood Glades




Linkle clammed up and listened when he two companions started talking about themselves. The lady had an estranged son of her own, who had set off into the world and left her behind. She felt bad for the woman but couldn't help but sympathize with him at the same time, whoever he was. If Linkle's grandmother had been around to disapprove of her setting out and fulfilling her destiny she would have done the same thing, regardless of how much it would have hurt the both of them. Though, Linkle would have made sure to come back afterward and accept whatever punishment the old woman had planned for her. Maybe being thrown into this world, losing the option of going home again, would make the boy come to his senses. He might even be looking for her right now, she supposed. She would have to keep an eye out for him, along with people with rabbit ears, kids in animal masks, The Master Sword, Sucrose, and, well, an eyeball.

That list was getting pretty long, and it was about to get longer. Albedo had another important woman in his life, one young and spry enough to take him out on her adventures. To think, she had taken the boy for a city mouse. It sounded like he had gotten out of the lab far more than she had ever gotten out of her village. Add Mysterious Lady Alchemist to the list.

Their conversation came to a pause as they came to a clearing, the lady bending down and picking up a clump of dirt. She tossed it at a wall of vines, said a magic work and...

"You're the witch!" Linkle echoed Albedo as the vines pulled apart in a show of magic. Unlike her companion she had been taken completely by surprise.

They came upon a tree in the middle of the glade that had been reveled and, noticing Albedo eyeing it in a way she had come to recognize and categorize as his "Fascinating" look dutifully snapped a picture and passed the photo to him for his notebook. Then the witch said another magic word, and to her wonder the tree rose up on the back of a giant turtle to reveal the witches abode. This too Linkle snapped and again she passed the photo to her friend.

As they approached the door and their hostess graciously invited them inside Linkle stopped in the doorway and kicked the dirt of her boots before she came inside and took a look around. It was all surprisingly homey. She had expected something more witchy. The skulls fit the bill, but the cauldron in the fireplace was more pot sized and as she approached the fire she couldn't smell anything particularly disgusting boiling in it. In fact, it seemed to be water as the woman began preparing them tea. There was a broom over there, but it looked like the regular kind of broom you swept up dust with.

"If you don't mind me saying so," Linkle started, settling down on the edge of the bed as close to the fire as she could get, "You're not what I expected when I heard about a witch." She looked around again as if to double check. Nope. Didn't even have the hat. "And you don't feel like you've got any witchiness shining out of your soul either. I'm really glad you found us though, Miss...," Oh, right. "I'm sorry, we never asked your name."
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay


Word Count: 1766


Level 5 - (94/50) + 3


Level 9 - (77/90) + 3




Link


Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw - Local Antoine's franchise




Link had, to his knowledge, never before slain a man.

This wasn't through lack of effort on his part. He had considered, one starry night as he had warmed himself by his campfire, that he must have done so at some point in his murky past. His battles with the ever persistent Yiga were a testament to that, the finely developed memories of his muscles never once hesitating to bring the fullness of his blade against what were undoubtedly one of the races of men. The Yiga, however, never saw any reason to pursue a battle to the death. Their expertise in the art of the quick escape, and misadventure in the case of the clans bumbling leader, had always relieved him of the responsibility of striking the decisive blow.

So when the Koopa's impromptu bomb gave Bella, that clever girl, the opportunity she had been waiting for and she locked her jaws around that disgusting mans neck there was no hesitation in Link's soul when he charged forth to support her. As he sprinted across the floor he let out a high pitched "HYAAAA!" He spun as he drew close to the fat mans leg, adding rotational power to the chop aimed at the tendon in his ankle, and drew the knife across the butchers weak spot. It got stuck in the fat, but a few jerks back and forth along with Geralt's nail to the other ankle ensured that the behemoth would never stand again. He dove out of the way as the fat man thundered to the floor, the Abyssal's jaws still clamped around his throat. A single shot from that powerful tail of her should have been the end of it.

Instead things began to go very strange. As the koopas filed in, Glen bringing up their rear and keeping watch over the doorway they had blown open, Mirage stumbled backwards. The boy struck himself repeatedly with his dart gun in a display that gave Link pause. Bella suffered no such reticence about finishing the man off, but drove her tail mouth into his chest with greedy abandon. That little pokemon of Juniors arrived as well, tearing into the wound of the fat mans neck? No, not as such. What were those licking noises? He looked up as the lights began to flicker ominously, and on the tip of his tongue he thought he could taste something sweet in the air. Intoxicating, gently pulling him toward the madness of the scene in front of him.

It was Sakura, newly freed that brought him to his senses and put a description to what he was witnessing.

Don't eat him.

Those three simple words brought clarity to what he was seeing. Indeed, the Abyssal seemed completely uninterested in striking a killing blow and the rhythmic snap, snap, snap, of those disturbingly humanlike jaws suddenly took on an aspect too horrifying to ignore. He was reminded of his desperate fight for survival in the flooded lower decks of Shippy earlier that day, being trapped in the dark water and gnawed at by ocean monsters. If those things had been blessed with faces would they have resembled the face he could make out on Bella between the flickering of the lights? He knew what he had to do. He gripped the knife and darted forward again, leaping for the butchers head and driving the mans own blade deep into his left eye. Eyes were always weak points.

He left it there as he scrabbled upwards, crawling up folds of fat and bloody apron onto his bulging stomach, until he reached the girl. As he approached he had a premonition of that tail rounding on him, blood red chunks falling from it's mouth as it sensed new prey approaching, but he ignored that. He had left his blade behind for a reason. "Bella." He said, reaching out to grasp the girls wrists to forcibly redirect her attention. Only then did he really notice how much larger the girl was than before, easily large enough to throw him away. "It's done. There are still four more chefs down there. You're not a monster, don't stop thinking. We have to get out of this place." He pleaded.

Link had, to his knowledge, never before slain a man.

This was something he still considered to be true. That monster he was standing on hadn't counted. It would be a unforgivable shame if Bella, lost to gluttonous madness, ended up being the first.



Linkle


Merge Rate: 32%


Location: Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline ~ Wildwood Glades




Linkle felt herself relax more and more as the woman spoke, the apprehension about her appearance fading away. Linkle had always placed a lot of value on her appearance. Not for vanities sake, but because she needed to project the appearance of a hero to those around her. That was one of her responsibilities. She had thought that her new look and circumstances would tarnish not only her reputation but the reputation of the Hero as a concept, and though it had been met with suspicion and apprehension a few times the people of this frozen land generally accepted her as she presented herself.

A heroes soul shined through the muck. She would have to take that to heart.

She was taken out of her thoughts as the woman approached and wrapped her arms around her. There was a sharp increase in volume from her unwelcome passenger, but then blissful warmth chased the whispers away until there was only silence. "Oh, you can do this too." She mumbled dreamily, leaning in and resting her head on the kind ladies chest without really meaning too. It was like the statue of Hylia before, but more importantly in reminded her of grandma. Goddesses above, forget about the skull heart and its tricks. How long had it been since someone had simply held her like this? She had no idea. She had stopped counting years after the old woman had died.

As the embrace came to an end Linkle found herself reaching out slightly, like a babe seeking the warmth of her mothers arms, before the lady placed her hands on her shoulders and saved her from that awkwardness by stopping her. It turned out the woman did know the witch of the woods and was happy to accompany them there. "Yes. Thank you very much." Linkle said to her request. As they set off through the wood Linkle only hesitated slightly, just long enough to wipe a tear from her eye before Albedo could spot it and worry.

As they traveled the woman, who Linkle realized with some slight embarrassment had never introduced herself, inquired about Linkle's life before the whole world of light business came about. In particular, about what had forged her into the hero she was today. "That's easy. A Grandma that loved me enough to never let me doubt it, but not enough that she let me get away with everything." Linkle repeated her love of Hyrule joyously, the small farming village she had grown up in, the local excitement when the villagers gathered ship their goods off to the nearby Castle Town, the greater excitement when they retuned with the laden with the latest goods from Castle Towns big market, and the old woman that come to save Linkle's life.

"I never really knew her before, but my mom and dad passed away when I was still really young. So there I was, scared, confused, shutting myself in my room all day, when this old lady I couldn't remember blows in like a tornado. 'Where's my grandaughter!? Somebody take me to my girl!' I can hear her all the way from the village gate she was so loud. And the funny thing is, when she burst into my room, she was smaller than I was. And I was little!"

Linkle sighed nostalgically. "She took over the farm immediately. Kept coming and asking for my help. 'How much do you suppose we feed these birds, Linkle?' 'Show me how you clean this coop, Linkle?' 'What's the best way to bathe them, Linkle?' She knew everything already, I'm sure of it, but she would always go 'ah, I see, interesting, interesting, is that how it is' and do whatever I said. I think it was just her way of getting my mind off everything and start moving again. Soon it was like she had always been around, like it had just always been me and her. She swooped in and made everything right again. We would stay up talking for hours. She told me everything that she knew about the gods, and how they loved us, and Hyrule, and how Hyrule loved us even if it doesn't seem like it all time. You know, there are hearts that just pop out of the grass sometimes? You can touch them and the heal you right away. Grandma said that was Hyrule's love, bubbling right out of the ground."

"She gave me my first slingshot, too. Saved up some money to special order it." Linkle mimed the action of holding one up and pulling back the string. "She said a girl had to be at least a little rambunctious. Then I saw our neighbor Nido stealing milk one day and thwacked him right in the head with a rock. He ran home crying to mother and grandma boxed my ears and went 'not that rambunctious!' I'm lucky she took it for a few years. I probably would have tried to kill Wolfoes with it and gotten eaten if she hadn't. I started doing that after she gave it back, but by that time I was bigger and knew how to take care of myself. She knew I was doing it, though, and by that time she only gave me grief if I came in hurt. After the fourth or fifth time she went into the storage room where she kept all her old stuff and handed me her old crossbows. Told me if I was going to keep this up I should go out with something better than a kids toy. I hadn't even know she could shoot. I only got the hang of shooting them after coming to this world, but she could shoot the wings off a fly. I saw her do it at a festival once." Linkle giggled at the memory. "So I guess if you want to beat an evil skull, it's easy. Just be raised by a woman that can do anything."
In World of Light → 3 yrs ago Forum: Casual Roleplay


Word Count: 1388


Level 5 - (92/50) + 2


Level 9 - (75/90) + 2




Link


Location: The Bottomless Sea ~ The Maw - Local Antoine's franchise


@Potemking@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN



They were lucky to have Mirage, who not only caused this big kitchen pile up but stopped them from being seen when the fat man just looked over the edge and got them up to the sausage links with that dart gun of his. He was the last to start climbing, figuring if anyone was going to be caught by an errant eyeball it should be the one most prepared to do some stabbing, but was up and on his way as soon as there was room for him.

The meat was greasy, but it was also squishy enough to get a grip and Link had never fallen off something provided he could still grip it. It was more tiring than normal pulling himself up link by link, hand over hand, but what he saw when he crested the top and pulled himself up onto the second floor rekindle the roaring fire in his belly.

There were the girls, strung up over a open flame. Bella was hanging limp, Rika was crying, Sakura looked like she was trying to hold everything together, and it took every ounce of willpower he had left to keep from running up and stabbing that towering Hinox of a man right this instant.

Link slunk backwards to where Mirage and Geralt had taken up position, never taking his eyes off the butcher. Mirage was right, he wouldn't want Bella to die. If you died there wasn't any meat left, just ash and a spirit. They still had to be smart. It would be an awful thing to get this close and then fail at the last moment.

"Not his ankle." He whispered to Geralt. "I'll get his ankle. Go for the throat, the back of his neck, anything that would make it harder for him to call for help." He brandished the knife, gripped it with both hands, and made ready to sprint out there and cut. Somewhere out there something was exploding. Something had caused a fresh bout of chaos down in the lower kitchen. Maybe it was the others putting their own plans into action, so that even if they failed not all hope was lost. That was heartening, but not important in the moment. Right now the only things that existed were them, the girls, and the fat man.



Linkle


Merge Rate: 32%


Location: Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline ~ Wildwood Glades




Albedo's answer confirmed two things for Linkle. First of all, he would definitely be a dog if he had picked her out via smell when they first met. Second, that she had definitely misinterpreted most of what the boy had told her yesterday and now he probably knew that. Maybe she should just keep her mouth shut and do what she was told, how many people must think the hero of Hyrule was a fool from listening to her stupid id-

Linkle nixed the thought as soon as she figured out it wasn't one of hers, sending the whisper that had risen to prominence shrinking back into the mire of white noise pooling in the back of her skull. Something in their tenor had changed when they got down here. They were on edge, like a bunch of wasps buzzing around in anticipation of an attack. Maybe it was how peaceful and full of life the glade was? If that was the case, maybe the first part of her idea had some merit. A nice little animal murder shattering the tranquility would be the perfect comfort to the Skull Heart.

Right?

She could imagine she heard a tinge of irritation in the whispers now, but focused on Albedo's last question instead.

"Hydro-whatsit?" she said, scratching her head. This one, though, she put together from context clues. "Oh yeah, that thing. Those are great, I've been in two since I got to this world. I'm bringing those back to Hyrule if I can."



So Albedo couldn't see how much Dendro people had, and it wouldn't have mattered even if he could with all these trees around, but he didn't think the rest of what she had suggested was bad. She had made at least enough sense to convince him that the animal hunting plan was a no go, but that left them with no plan but to find a high place and have a look around. Considering where they were she could consider that entirely a bad thing. The splendor of the glade was broken only by the insistent buzzing only she could hear, which only seemed to intercify as they walked deeper and deeper into the glade. That and her occasional bewilderment at the bizarre animals.

On their way to the tree they had spotted there were deer, and foxes, and rabbits, and the ordinary stuff you would expect to find in a forest like this. Then there were ones Linkle had a hart time believing were even real. Fancifully colored animals that looked hand crafted foraged in the bush, and a band of rounded creatures bounced along past them like chu jelly as though they weren't frightened at all by the two intruders. More than once she saw the alchemist start to slow, his eye wandering to a piece of natural beauty before marching on. Linkle dutifully took a photo of whatever it was she thought his eyes had landed on and handed them off to him as they walked to put in his notebook.

One photo, taken from the top of the tree that had been their initial destination, was of particular interest. "I don't know what makes water red like that." She said as the pair of them looked over the photo of the mysterious island. "I don't think it's a lake of blood. If this were the Dead Zone maybe, but I can't imagine a blood lake here."

Albedo postulated that the architecture on the island was similar to something in his world, and she was about to ask about what sort of people they were when they were interrupted by the voice of a woman. She looked up to see an ordinary looking woman, albeit one that looked more suited to living off the land than any in her old village. She was about to answer when Albedo beat her to it, giving her a not quite lie that confused her for a moment. The woman seemed to accept it, though, before turning her suspicious on Linkle. Not without good reason, Linkle totally got that. She had, after all, just used the fact that she had skulls for eyes as an intimidation point. Still, when the woman had looked into her eyes she couldn't bring herself to hold the gaze and glanced down under the weight of it.

"I'm Linkle." She started, looking back up sheepishly. "I know I don't look like it right now, but I'm actually part of a line of legendary heroes back in my world. I've been traveling around with a bunch of friends since I got to this one, fighting evil and righting wrongs and hero stuff, but when we went to a place called the Dead Zone I got tricked into making a wish on a talking skull and got super cursed and now it lives in my chest. But ever since it ate my heart the only thing its been able to do is taunt me and show up as a weird shadow one time that only I could see. That's it. It can't do anything unless it convinces me to do something and I don't do what it tells me. I'll do the opposite just to make it mad." She was doing so right now as a matter of fact, the buzzing in her head intensifying the longer she spoke to this woman. The skull heart really didn't seem to like her.

Linkle shrugged her shoulder where the rifle was hanging, trying to fend off the headache that had started building. "Do you want to hold my stuff? You can carry my crossbows and this gun if you don't trust me. I can do ice magic too, but the bows and the gun both shoot fire so I think it would even out? Please, we really do have to meet this lady."
© 2007-2024
BBCode Cheatsheet