Lugubrious

World of Light

Sounds like a plan.

World of Light

Hello there. It looks we really have been blessed with old players reappearing as of late. Regrettably last time you disappeared right in the middle of a zombie invasion of the police station in the Dead Zone, and as with any character left rudderless in such a dangerous situation, Vivi did not survive. I apologize, and I would be happy to work with you to re-enter with a new character elsewhere in the World of Light.

World of Light

The Chalk Prince, the Fallen Child, the Skeleton, and the Skullgirl

Location: Frozen Highlands - Snowdin
Linkle’s @Gentlemanvaultboy, Frisk’s @Majoras End, Papyrus’ @Dark Cloud

Oh dear. For once, it seemed, Mondstadt’s Chief Alchemist had failed to think things through. With even the barest smidgeon of reflection, it seemed stunningly obvious that a sudden surge of light in the pitch black of the Beneviento House’s depths would be as much a distraction for Linkle as it would the Dollmaker. Furthermore, if his new friend’s fight was proceeding apace as he suspected, it made total sense that the young heroine would forget all about the horrific foe in front of her as she fixated on the unfamiliar figure behind Albedo instead–and for all intents and purposes, Papyrus looked just like another monster.

No good deed went unpunished, and for her innocent attempt to help Albedo, Linkle found herself clenched in the overlarge Dollmaker’s grasp. Were he possessed of a more sound mind or killer instinct he might have dealt a withering blow right then and there, but instead the madman aimed the Skullgirl toward toward the reinforcements that stood around the glow of Albedo’s Solar Isotoma. His spine-chilling bellow sputtered the fire in the hearts of the backup squad, momentarily stopping them in their tracks, and in a desperate attempt to either reassert his one-on-one fight or simply extinguish the flower’s stinging golden gleam, he hurled Linkle the newcomers’ way.

Albedo’s conviction waver only a brief moment, and the next he was on the move. It occurred to him that in a hypothetical interpersonal impact he might take a lot more damage than the much more physically powerful Linkle, but nevertheless the alchemist cast aside his sword without so much as a word or a second thought. He dashed into position, knelt, and braced himself with arms outstretched to catch Linkle before she could hit either the ground or his allies, taking the brunt of her motive force directly to his core. A guttural grunt escaped him, but his solid stance prevented a knockdown, and he staggered for only a moment. It was a good thing too, for there wasn’t any time to spare. Albedo let his friend down as softly yet expediently as he could, then got back to his feet.

While Frisk attempted to both shield and re-arm Linkle, Papyrus brought forth constructs of his own. A miniature forest of oversized bones sprouted up around the Dollmaker, but to label the freakish creature as ‘trapped’ would be a gross embellishment. Angry as a hornet and deaf to the good-hearted skeleton’s pleas, the Dollmaker stormed through the boneyard, using the bizarre length and slenderness of its limbs to great effect. No half-hearted attempt at nonviolence would quell a monstrosity like this in the World of Light, where surrender was never an option. Fortunately, Albedo had been sitting on a surplus of energy for a while now, and with the fate of some innocent bystanders on the line it was about time to cash out.

The alchemist lay in wait, one hand behind his back and the other across his heart, biding his time for a brief but crucial second or so, until the Dollmaker’s charge brought it into range. Then he flourished his hand outward. “Witness my great undertaking!” From the ground in front of him erupted a geyser of great citrine crystals like the petals of an immense flower. The size of Albedo’s Tectonic Tide in the confined space both bathed the area with yellow light and knocked his enemy’s limbs out from under it. Taken completely by surprise, the Dollmaker lost his composure, and as he went down Albedo thrust his palm forward. “Come into being!”

A second solar isotoma bloomed beneath it, replacing the first. When the Dollmaker fell on it, the alchemical creation generated its characteristic crystalline platform, and with the power of the earth lifted the monster’s body into the air. He quickly began to recover, but before he could escape, the flower’s lift pinned him to the ceiling, where he could struggle with thrashing arms and legs. “The Rite of Progeniture is boosting your elemental mastery,” Albedo told Linkle, calmly re-summoning his sword. “Let us dispense with this distraction.”

World of Light

Ms Fortune

Location: Carcass Isle - Where All Things Must Come
Level 7 Nadia (67/70)
Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Blazermate’s @Archmage MC, Hat Kid’s @Dawnrider, Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy
Word Count: 2187

Only after Nadia began to put her latest off-the-wall scheme into action did she realize just how much she’d imposed on her allies. After all, the odious Orphan of Kos had just blown apart an entire rocky cliffside, its crimson rupture fracturing literal tons of stone into boulders, chunks, and shards that then sailed across the beach in a scatterblast of epic proportions. The unanticipated fluctuation in gravity reduced the danger somewhat, but a head-on collision with any decent-sized fragment would still hurt like hell, and getting pinned by one could be a death sentence. Worse still, the megalithic bombardment drove the Seekers apart, separating them even more than the nightmare’s blood grenades. It was this in this pandemonium that Nadia Fortune demanded the others’ help to keep the Orphan occupied while she sought to bring her plan to fruition. She needed only a couple all-important seconds, but their brevity made them all the more difficult to supply.

Luckily, Peach wasn’t the only Mushroom Kingdom refugee to lend a hand. Once Kamek, ever the quick thinker, made use of her sorcery to reduce an incoming crag to a far more manageable size, she affixed a dark explosive to it and returned it to sender. Forced by her original form’s advanced age to look on from the sidelines as Bowser and his son enjoyed a variety of sports, the Magikoopa now had enough youth and vigor from Cia and ’B’giotahmo’s spirits to make up for lost time. Like a cannonball the makeshift projectile returned to sender, cruising in just as Peach disengaged and forcing the Orphan to relinquish its pursuit. With a cry it twisted around to smash the slab to smithereens, only for the hunk of rock to abruptly swell to several times its size. The two met in a terrific impact instantly followed by the spectacular detonation of Kamek’s engorged dark magic mine. Together the combined might of eldritch strength and abyssal sorcery annihilated the boulder, and as shrapnel flew in every direction, the Orphan could be seen half-buried on its back in the sand. As insult to injury, the blast of Geralt’s long-shot grapeshot bomb riddled its body with metal, and the monster made its pain heard.

Even that, however, wouldn’t keep it down for long. The Orphan thrashed for only a moment as it sought to right itself, and though the others were more or less recovered from the explosion and on their way to help, Nadia had all the time she needed. Ace landed in her improvised safe and sound, a little disoriented but still down for whatever his fellow Decoy had in mind. Though only for a brief moment amidst the chaos, the feral found her smile returned, which naturally made her beam all the brighter. To have someone else’s implicit trust was no easy feat, but then again, there didn’t seem to be anything a couple of exuberant jokesters couldn’t do. Then Rika screamed, and all too soon the moment was over. Ace zoomed off in a high arc toward the abomination that stirred among the rubble, powering through the collusion of gravity and drag to bring his absurd lance to bear for a thrust the Orphan wouldn’t forget.

Nadia would have been happy to just watch him rip the freak a new one, but to her surprise she found her service as a living springboard wasn’t over just yet. A highly-motivated Hatty suddenly leaped into view, flash-froze herself, and plunged down onto the net Nadia had been just about to slacken. “Bwuh!?” Before the burden of the kid-sicle managed to splat both of them on the sand, the opposing Nadias strained against the trampoline once more, and a split second later hatty hurled off in Ace’s proverbial footsteps.

The real Nadia watched her go with a look of bewilderment as she subsumed both her fibers and her copycats, but her momentary confusion soon turned into astonishment. Rising from the dust and muck faster than she or any of the others dared hope, the Orphan fixed its loathsome gaze on Ace as he began his descent, then took to the skies to meet him in kind. Nadia’s heart sank; what would have otherwise been a totally awesome team-attack was now a heartbeat away from becoming a lost opportunity at best, and if the Cadet didn’t manage to defend himself, a catastrophic disaster at worst. But as she stared, her hands on her head in dismay as her ears and tail stood on end, Hat Kid’s own cunning revealed itself. The expert platformer had launched herself in a lower and faster arc than the Cadet, and before the Orphan could bring him down, Hatty careened into its upper half head-on. Sent into a backspin by the withering bash, the shrieking horror could neither attack nor defend himself before Ace, like a jousting knight, drove the business end of his Sharq Attack straight into its grisly husk.

Then the two hit the beach in a blast of sand, and despite its near-impalement the Orphan rolled to its feet with its wings billowing behind it. As monster and hunter squared off, Nadia joined the stampede of heroes on their way to his aid, but well before anyone could arrive to help turn the tide Hatty lent a hand once again. With her frozen form wedged in his weaponized shark, Ace could strike out with a crude but effective mallet, and for once in its brief and wretched life the Orphan found itself outranged. For a brief but furious moment the two traded blows, but when the other Seekers arrived the pair bowed out to give the others their time in their wringer.

Sakura arrived first, deftly vaulting over the swing that chased Ace off. Geralt joined her, and together the sweet-and-sour duo fought to deal as much damage as they could while they had the chance. With all the heroes in the way Rika’s whale couldn’t just blast from afar, but the unlikely pair did well enough. After a couple beats the Orphan wrenched more meat from its placenta and plunged it into the ground, and with memories of what happened to Delsin fresh in their minds, both aggressors knew that they needed to dodge away from its front. Nadia skidded to a stop in the sand just in time to avoid running headlong into a massive blood plume, where for a brief moment she waited with a veritable army of Murlocs, Primids, and Goombas at her back. Through the red mist she saw the Orphan a long jump backward from the Seekers, throwing four more fleshbursters as it did. While the cat burglar’s first impulse was to dodge like mad, her keen cat-eyes let her see that none of the projectiles flew straight forward, so on the spur of the moment Nadia jumped up to dash through the air above the carnage. “You’re a real sicko, ya know that?” she growled as she came in for a landing on blood-soaked sand, with Peach drifting down on her parasol nearby. How Junior and Rika’s armada would slog across the beach through the onslaught and reach their fast-moving target, she had no idea. At least the slower Seekers could use the boulders scattered around the beach for cover.

Of course, that was just a taste of what the nightmare had in store. Rather than let the Seekers back it against the cliff wall, the Orphan sprang upward in a lofty high jump once more. It ripped and flung even more fleshbursters as it flew, spattering the battlefield with concussive blasts of viscera, then landed right back in the melee. As Geralt, Peach, and Sakura attacked, Nadia made a copycat and joined them, cutting in when an opportune moment presented itself while Ace, Hatty, and Bella lurked on the fringes, the latter providing air support with her seaplanes. As savage as this thing was, it lacked the creativity to back up its speed and strength. As long as she kept a head on her shoulders, Nadia felt confident enough to challenge it with a strategy in mind. “Hey, no petting!” When it tried to pulverize her with an overhead she scooted around behind to deliver a long kick or swipe; when it reached for a meatwad she made sure to avoid whichever way it faced. And when it released its placenta for a huge flailing sweep she airdashed over to claw at its head, then leapfrog out of there. “A cut above! …Oof!” For that one Nadia took a stray hit from behind and hit to the ground in a heap with an ache in her spine. “Argh, gonna feel that one tomorrow.” A moment more, however, and she was back in the fray.

The Orphan jumped around like crazy, in and out and up and down and hurling blood orbs each time, but after realizing just how much its ‘fighting style’ punished passivity the Seekers relentlessly chased it down. Still, nobody was getting complacent. Everyone slipped up now and then, and the Orphan made them pay each time, which kept Blazermate as busy as ever. Meanwhile, near-constant fleshbursters both made mincemeat of Junior’s summons and made it difficult to coordinate more team-ups. The brawl came to a head when the Orphan finally happened to stop in front of Rika’s whale. It opened fire, only for both shells to narrowly miss, and silhouetted by their explosion the monster charged. The whale rolled into its side as the Orphan came down with a leaping overhead smash, opening its jaws wide enough to essentially split its head in half so that the blow could carve into the sand unobstructed. Then its jaws clamped shut on the upper third of its assailant’s body, its vicious teeth driven in by incredible bite force and sinking deeper. Almost immediately a fleshburster went off inside the whale’s head, rupturing its pale flesh in a half-dozen places, and the Orphan tore free. Yet the exchange bought the heroes time to get in close, and nobody was closer than Sakura. Though she wanted to get a hit in herself, Nadia hung back As the monster wheeled around to resume the fight the street fighter hammered it a mighty blow, staggering it just long enough for her to dodge away without reprisal.

Like clockwork an ally moved in to take over, but this time the Orphan had enough. It slammed its placental weapon into the ground hard enough to bury in the sand, then in an incredible feat of strength sent flying a massive quantity of ground. It slammed into the incoming Seeker like a breaking wave, weak in terms of damage but strong enough to both temporarily blind and knock down, before the Orphan went for Sakura. When it came at her she dodged as usual, only to find herself snagged in a giant grab. Her enemy lifted her by the forearm into the air, letting her dangle for an instant beneath its baleful stare. Then it slung her into the ground, lifted its fleshy armament behind its head, and, gleefully ignorant of her friends’ efforts to interrupt it, pounded her into the mud.

It happened so fast that it left Nadia speechless and frozen, her water pressure fizzling out before she could spring. Bella, however, found her voice. “Sakuraaaaaaaa!” the Seaplane Tender wailed, sprinting toward her fallen savior as she let loose her remaining gauntlet cannon with everything she had. Seemingly without any regard for the barrage, or the brutality it had wrought, the Orphan hurled itself into the sky, its wings whipping around as it span. A second later, another handful of bursters rained down. Her face a mask of anguish, Bella deployed an entire fleet of seaplanes, and as one they swarmed skyward. With tiny guns blazing they fearlessly flew into the falling ordnance, detonating the bombs early enough that none got the chance to reach the ground. Amidst the deluge of gunk and scrap Bella knelt over Sakura, her eyes full of tears.

The Orphan alighted on the earth just a hundred feet away. Scars covered its body from dozens and dozens of messily-healed wounds, a tapestry of cuts, punctures, bruises, breakages, burns, and bite marks. Some of its guts hung loosely around its waist, shards of bone protruded from its skin, and its sallow, stretched-thin skin was caked in mucus, grime, and blood–though not all of it its own. “Healers, help Sakura! Everyone else get it away!” Peach yelled, throwing a grenaduck as she ran toward the ocean. The Orphan gave chase with a bellow, using its cleaver as a third leg as it went for her, but once on the water the princess got a boost of speed that conveyed her beyond her pursuer’s reach. Nadia pulled her woeful gaze away from where her comrade had fallen, taking a deep breath. “She’ll be okay,” she told herself, and before she could think about it any more she sprinted after the Orphan of Kos. No clever ideas came to mind this time; all the feral could think about was putting this menace down once and for all.

World of Light

Well, that does make things somewhat difficult. But I'm sure we can manage when the time comes.

World of Light

The hero shtick is kind of the driving force behind the plot of the RP. I would be happier if nobody struck out on their own, since that would mean I don't have to write out another scenario just for him. He could go down the mountain and join the reserve at Tostarena Town no problem, but if he essentially quits the party things could get dicier.

World of Light

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Location: Sandswept Sky - Graveyard of the Peaks
Level 9 Tora (135/90) Level 9 Poppi (135/90) Level 5 Big Band (73/50)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Laharl’s @Dark Cloud, Raz’s @TruthHurts22, the Phantom Thieves, Braum, and the Scout
Word Count: 1847

As if the snowy slope dotted with weathered gravestones as far as the eye could see wasn’t bleak enough in and of itself, a certain someone -or perhaps more accurately, something- just had to drift into view. For the few among the gathered Seekers who shared the misfortune of meeting Master Hand prior, its appearance had been less a question of ‘if’ than ‘when’, but that hardly lessened the tension of this encounter. Even as the snow scraped their faces and the wind whipped at their hair, Tora and Poppi Alpha reacted instantaneously, readying their Drill Shield and spectral claymore for a brawl. As much as the Nopon would have liked to crack Master Hand’s knuckles with a Boom Biter, however, Tora did not open fire. He and his companion knew what the Phantom Thieves and the Scout with their firearms quickly found out; a bubble shield flared to life around the entity before them to protect it from incoming fire, and it showed no sign of damage. “Don’t waste ammunition!” the artificial blade warned them. As infuriating as it was, the heroes could do little but try to endure the battery of both otherworldly voice and buffeting snowstorm, dreading what Galeem’s servant had in store for them this time.

Master Hand’s brief speech managed to take Tora and Poppi by surprise as much as it did Big band. Not only did the entity offer them congratulations, but it even dropped a hint at what their teammates were up to all the way across the continent. A handful of faces flashed through Tora’s mind, most of them vivid as the moment when the two teams parted ways. It had been a minute since he thought about Sakura, Link, Geralt, the intrepid Hat Kid, or even Bowser and Blazermate, who’d been right there from the very beginning. He hadn’t been afraid for them, necessarily, but who wouldn’t worry about friends half a world away, who must surely be on a quest as dangerous as this? The knowledge that the others weren’t just okay, but actually at least half a day ahead of Yellow Team on their quest to eliminate the boss of the Deep Blue Seaside, fanned the sputtering flames in his heart.

Of course, the enemy that loomed before them seemed determined to extinguish any such hope. It proclaimed that this final stretch of the mountain would be the Seekers’ undoing, a statement that it made with such conviction that it saw fit to manifest no additional opponents to bar the way. Then, after urging the climbers to soldier on, it disappeared as unceremoniously as it came.

To say that a moment passed in silence would be inaccurate, given the howl of the wind across the peak and into the heroes’ ears, but a few seconds went by while those who stood before the gate took in what Master Hand told them. Midna averted her eyes from the path ahead, and in her search for alternatives discovered an edifice in the distance that looked promisingly like the abbey that poor Gemino in his arrow-studded husk of iron described. It took a few moments for Big Band to follow her gaze, and when he did spot the place she described, he shook his head in disbelief. “That’s a hell of a long way off!” he practically shouted, fighting to be heard over the ambient weather. The detective extended a pneumatic arm to point out a potential route with his finger. “‘Less you can fly straight there, we’d have to go up a ways, then backtrack farther down than we are now! If we turn up empty-handed, we’ll be even worse off for a longer climb than we already got” He wasn’t going to argue that a brute force solution seemed unlikely at best, but the whole team couldn’t possibly go that far out of their way and still hope to proceed, unless the place ‘where the frozen and the burning embrace in communion’ could offer them a king’s ransom of rest and warmth.

Optimistic even in the face of a brutal ordeal, Raz dispensed some ideas for how the struggle upwards might be made less severe. His suggestions, unfortunately, met with enthusiasm from neither Braum nor Mona. As much as the very big man appreciated the very small man’s willingness to help, he was forgetting a crucial factor. “I am sorry, little Raz, but I don’t think that would work!” he told the Psychonaut, kneeling behind his shield for protection from the wind. “The bigger the surface, the more the wind can push against it. That quickly becomes a problem even for one as mighty as me!”

Mona shook his giant head, his eyes sad. “Uh huh. I probably don’t even have the tire grip to push through the wind and snow uphill, let alone the horsepower.”

As for his other observation, Poppi couldn’t shell out much hope. “You may be on to something, but then again, it might just be here. Lots of stuff in World of Light not there for any good reason.” Having heard about if not experienced firsthand the random weekly generation of the Land of Adventure, ostensibly manmade structures and all, she could corroborate Primrose’s suspicions about things just being places.

“Fox!” Joker called all of a sudden. His masked friend turned to him quizzically, but for once the Phantom Thief wasn’t referring to him. Instead Joker was calling out toward the back of the pilot who even now drew farther and farther away from the group, proceeding alone and without a word up the slope. “Fox!” the teen called again, but there came no answer. “Ugh…” he groaned, releasing the hands cupped around his mouth to pull the parka from Deportes Bienes around his shoulders. “This is bad.”

Panther shivered despite her winter coat, its hood pulled so tight around her head that only her red mask could be seen. “W-what about our fire?” she asked. “Carmen and Lamia can keep us warm as-as-as long as we have the energy!”

“There ain’t anythin’ ‘round here we c-could light!” Big Band bemoaned. “And even if we did have torches or s-somethin’, they’d get blown out in an instant!”

As best he could, Skull put his thinking cap on. “Well, what about castin’ fire on each other? I know it ain’t a great idea, but it’s better than freezin’ to d-d-death…right!?”

At that, the Scout spoke up. “Whoa, bad idea, mate! That’s liable to c-cause thermal shock, if ya don’t burn our damn clothes off first, so unless agonizin’ death sounds like a jolly g-good time, I’d say think o’ somethin’ else!” Skull sagged down with a hang of his head, his curses lost to the wind.

In the midst of the team’s deliberation, Tora took his eyes off the radiant cleft in the mountain above to face and address his teammates. “F-f-friends! Why all doomy and gloomy, meh? Don’t you see? It not so far at all!” He pointed a wing finger up to where the radiance of Split Mountain’s summit shone through the snowstorm, a beacon of hope that not even this cruel blizzard could quench.

It definitely looked close–tantalizingly so. Yet Poppi’s optics told her otherwise. A combination of size, distance, weather, and wishful thinking conspired to warp perception, creating a mirage that only empirical hardware could pierce. As always Poppi’s first impulse was to correct her Masterpon, but as she looked out over the faces of the Seekers, she fell silent. Things were not looking good. Nobody wanted to trudge upward through this frozen hell. They didn’t think they could make it.

They needed a guiding light far closer than the mountain peak.

“Jerkypon hand taunt us saying we don’t have what it takes to be heroes,” her Masterpon was saying. “Tora say meh to that! It b-b-being here mean that we close to boss! If friends j-just huddle together and push onward, we can make it!”

A handful of wry laughs and groans steamed out with the team’s breath. For his part, Big Band looked incredulous. “Look kid, I like seein’ a hero beat impossible odds all the time. See it every Saturday on Peacock’s cartoons. But this is life or death, we’ve gotta be realistic!”

Tora gave a solemn nod. “Yes. That why if things go wrong, we can slide down with wind at back and glide all way to T-t-toasty Town. But we cannot turn tail just yet because this look tough, meh! I-I-It job of heroes to try very, very best! And just as Primrose friend say and Fox-Fox show us, there no time to lose, meh-meh!” He looked to his companion for support. “R-right, Poppi!?”

After a brief moment, Poppi nodded her head. “That what Poppi believe.”

Braum gave a booming laugh. “Ahaha, well spoken! I could not have said it better myself!” He stood to his full height and regaled everyone with a heartwarming smile. “I believe it too. I believe we can all make it! And if you should fall…” the Freljordan flexed his muscles. “I will carry you!”

“Ugh. Too much TV is bad for ya,” Band groaned, rolling his eyes before he gave a windy sigh of resignation. “But if you’re doin’ this, I sure ain’t gonna let ya do it alone. H-here, we’ll go with your idea,” he told Therion. “And I got an idea who oughta be pole p-position.”

So saying, Band turned to face the wind. He breathed deep of the frigid air and began to play. A simple but strident tune blazed forth, loud enough to be heard over the wind for a decent distance. He pushed forward into the snow, propelled by sonic energy that trailed behind him in bands like sheet music. The detective made for the memorial obelisks, and after reaching them deployed both giant mechanical arms to wrench two free from the snow-covered earth to use like skis. “Sorry to disturb your rest, but we’ll be carryin’ your memory with us,” he told the frozen ashes before raising his voice for the others. “F-form up on either side of me! Half on one side, half on the other. I’ll be your anchor and your center, so if s-somethin’ goes wrong, make sure you f-follow the sound o’ my sweet, sweet jazz.”

Tora jumped to it, although Poppi beat him there. The artificial blade positioned herself on Big Band’s left, a hand affixed to one of the caps on his coat, and Tora took hold of her shoulder on her left. Braum took the lead on the detective’s right to start the other branch of Therion’s proposed v-formation. Wherever the Phantom Thieves ended up all four of the teens would invariably be in sequence, while Mona rode on Braum’s shoulder. Though the storm had already laid waste to Fox’s footprints, everyone kept an eye out as best they could as they set off, hoping to induct the pilot into their ranks. Heart in heart and hand in hand, the Seekers with the will to push forward began the final climb.

World of Light

Hopefully my incoming Yellow Team update will help the block pass.

Infactorium: A New 4Xpansion (Overlord RP) [DISCONTINUED]

As the subject of Anzelgard's fate continued to spark deliberation among her leader-turned-compatriot and her Overseer compatriots, the fact that Canology Mae of the Gorging Trough had been elevated to a lofty position among them still didn't get any easier to believe. Like the diver who ascended from the watery deep too quickly, Mae felt like she had decompression sickness. The whole thing happened so fast, fast enough to leave her way in over her head--metaphorically, of course. What could a humble chef, ignorant of the world beyond the walls of her oft-forgotten and only situationally useful corner of the guild, possibly offer a council of war whose arbitration could define centuries of history to come? How could such a grotesque, low-down creature possibly fill the seat of her lord Sugi the Hammer, at least in a metaphoric sense, when all she really knew of her creator was what he liked best to eat?

Yet to fall prey to such thinking was self-indulgent, and Mae indulged herself enough in the Gorging Trough. Had she not just accepted the responsibility of playing a greater role in Infactorium? That she was here meant that Lady Faetalis of the Supreme Beings trusted in her faculties and judgment, even if Mae herself doubted her own qualifications. That meant that the headless horror shouldn't put herself through the wringer with all sorts of sophistry and logic, trying to find and then justify the right answer; she'd been inducted into this illustrious Raid Council to offer her answer, whatever that might be. She needed only the courage to give it.

That was, naturally, easier said than done. To someone without the benefit of particular experience or perspective, Gammaton and Levia's answers both seemed totally and completely sound. Mae could find no fault in them, try as she might. And yet she did try, for while they made sense, their proposed plan of action left a bad taste in Mae's mouth. As the Queen of Breakage wound down, the headless chef realized that must mean her own opinion ran contrary. That was kind of intimidating in and of itself, since while Mae didn't think for one second that disagreement would result in punishment, she didn't want to kick off her fellowship with her amazing compatriots by being stupid. Still, if she was going to say anything, it would have to be now. If one or more of those yet to speak chimed in supporting the consensus so far, it would only get harder to go against the flow. Canology Mae cleared her throat.

"Well," she began, rocking her immense weight back and forth on her heels ever so slightly. "I ain't one much for economics, or politics, or populations, or anythin' of the sort, really. All I can really say is what does and doesn't sit right with me. And maybe I'm just a big softie 'cause I've never gone out from the home front, but..." Mae rallied all the determination she could muster, and since a resolute crossing her arms was a physical impossibility, she put her hands on her doughy hips. "I reckon that goin' all scorched-earth with Anzelgard right from the get-go would end up bein' a waste. I mean, we could always fall back to it if other plans don't shake out, but there's gotta be more we can make of 'em alive than dead. If Cormac's been yuckin' it up among 'em, maybe we could take it a li’l further. If we somehow got Anzelgard to do our interactin' for us, we could stay hidden ‘til the time’s right." Mae shrugged. "I dunno. Not knowin' in general's kinda the problem. Even after grillin' Riny and that other poor sucker, we got next to nothin' on this world, really. Anythin' could be out there, maybe even other Supreme Bein's, so if we commit to puttin' all our cards on the table right now and tell everyone ‘hey, we’re here an’ we’re a threat!’ we might end up in some real hot water.”

She fell silent then, hoping that she hadn’t just spouted off a bunch of unsubstantiated nonsense, and that what her heart told her was what Faetalis wanted to hear. All she knew was that when she wanted to make a dish, she couldn’t make do with unknowns. She needed to know which ingredients to use and how much to add. No matter how skilled the chef or how quality the ingredients, one couldn’t just wing it and expect to brute force a success. Perhaps the bigger picture worked the same way.

Infactorium: A New 4Xpansion (Overlord RP) [DISCONTINUED]

Yep, I'll do that within an hour or two.