Lugubrious

World of Light

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Location: Sandswept Sky
Level 9 Tora (228/90) Level 9 Poppi (228/90) Level 7 Big Band (56/70)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Raz’s @TruthHurts22, Raiden’s @XoXKieroBombXoX, the Phantom Thieves, Braum, the Scout, Peacock
Word Count: 1657

Except for the odd bit of discomfort, or the occasional nightmare about Wendigo, both halves of Yellow Team slept like the dead. While those privy to the interior of Gerudo Town enjoyed much nicer beds and accommodations on the whole, the inn at the oasis served the others’ purposes just fine, and even those who slumbered under the stars enjoyed a night of peace and quiet until the break of dawn. Some time after the sun had risen, a very groggy Tora emerged from the inn, his conspicuous lack of overalls hinting at his chosen method for freshening himself up.

“...Meh-meh-meh-meh-meeeh!”

The Nopon took off running across the hot sand, through the gauntlet of palm, and finally performed a flying leap into the sparkling desert oasis. Being cannonball-shaped, he made quite the splash, loud enough to stir Big Band out of hibernation in the palm trees’ shade. “Huh, wuzzat?” He blinked the sleep from his eyes to see Tora swimming around, using his wings like oars to push himself through the water. The detective shook his head in resignation as he rose from where he laid himself to rest, causing his bones to pop and his metal joints to creak. “Oh, good heavens. Stiff as a damn board, I need a tuneup or…or somethin’.” With deliberate slowness he got to his feet, where he watched Tora continue to paddle around. “Y’know, for a beach ball your swimmin’ ain’t half bad, kid.”

“Hm-hm!” Tora chuckled, a smug look on his face. “Friend Band not see anything yet. Poppi!”

His artificial blade, seated at the water’s edge, perked up. “Masterpon!”

“Initiate Rally Mode!”

“Roger, roger!” After standing, Poppi clapped her hands together above her head in an A shape, then launched herself into the water in a corkscrew dive. She vanished beneath the surface, and a moment later, Tora began to rise out of the water. Poppi emerged in a big splash and set the Nopon like a volleyball, sending him flying straight up.

“Whee!” he sang, his limbs tucked in as he arced up and back down toward the water. Poppi moved to bump him as he came down and return him to the air, then repeated the process where he fell down next.

When Vandham walked over to investigate the noise, the sight of his friends elicited an uproarious burst of laughter. He held out his hand. “Over ‘ere, I’m open!”

Poppi obligingly bounced her Masterpon his direction, and with a big grin the man adopted a wide stance. Just a hair too early he bumped Tora back to Poppi, sending him at a low angle. “Cripes, you’re ‘eavier than I remember!” he laughed. When Tora hit the water with a splash and bobbed back up to the surface, all smiles, he crossed his arms. “If this ship ever makes an emergency landin’ in the water, we’ll ‘ave a good float at least!”

“Even Tora sink like rock if Biggypon take hold!” the Nopon joked back as Poppi waded over to him. At his level of durability, such mild impacts barely even registered. “C’mon Poppi, let’s go again! Now friends Midna, Braum, and Band play, too!”

“Oi, don’t forget about me!” the Scout called, waving from the shoreline. He’d gone for a dip himself in a pair of swimming trunks from the market, and his bulbous red beard was heavy with water. “If anyone lands on my ‘ead, they’ll bounce straight off like a bloody trampoline, trust me!”

They set up another rally, although this one didn’t go quite so smoothly. Poppi and Vandham both possessed such an abundance of strength that they made bouncing Tora around look easy, when in fact it wasn’t. A few hard splats into sand at the feet of a would-be hitter, which left the Nopon half-buried with his legs wiggling in the air, convinced the others to dial up the power a little, but that wasn’t without its own consequences. As Vandham walked into the inn to get the others, he heard a loud BONK as Tora bounced off the hull of the Virgin Victory, and shook his head in resignation. “Alright mates, rise an’ shine!” he shouted, visiting Therion, Raiden, Joker, Skull, Panther, Mona, and Raz in turn. “We got a big day ahead of us, so don’t make me chuck ya in the lake with Tora!”

Having slept on Joker’s bed as usual, Mona woke with a start and promptly rolled off onto the floor. “Okay, okay already! Sheesh.”

With that more or less taken care of, Vandham headed on over to Tumbleweed Saloon, where Commander Nelson and James Shirogane were already seated with a breakfast of black coffee, beans, and tropical fruit beneath the wagon wheel chandelier. With them he also found Alice MacGregor, having returned bright and early from Gerudo Town with ill tidings, or so he assumed from the general dour mood and lack of stuff for the Virgin Victory. The mercenary leader nodded to them and sat at an adjacent table, joined shortly by Big Band. One or two at a time the rest of the Seekers trailed in, bringing in or ordering food before they found somewhere to sit, which could include the bench for the piano since nobody was playing it. A few faces appeared from the Gerudo Town contingent as well, including Panther, who was eager to see her friends again.

After everyone got a chance to chat and eat, Vandham kicked things off. “So, Miss MacGregor. What’s the sitch?”

The solemn-faced pilot took a long breath in through her nose and began. “Well, in terms of fuel and mechanical parts with which we might make the Virgin Victory ship-shape, I regret to inform everyone that the town is rather lacking. It is not as, for lack of a better word, anachronous as we might have hoped. There is very little technology even approaching ‘modern’ to be found.”

Nelson looked grave. “So we may be stranded here for some time then, I take it. That is most unfortunate.”

“Luckily, we might have an alternative.” Every eye was on Alice, their momentary despair converted in an instant to hope, as she continued. “I visited the train station, the only modern facility in the city. I was curious, since we saw no tracks anywhere in Gerudo Town’s vicinity, and indeed, the place seemed to be empty. And yet, as I waited there, a subway train pulled into the station. It arrived from a dark hole in the wall, pulled by an orange tabby cat the size of an elephant, running along a track of yellow light. The train opened, and a number of desert folk came out. The station guards allowed the women into town, but the men were obliged to leave the city immediately through a second gate that seemed to link the station directly to the outside.”

Fox adopted a pose of exquisite thought. “Just like the subways in Mementos,” he observed. “Phantom trains arriving from nowhere and leading to nowhere, in stunning defiance of Euclidean space.”

“Those never stopped though,” Skull remembered, looking from his friend back to Alice. “But you said this one did?”

“Indeed. And to indulge my curiosity, I boarded it, as well.”

“Now ya got me curious,” Band told her. “Where’s this midnight special train take ya?

Alice tented her fingers. “When we set off, we disappeared into a dark tunnel, the sort you’d expect underground, except that it would have logically ended after only a few meters on the opposite side of the city walls. But the train emerged in what appeared to be a large city, lit by bright neon signs and full of black cats. After I got off, however, I realized my first impression was incorrect. In fact, ” She paused for a moment. “Most importantly, there were other train lines. Other than the yellow line I came in on, I mean. There were all the colors of the rainbow. So naturally, I assume the place is simply a gargantuan, multi-story train station. And if each of the train lines warps space as ours did…”

Poppi’s processor had already come to the same conclusion. “That mean it potentially lead to places all over world!”

“Like hub for fast travel, meh!” Tora piped up.

Not sure what he was referring to, Alice delivered her final report. “I did not try any of the other lines, since I did not want to risk getting lost, and some of them required paid passes, regardless. While waiting for the Yellow Line train to run again, however, I did find a door and step outside.” She crossed her arms as if shivering. “What I found was freezing cold. A city sitting atop a frigid ocean, blanketed in snow, yet full of life. I could see very little before I went back inside, but when I looked up, the exterior facade of the train station appeared to be a gargantuan pumpkin. So big as to be unmistakable from any distance. In other words, it may as well be on the other side of the world from here.”

As that sank in, the others reacted with a mixture of bafflement, wonder, and excitement. Tora in particular bounced up and down in his chair. “That mean we not stranded here after all, meh! Just need ride train, and no more awful hot-hot desert!”

“And it sounds like the ladies in town let men into the train station, at the very least,” Band observed. “How forward-thinkin’ of ‘em.”

Nelson nodded. “Certainly a more promising prospect than a journey on foot across the desert. We need only ride the rails until we come across somewhere with the materials we need. Or better yet, somewhere close to home base, in Alcamoth.”

“Sounds like we got a plan then!” Vandham announced. “Eat up and get ready, mates. We got ourselves a train to catch!”

Ms Fortune

Location: Deep Blue Seaside - Limsa Lominscuttle Town
Level 9 Nadia (32/90)
Word Count: 3313

As much as she wanted to hang out with her friends, Nadia just didn’t have the patience to check this incredible marketplace out at anyone’s pace but her own. With only so much time and money available, she needed to cover as much ground as possible to ensure that whatever purchase she ended up making would be the right one, and what better way to avoid getting lost in a never-ended feedback loop of sensory overload than to take the whole place one shop at a time?

The feral quickly plotted a course around the Argentum Bazaar. If she essentially hugged the right wall, she could hit every shop in a big counterclockwise crescent around the outside, then turn around to make an inward clockwise crescent back to the start along the new right wall, which would eventually leave her in the innermost core of the market. With that plan in mind, she set off, and immediately discovered that things wouldn’t be quite so simple. The bazaar was stuffed with people, be they traders from afar, citizens of Limsa Lominscuttle Town, or the shipgirls of its Azure Navy. Throughout the place the crowd flowed and swirled like the currents of the ocean blue, and it seemed all too easy to be swept away, or even dragged under. The hubbub reminded her of the Little Innsmouth dark markets, specifically the chaos that befell them when the fishers and trawlers came in with the day’s catch, and Dagonians of every shape and size came out of the woodwork to snag the freshest seafood for their businesses and families. Though not quite a feeding frenzy of that magnitude, this bazaar did have an even greater variety of patrons. Many diminutive but very solidly-built Nopon scurried around, liable to trip any customers wandering around with their head in the crowds, and the shipgirls who skated over from the city under their own power still had their somewhat hazardous rigging on, however folded-up it might be. Some of the busier shops had lines out from them that followed no particular pattern, creating blockades that other customers needed to get around or through. If anyone could duck, dodge, scoot, and scurry her way through such a crowded place, though, it was Nadia Fortune. By habit she kept her eyes sharp at all times, darting hither and thither to speedily take stock of just about everyone she crossed paths with. Not that she planned to pickpocket anyone, but still.

First on the docket was the incredibly noisy Immortal Core Store, tactfully placed by the main entrance, and quite possibly the biggest, fanciest, and most eye-catching shop in the whole bazaar. Unlike the rest, which made little to no attempt to doll themselves up as anything but ordinary market stalls, the Core Store looked like its own little building done up in a dark fantastical style. After Nadia made her way over she sidled past the raucous throng at the counter and joined a handful of people spectating the process. It took a bit to wrap her head around what was causing such a ruckus, and how, but as best she could gather, customers could buy a couple different kinds of Crests that would then allow her to physically grind open geodes for an unknown gemstone hidden inside, which would then empower any equipment they got socketed into. It sounded kind of fun, but there air of discontent around the place was potent enough to put her off. In the end Nadia decided against it; after all, since the whole thing came down to random chance, who knew how much she would need to spend to get anything good? “Now that I think about it, I don’t even have any gear I could stick ‘em in,” Nadia muttered to herself as she disengaged from the Core Store crowd. If anyone in her group wanted to try that, she hoped they had good luck!

Next door she found Honeycomb Sweets. Though its cakes, cookies, candies, pastries, puddings, ice cream, popsicles all looked incredible, Nadia was still very full from dinner, and the thought of eating anything else threatened to make her ill. After a few deep breaths to enjoy the ambient aroma she moseyed right along.

Shroomblade Smithing occupied the last spot on the outer-bottom row, and it was a big one. Complete with its own forge and workshop behind it, where its supply of more generic armaments was assembled in-house, this shop drew the attention of soldiers, adventurers, and enthusiasts alike. Those not drawn to ogle the walls of weapons on display could watch the smiths at work as they pounded, chiseled, carved, and enchanted away. As fascinating as the process might be, Nadia didn’t have minutes to waste on entertainment, or money to splurge on a whim. Never in her life had the cat burglar received formal training with any kind of weapon, not even with knives, the thief’s tools of the trade. No blade would serve her better than her own body, thanks to the feral ability to harden her claws, tail, teeth, and so forth. With a final longing glance at all the badass sabers, halberds, kukris, morning stars, knuckles, rifles, and shields, she moved on.

The next couple stalls, all on the bazaar’s right side, turned out to be Reedirait Bookstore, Nopox Hobby Store, and Strummer Instruments. Neither seemed to offer Nadia much value at first, since she never tried an instrument and couldn’t call herself much of a bookworm. Besides, where could she possibly find the time or place to actually read a book or play an instrument, either in her frenetic old life or her crazy new adventure in the World of Light? But after today, she wondered if she might occasionally get enough time to indulge herself after all. It might be nice to immerse herself in a good story, or to pick up a new hobby. If she could actually learn how to make music, it might bring some benefit to everyone else, too, by means of raising morale or just helping to connect them better. She pictured herself plucking the guitar and working the accordion that Strummer Instruments had on display, maybe around a campfire somewhere with Ace and the others. That sounded pretty great, actually. But then again, she would need to carry her stuff around with her everywhere, and with her pouches discarded alongside her old clothes she possessed a single means of storage, that being the thief’s teal shoulder bag. In the end Nadia moved on, but she noted the shops down as a solid ‘maybe’ in her mind.

When she reached the outer-top row she came face to face with Noodlers’ Delight and promptly skedaddled. On its left stood Shynini’s Accessories, where all sorts of bracelets, pendants, broaches, watches, and other vanities could be purchased, virtually all of them inlaid with stones and crystals purported to grant magical effects. While looking over its tempting wares, Nadia happened to run into Cerberus, who she found in the process of spending their entire stipend on pretty baubles. On second glance, however, the accessories they chose were bejeweled cuff links of amber, amethyst, and aquamarine, which in addition to matching their eyes perfectly, promised to boost their fire, electric, and ice elemental attacks, respectively. It didn’t take much searching to discover accessories that boosted physical attack, defense, and even water attack, or offered better health regeneration. Nadia only stopped herself from buying something then and there with the logic that there might be something better elsewhere. Hopefully the stuff she had her eyes on would still be sitting there when she got back.

Last on the upper row was Cleo’s Cosmetics. Normally Nadia wouldn’t give a place like that a second glance, since a lifelong tomboy like herself seldom thought twice about such fripperies as foundation, false eyelashes, and blush. For some reason though, as she stood in front of the counter with her arms crossed, her eyes lingered on the rows and rows of aesthetic products. She figured that under normal circumstances, people used stuff like this in order to make themselves look like someone they weren’t. Someone better, more attractive, more perfect. Even if she didn’t partake herself, Nadia understood why so many would. At the same time, she wondered if the same products might serve a different purpose: to make her look like herself.

Nadia took hold of her hair. White as dead coral, longer and more flowy than usual, as if perpetually underwater. It was nice, and part of her just accepted it as ‘her’, but her memories assured her that wasn’t always the case. If she kept fusing with more spirits, how long would it be before she looked in the mirror and could no longer recognize the girl staring back? It would be foolhardy to believe that every enemy she ran into with powers she wanted would happen to look like her. No matter what happened, she wanted to keep a hold of herself, and not become something else. Her first instinct when she fused with Northampton, to cut her hair back to jaw-length, said as much. As the gears turned, the feral came to a decision. She spent two 250 gold on a bottle of platinum blonde hair dye, good for five applications. No matter who I fuse with, she thought as she placed her first purchase in her bag, I’ll still have the ol’ bob.

The moved a little faster around the inner crescent, spending just enough time to get an idea of which shop sold what and whether or not she needed it. She soon noticed that the inner crescent seemed a little…stranger. While the stalls she passed so far all featured cute Nopon shopkeepers, these more cluttered, dimly-lit stores featured the enigmatic Bazaar Masters, and though each styled himself as ‘Mr’, Nadia found herself doubting whether they were really men. In clockwise order, she went by Mr. Chimes’ Lost and Found, a highly exclusive antique vendor, Gottery the Outfitter, a clothes store run by Mr. Veils, Crawcase Cryptics, a shop of secrets and rumors run by Mr. Papers, Dauncey’s, Mr. Wines’ liquor store, Nassos Zoologicals, a pet (and minion) shop under Mr. Eaten’s leadership, The Great Downward Engineering Company, a gadgetry workshop run by Mr. Iron, Empire Adornments, operated discreetly by the employees of Mr. Stones, the Bridge Without, that being a grocery cheerily attended to by Mr. Apples, Carrow’s Steel, a less popular arms provider run by Mr. Fires, and Nikolas Pawnbrokers, run by Mr. Mirrors. Beyond these curious shops lay only the innermost portion of the Bazaar, occupied by Whiteside Salvaging, the storefront for Argentum Trade Guild’s own special industry. There she spotted the Bowsers, just finishing a transaction.

The trip took more time than Nadia expected, even though she avoided entangling herself with her friends whenever she happened to run into them throughout the marketplace. In the end, she went back to Gottery the Outfitter, since the clothes she bought today wouldn’t be much use in the coming battles, and bargained for a new outfit. The zip-up jumpsuit she settled on for 800 gold covered all her bases: cute (although in rather less innocent fashion than Rika’s new sundress), stylish, didn’t cover her separation points, and thanks to a remarkable degree of durability, pretty practical actually. It came with a set of fingerless gloves that could help her punch, as well. After that the feral went between the accessory shops looking for the best bang for her buck. In the end, she spent her bottom dollar on two new trinkets. One was a shiny ring that would increase her ‘maximum equipment load’. Though skeptical at first, she realized once Bazaar Master let her try it on that the ring made her gear feel light as a feather. As a direct result, she also got a charm that promised to boost her attack power the lower her equipment load was. Hopefully, all that meant that because she traveled so light, she would be able to hit way harder, and even if she needed to gear up for harsh conditions, it would be easier to maintain her agility. Even if that didn’t work, at least her finds were pretty, and the charm looking rather like a cat toy spoke to her on a fundamental level.

It was getting to be that time, and soon after she met up with the rest of the Seekers back at the Trade Guild’s dock. The others had been every bit as busy as she, and everyone sported some fancy new stuff, be that equipment, supplies, or just whatever caught their fancy. Nadia loved that Sakura got herself a bike, it was just such a Sakura thing to do. Not everything had to be functional, and seeing the girl enjoy herself with her new purchase made Nadia sort of wish she bought an instrument or something, after all. Geralt, meanwhile, got a cool new bow, while Peach somehow managed to find a fearsome new weapon of destruction, the Agro Torpedo rocket launcher, able to wreak havoc at ranges her Boomshot could only dream of. “Looks like everyone’s made good use of their allowances,” she giggled, seeing a few of the purchases. “It’s getting late, so we should probably disband for the evening. I feel like tomorrow’s going to be another very busy day, so let’s all rest well.”

Once the ferry deposited all of them back at the Limsa harbor, the Seekers could go their separate ways. Although the sound of another long snooze in the comfy white sheets of Mizzenmast Inn sounded divine, Nadia couldn’t help but feel a little paranoid about how secure her hotel room really was, on account of her repossession efforts that afternoon. Best case scenario was that her disposal of both Rita and Barth left the gang she’d fallen foul of scattered and leaderless, with those nasty customers’ more redeemable underlings free to pursue better opportunities elsewhere. Worst case scenario was that her incursion sent ripples through the underworld, putting a target on her head that any number of assassins might be eager to cash in on. Someone in her line of work didn’t survive by assuming she’d always get lucky.

She decided to bid the other inn-goers farewell, and tag along with Peach back through the warp portal to Alcamoth. “Night-night everyone!” she called as she waved the others away. Only as she, the princess, and a couple others crossed the seaside city to reach the teleporter did Nadia really begin to feel just how tired she was. “Whew. Gonna sleep like a log tonight.” By the time she finally reached an empty room in Alcamoth’s residential sector, she was shambling like a zombie, and when she collapsed into bed she zonked right out.

For Nadia

Items obtained:
Asuka’s Outfit
A combination of ice blue zip-up jumpsuit, fingerless MMA gloves, and royal blue sports bra. Stronger than it would appear and well-suited to Nadia’s fighting style
Havel’s Ring (?)
A ring for warriors keen on heavy accouterments. Increases maximum equip load. This ring was named after Havel the Rock, the battlefield compatriot of Gwyn, the First Lord–or so it should be. This ring is but an imitation, only providing a measly 15% extra equip load instead of the original 50%
Blue Dancer Charm
A cloth doll depicting a dancer garbed in blue. An ancient heirloom of some sort. The dancer in blue represents a fairy, who in legend bestowed a flowing sword upon a blind swordsman. Blade in hand, the swordsman sealed away an ancient god — a god that was Rot itself. Increases physical damage as equip load lowers, with a maximum of 14% extra damage dealt at the lightest threshold
Platinum Blonde Hair Dye
Too white to be blonde, too blonde to be white, it’s the closest hue that Nadia can find to her original hair color, as far as she can remember. 5/5 applications remaining

---

Just shy of eight hours later, some noise outside Nadia’s room made her cat ears perked up, followed shortly by the slow, bleary blinking of her eyes. It took a second to remember where she ended up this time, although compared to the last time she awakened, so oblivious from ten hours straight of alcohol-induced unconsciousness that she couldn’t even remember her own name, she felt a whole lot better. With a groan the feral reflexively grabbed hold of and hugged her pillow tight, eyes squeezed shut, but after a few seconds she sighed and rolled out of bed. Here in the futuristic, almost alien floating city of Alcamoth, she really missed the soft chorus of seagulls and the distant crash of waves on the sandy shore, as rhythmic and soothing as a lullaby. After stepping into the tiny adjunct bathroom to splash water on her face, she put on her fresh new outfit for the first time, which did require carefully cutting a hole in the back for her tail. “Hah,” she said, looking herself over in the mirror. “Feline fine.” Satisfied with what she saw, the feral made her way out from her stark, minimalist room down the stark, minimalist hallway toward the shopping center in search of something to eat.

A few minutes later she sat on a second story food court, working her way through a stack of Tea Break Pancakes, bathed in sweet berry syrup, as well as a handful of fried eggs and bacon from a restaurant called the Pancake Bar. Here at least, surrounded by stores and people from countless worlds, the rather austere Smash City felt like it had plenty of life. Just watching the denizens of Alcamoth prepare for the day kept her busy as she ate her fill, since no matter where she looked she found something interesting and new. Even more than that, she felt as she observed a certain sense of unity. Though everyone here had their own lives to live, their freedom from Galeem and commitment to a brighter tomorrow meant that they shared a common bond. Every meal served, every consumable crafted, every weapon made, every hour spent training, and every mock battle between the mercenaries…they all served that purpose. It got her a little worked up, she had to admit, although some coffee worked pretty well, too. The next chapter in this grand campaign to save the worlds was about to begin, and Nadia knew she needed to be ready.

She’d just finished eating and lifted her coffee to her lips for a big sip when a Moogle poofed into being in front of her, scaring her so badly that she blew hot coffee all over her face. “What the f-whah!” she yelped as she tipped backward in her chair and hit the ground. The Moogle flew over to the edge of the table in concern, only to get grabbed as Nadia shot up to her feet, dripping and angry. “Hey, ya stinky little furball!” she growled as she squeezed on its face like a stress ball. “What’s the big idea, scarin’ the livin’ daylights outta me like that!?”

“Oogh! Urgh!” the critter grunted, eyes bugging out. “The boss! Needs you! At the! Meeting!”

“The boss?” Nadia relented, her eyebrows furrowed. “You mean Peach? Or maybe Bowser?”

Breathing heavily, the Moogle nodded. “Yes, yes, everyone’s meeting right now to decide where to go next!”

“Oh, man, I must be late!” Nadia moaned, smacking a hand to her forehead.

“No no, you’re good. It’s in, um, ten minutes.”

Nadia stared at the messenger. “Ten minutes?”

“Uh-huh…”

The feral’s dark eye twitched, and her grip tightened again. “If I got so much time, what the hell’dja have to go and gimme a heart attack for!” As she spoke she reeled back and hurled the Moogle like a football over the railing, sending it flying out into the open space until it poofed itself away.

Sighing, Nadia dabbed at her face with her napkin. “Well, here we go, I guess.”

She grabbed the railing and jumped over, stretching out her muscles to lower herself down and reach the bottom floor at a controlled speed. Once there, Mercenary HQ was only a hop, skip, and a jump away. Inside, Nadia found Peach and the somewhat intimidating Pokemon Mewtwo standing at the huge screen table at the very center. Her eyes widened as she grew closer, taking in the immense computer-generated map of the continent, the first time she’d borne witness to a map of the World of Light in any capacity. While much of it remained to be filled in beyond a loose outline of the different regions, it impressed her a lot. “Wow.” She glanced over at Peach, who nodded her agreement. “So. Where we headed, princess?”

Peach shrugged, then sipped her tea. “Once everyone’s here, you’ll find out.”

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

Mission received! Mae was so fired up, she could scarcely contain her excitement as she made her way out of Faetalis’ Dollhouse, her new jacket carefully draped over her arm like a butler’s towel. When she arrived at the meeting today, she did so full of anticipation, eager to see what lay in store for Infactorium and its Overseers in the time to come, as well as for a chance to contribute to the good of the guild in a brand new and (hopefully) more impactful manner. Now she made her way outside again with her every expectation exceeded, bearing the precious gift and even more precious praise of a Supreme Being and fulfilled in a way that a meal never quite could. It was a little overwhelming, even; to be ascended from the status of cook to a position on par with Lady Faetalis herself was a dizzying prospect, and part of her wanted nothing more than to trundle back to the Gorging Trough, put up her feet, and relax with a nice bowl of Chimeric Stew. But as her boss’s new assignment suggested, today’s excitement was far from over.

She returned to the Gorging Trough posthaste, where she found her Maneater staff in the restaurant’s makeshift dining hall, chatting over lunch. The moment the reverb of her footsteps reached them, however, the ladies leaped up from their seats to rush the door. None of them, of course, beat her sous-chef Head, who already stood at the entrance ready to receive his boss.

“The meeting went well, I presume?” Head asked by way of greeting, his manner politely cordial. It didn’t take a mind reader to sense that Canology Mae was on top of the world, but she went ahead and made it crystal clear, anyway.

“You bet your britches it did!” she sang, her good cheer practically radiating from her flabby stump of a neck. “Faetalis gave everyone a promotion! From now on, we’re gonna be helpin’ keep the guild safe!”

As the Maneaters behind him echoed their leader’s announcement in eager undertones, Head clasped his hands. “Goodness, how exciting,” he monotoned, sounding like the least excited person in the universe. “Have you some idea for the capacity in which we shall do so?”

“I sure do, so listen up!” Mae exclaimed, and dutifully her staff gathered close. Instead of stand there to explain, however, she turned to go and beckoned for the rest to follow. “C’mon, I’ll show ya! Basically, we’re gonna be funnelin’ anyone fool enough to come at us up through the mountain. To reach the top, they gotta climb up through a whole heap o’ floors, all o’ which’re gonna be defended by us Overseers! And get this,” she added, proudly putting her hands on the fat rolls on her hips. “We’re the top floor, right below Faetalis! That means I’m the second-to-last boss! Ain’t that a riot!”

Her announcement elicited a chorus of cheers and applause from her Maneaters, including a golf clap from Head. “Alright, alright!” Mae said after a second, shooing at them with her hand. “Don’t go bringin’ the house down just yet, before we do any defendin’, we gotta build the place first! And I ain’t the architechtin’ type, so y’all’re gonna help!”

A few minutes later, the whole kitchen crew stood in the middle of a giant cavern, its walls and floor all smooth, featureless rock newly hollowed out by the build crew. It was totally empty except for the lift that Mae and her cooks arrived on, itself a wonder of engineering considering the sheer combined weight it just supported without giving up the ghost. In hand the headless horror clutched the key that it would be her life’s duty to protect, with which any invader would be able to ascend to the upper reaches of the stronghold and challenge the Supreme One herself to decide the fate of Infactorium. Of course, Faetalis wouldn’t lose to anyone, Mae knew, but for that to even be a question the enemy would have to get past her first. Her fist tightened. Even if she was just some freaky, overfed monster in a chef outfit, she wasn’t going to go quietly. And this huge space was here to help her.

The only question was what she’d make of it.

“Kay, folks!” Mae clapped her hands together. “‘Cordin’ to the boss, we can stick whatever we want in here to give us the best shot at beatin’ the tar outta whoever comes in ‘ere. Jus’ keep two things well in mind, y’all. One, we gotta have a clear path through. Can’t just stick three walls around the door an’ call it a day, or they can start bustin’ up our crap. Two, if anyone reaches us, that means they got past everyone else, so they’re gonna be stronger’n a gallon o’ moonshine at midnight. So I need some real bright ideas, gimme all ya got!”

In a flash the awed gathering descended into a cacophony of suggestion and discussion, of half-baked ideas, whole-baked schemes, and no-bake spitballing.

“We should cover the whole floor with spikes!”

“Just a giant cave full of spikes, nothing else? That’s so lame!”

“What if they can fly, dummy? Or swing around with grappling hooks?”

“Well, what if we shoot them down with turrets?”

“Turrets can be blocked, snuck around, and disabled. We must diversify and keep them on their toes.”

“If ya ask me, we should put tons of fire everywhere!”

“Just hazards aren’t enough, we need traps. Stuff that they trigger by accident and that takes them by surprise.”

“Ooh, like they step on a plate, and suddenly arrows shoot from the walls, and axes swing around like, shwing, shwing!”

Mae just stood there for a bit, absorbing it all. If had a head she would have been nodding thoughtfully, but she settled for having Head do it for her. Everyone seemed to be coming up with lots of ideas for traps and such, but nothing structural or cohesive. Finally, she piped up. “Girls, girls, girls,” she rumbled, getting everyone’s attention. “Before we put stuff in the rooms, we gotta have rooms! Plus, we need a theme. Somethin’ that ties the whole doggone place together.”

That left everyone a little perplexed, reconsidering what they needed to do. In that silence, however, Head spoke up. “I may have an idea, madame.”

Mae gave him the thumbs-up to continue.

“Well, if we are to give our unwelcome guests the lowest possible odds of survival, we should aim to keep them in here as long as possible and confront them with as much trouble as we can. For a moment I considered some sort of maze, but that leaves too much to chance, and any challenge they miss constitutes wasted effort.” He paused for a moment as the others took in his wisdom, agreeing with the conclusion drawn. “So, I would consider presenting a linear experience, with only one way forward. We could divide this cave into a number of rooms, where Maneaters can be challenged, connected by halls full of traps that snake throughout the whole area, rather like obstacle courses. And in terms of theme, I see no reason to reinvent the wheel. “

Mae snapped her fingers. “Of course! We can make it like the Gorging Trough, except…bigger. WAY bigger. So when our ‘customers’ arrive, it’s like they’re the food that’s getting prepared!”

Her idea ignited a spark of inspiration through her cooks, who began to churn out new ideas, fresh and full of flavor.

“So, each connecting hall should resemble an assembly line for a dish? Something like, an enormous chopping block for an antipasto charcuterie board, with giant chopping cleavers and knives?”

“Maybe make it uphill too, with huge olives, salami, and blocks of cheese sliding down the wood floor to crush ‘em like boulders!”

“What about a fish dish? We could have a water section where they have to swim around a bunch of hooks, nets, and sea monsters, but to get out they have to find the right hook to grab and ride on.”

“Make the bastards run across a grill above roarin’ fire! Or a stove, with jets of fire poppin’ up all over the place!”

“How about a bunch of sausage grinders, with a load of raw sausages the size of punching bags dangling above? One wrong step, and they’re mincemeat!”

“For the salad, we could have a garden room full of dangerous plants. It could have a harvester of some kind, to slice them up while they’re rooted down.”

“Ooh, what about a dessert room full of freezing ice cream, and pits full of sticky syrup! That’d be sweet!”

All the suggestions filled Mae with joy. “Now you’re thinkin’! she hollered. “A gauntlet of killer prep stations, runnin’ the gamut of elements an’ damage types, plenty of tricks and traps, with each death run punctuated by a dinin’ room custom-made for y’all to throw down in ideal conditions. Best of all, we can still use the place to actually make food, too! And we’ll call it…” the eldritch chef spread her hands out dramatically. “Madam Mae’s Full-Course.”

Everyone was in agreement, and without further ado, work began.

The Full-Course (Work in progress for Mae)

After leaving the elevator, the intruders are presented with a dining room, with a number of tables all set for a banquet and laden with food. There are no enemies, and it’s very quiet. The only exit is a pair of metal double doors on the far side with a single round, misty window each, with a plaque above that reads ‘Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die’.

All the food in the room is very tempting, devoid of enchantment and seemingly safe, all providing health and buffs. However, is all prepared by Mae using her skills Share & Share Alike and Five-Course Meal. This means that the food’s numbers are ‘negative’ and do the opposite of what they should, and they also proc a stack of Glutted after a brief delay. This trap is especially insidious because of how Mae made everything; she’s made each dish as minimal as possible and then put them together to resemble larger dishes, which means that it doesn’t take a whole ‘dish’ to add a stack of Glutted, but a single ‘item’. Eating what looks like a normal sandwich, then, would count as eating two Toasts, one Salad, and one Chicken Breast, adding four stacks of Glutted instead of one.

The double doors lead to a dead end, an innocuous little kitchen that’s spick and span. It does however have secret teleports and is where any Infactorium member with the proper overrides can reach the different dining rooms in the Full-Course. The only way to advance is to sit at a chair in the dining room, at which point a trapdoor opens and drops the intruders into chutes that lead to the first course.

All the courses have an obstacle course that is essentially an assembly line for a certain kind of food full of traps and hazards that fit the theme, followed by a dining room where a Maneater miniboss and a smorgasbord of the related dishes can be found. All the minibosses start in their Placid human forms fighting with her job class, but after taking enough damage they morph into their horrific Jubiliant forms and fight as monsters with unique mechanics. All of them can also eat the food in their dining rooms to heal themselves. Only the first miniboss, head, is different; when in danger, he just leaves, and shows up at the very end to fight alongside Mae. The end result is a tremendous slog that’s made all the worse if any intruders are Glutted.

First Course - Hors d'oeuvre
Boss: Head – Butler
Element: None
A sloped wooden chopping block hallway full of falling and swinging cleavers where oversized appetizers tumble down the chute to trip and smash intruders into the knifeblade grinder at the very bottom.

Second Course - Soup
Boss: Flank – Knight
Element: Earth
A series of kitchens flooded to waist-level by a thick, soupy mud, full of vegetable matter and animal bones. In quite a few spots the floor below the murk actually dips lower, which can leave an unwary wader fully immersed out of the blue. This is bad because there is a heating element below the floor, which makes the whole thing bubbling hot, inflicting damage and a Slow debuff on anyone in it. The de-facto way to get around, then, it to carefully platform across the counters and trolleys. There are dozens of soup pots with real soup in them on the stoves, tended to by magic mud hands that rise from the muck to stir the soups with animal bones. They can also throw the bones at intruders and grab them in order to knock or pull them into the muck. Above many of the counters are trick cupboards with cauldrons full of hot muck in them, which can be triggered by pressure-sensitive plates on the counters themselves, although these take time to refill.

Third Course - Fish
Boss: Shank - Assassin
Element: Water
A stone-lined waterway that flows at a fast pace in a big circle. Anyone caught in the current must avoid the sharp rocks at the bottom as well as the fishhooks and nets cast by fishmen up on the riverbanks. In order to escape the loop, swimmers must correctly time an exit to the central whirlpool chamber, where a Charybdis-esque sea monster awaits at the very bottom to suck enemies into its fang-lined maw. The 'dining room' is a floating barge on the surface of this central pool, which itself is ringed by a multi-story fish market full of fishmen, who act as adds during Shank's miniboss fight, throwing harpoons and trying to hook the intruders back into the water. The way out is to climb the nets draped over part of the fish market to reach a high-up door.

Fourth Course - Meat
Boss: Rib - Paladin
Element: Dark
A long hallway with a floor pockmarked by grinder pits that deal immense damage to anyone who falls in, but can be stepped around with reasonable ease. The problem is that there are moving lines of meat hooks that cross the corridor all the way down, carrying large pieces of meat from holes on one side of the wall to the other. The holes are linked in a random magical way, so a hook going in one could come out in a different line anywhere else in the room. Most are the meats are just heavy masses meant to knock people into the grinders, but about one-third of them are cursed, and if someone even gets near one it will explode, inflicting a stack of curse that lasts one minute. The first stack turns the sufferer's hands into cow hooves, the second turns the sufferer's legs into cow legs as well, and the third is a complete cow polymorph, with each stack adding a minute to the curse's duration. Each makes it harder to navigate the hall, with the third pretty much being a death sentence. The only way to proceed at the end of the hall is to climb a bone ladder, which is impossible with even one stack of curse, forcing intruders to wait (or use other means) to get to the dining room above.

Fifth Course - Starch
Boss: Heart - Reaper
Element: Wind
A grain chute takes the intruders to an indoor field of wheat and corn, set beneath an artificial sun. The crops grows to chest-height very fast, and the field is patrolled by scarecrows armed with sickles that deal high damage and will repair themselves if destroyed. They move in set patterns, jumping every second or two, and are not the most observant, but when near crops that are fully grown they'll harvest them, removing that source of cover. They then deliver the grain to grindstones situated throughout, where the grain is ground up, mixed with water, and then shipped elsewhere. There are also crows that will alert the scarecrows if an intruder disturbs them. If the threat level rises too high, giant sawblades will begin to slide out from the walls at high speed to cut through the field and anything in them. The 'dining room' is a farmhouse on the far end of the field.

Sixth Course - Drinks
Boss: Tongue - Sorceress
Element: Poison

Seventh Course - Roast
Boss: Roast - Pyromancer
Element: Fire

Eighth Course - Salad
Boss: Chuck - Druid
Element: Nature

Ninth Course – Cold Dish
Boss: Tender - Cryomancer
Element: Ice

Tenth Course - Dessert
Boss: Round - Dancer
Element: Light

World of Light

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

Location: Frozen Highlands - Dragonspine
Linkle’s @Gentlemanvaultboy, Frisk’s @Majoras End, Prisoner’s @XoXKieroBombXoX

Three Draugr, no mere shambling, infirm cadavers, but warped warriors rekindled by foul sorcery and alight with malicious intent. One raider wielded mismatched hatchets, another a heavy, two-handed Dane axe blotched with rust, and the third a curved sword sword plus buckler. Two Hel-walkers, icy pale blue in color with eyes that smoldered with the uncanny green-tingue flame of seior magic. Neither held a weapon, but that same strange fire crackled in their hands. With cold, indifferent eyes Albedo took what stock of these new foes that he could, but with how quickly the undead marauders emerged to assail his group, there was no time for strategy. Only action.

He leaped for the nearest Hel-walker as it began to gather power to cast his way. With its hands occupied, the alchemist had a clear shot for the neck, but rather than even raise his sword to slice at the once-human monster he lashed out with a kick to the chest. Under his blunt force a web of cracks appeared from the impact point, and the Hel-walker staggered. Albedo wasted no time as he then slammed his hilt into his enemy's head, setting it up perfectly for a bash that knocked it back over an shin-high rock and into the snow. He couldn't capitalize on the knockdown, however, as his next enemy was already upon him. The Draugr raider swung its hatchets with vicious, reckless abandon, discarding any notion of safety as it sought to carve the alchemist into his constituent components. Albedo found himself on the defense and forced backward to the rocky face of the cliff behind him as he searched for a way to counterattack.

Meanwhile, Frisk had their own problems. The Draugr warrior met the kid's charge with a brutal axe swing, dealing such a powerful blow that it stopped Frisk in their tracks and jarred their arm to the bone. If not for their shield, it was easy to imagine the child split like a log for kindling. With just one interaction the power gap between the two combatants became clear, but in the heat of the moment, Frisk wasn't about to back down. Not when they had someone to protect. Seeking to end the clash as fast as humanly possible, Frisk aimed for a critical blow at the Draugr's head, but the monster was attacking, too. Whatever trace amount of intelligence that remained in the warrior allowed it to recognize a defense that needed to be broken, and without delay it shoved its weapon forward, striking and pushing Frisk's shield with the cold-stiffened wooden handle of its axe in a big to knock them off their feet. It was then that the second Hel-walker struck, unleashing a high-pressure, almost concussive blast of icy mist to blow away whatever hope Frisk might have had of staying upright. As if smelling blood, the warrior moved in, its axe rising to descend like a guillotine upon the fallen child.

With two enemies each attacking Frisk and Albedo, and the Prisoner still too far away from the others on account of his curious wandering, that left one Draugr unaccounted for. The shieldbearer charged straight down the middle between both fights, fixated on the defenseless woman behind them. Melony's breath caught in her throat as the monster bore down on her, paralyzed by a raw, primal fear, the likes of which she'd never felt in all her life. She screamed, but as she did her fighting spirit rallied inside her. Unfreezing, she dodged to the side, and that split-second decision turned what would have been a deadly cut into a glancing, albeit bloody, blow. Shock from the pain and the cold flooded through her, but Melony fought back. Albedo and Frisk had both been pushed back toward the rock wall, which left her boxed in and unable to escape. The only path to survival lay directly ahead of her, and it meant confronting the Draugr whose decrepit blade now ran red with her blood. Another scream ripped out of her, still full of terror, but bolstered by her furious will to live.

She went low as she threw herself at the Draugr, her arms held up to protect her head, swaddled in the thick, puffy sleeves of her winter coat that just might serve as armor against a sword in such terrible condition. The monster's weapon came around in a horizontal slash that could have easily ripped her throat, but against her sleeves the chipped, dull blade couldn't do more than tear out the stuffing. Then she slammed into the undead in a full-body tackle, managing to bring it to the ground thanks to her own not-insignificant weight. In a final act of desperation Melony tried to pin down its sword arm, but the Draugr punched her with its offhand shield, striking again and again at her head as it kneed her in the middle. The cruel assault took its toll in a matter of seconds, and Melony went limp, rolling off the undead and onto her back. With her nose broken, her eye blackened, and several skull fractures, she could only wait in feeble agony as the Draugr stood to finish her off.

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

I'll post again this Saturday at the latest. Trying to put a plan together for how this special floor is going to look.

World of Light

Dinner at Rum for Ale

Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Blazermate and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN, Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Sakura and Karin's @Zoey Boey, Rubick’s @Scarifar, Nadia Fortune, Peach, Yennefer, Rika, and Cerberus
Word Count: 7726 (+8 EXP)

With Geralt and Nadia back from their brief exchange away from the others, just about everyone was settled in at the conjoined table. The Koopa Troop occupied an entire side and then some, the thief and the monster hunter were together, the witcher and the sorceress sat side by side, and the newest of guests found themselves welcomed shoulder-to-shoulder alongside veterans of the campaign against Galeem, who’d been there from the very beginning. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits–everyone that was here, at least. There wasn’t enough room at the table for Cerberus to sit separately once things calmed down, but since Peach couldn’t imagine the close-knit trio taking issue with the idea of sharing a single large seat or bench, the princess worried about them less than certain others.

While Nadia tried to focus on her menu in order to figure out what she wanted to eat, which made for a daunting task in and of itself considering how good everything sounded, she couldn’t help but notice the same thing Peach did when she looked up and glanced around the group. “Hang on a sec,” she piped up, her eyes narrowed. “Where’s Link? And Hatty? Didn’t I see her just a minute ago…?”

Peach clasped her hands as she put her elbows on the table. Since she arrived with the little one from Alcamoth, it fell to her to answer. “Well, I think she just wanted to do her own thing now that she’s feeling better. Run and jump around, explore, collect those pon things she likes. Hard to imagine her sitting still at a table, bored to tears as while waiting for food.”

Her explanation made total sense. “Oh yeah, fur sure,” Nadia agreed. “Not much of a talker anyhow, right?”

“As for Link…” Peach’s expression grew a little more cloudy. “I spotted him when I arrived, but I don’t think he joined us when we left. Maybe he wants some time by himself. I know that what happened last night weighed heavily on him.”

At that Nadia could only give a somber, slow nod. The events of Blackwater Bay, the Maw, and Carcass Isle weighed on everyone, and as wonderful as today had been for the most part, that horror wouldn’t be wiped away so easily. Seeing Rika reminded her that Bella wasn’t here tonight, either, or Mirage for that matter. Cursed and confused, the poor Seaplane Tender deserved a break as much as anyone, as well as the chance to better come to grips with her own newfound sense of self. And Mirage…? Nadia’s ears drooped a little as she looked back down at her menu. Though she’d known him only briefly, he’d been quite the card. It would be a sad thing indeed if she never saw him again.

A moment later, however, she perked up. Tonight was a night for joy and camaraderie, not sorrow and dejection. She downed a big gulp of her drink and leaned back in her chair. “Well, I hope they have even half as good a time as we’re gonna, wherever they are. Right guys?”

”Yeah, and it’s their loss missing out on this… whatever Cuban is?” Bowser scratched his head thoughtfully, realizing he had no idea what that was before asking, ”Does that mean all the food is going to be squares? Because that is kinda weird.”

”Nah, it’s food from an island nation called Cuba from where I’m from… I think?” Blazermate said, scratching her head. ”I know there was a cuban medafighter team at a tournament once anyway, and the words are similar.” Although as everyone here knew besides the newcomers, Blazermate didn’t eat food so she couldn’t comment on what it’d taste like or anything. ”Cube food sounds like it does exist somewhere though. It has to, with all the weird stuff here, so you might be right as well, you can never tell.” Blazermate then looked at Kamek and Rubick. ”So any chance you guys can show us some magic while we wait?”

The Cadet groaned, sinking down slightly into his chair. It seemed there was no getting out of the magic show then, if Blazermate was so keen to see some tricks. He couldn't get up to leave and risk looking uncool with Nadia right beside him. He distracted himself by perusing the food choices. While narrowing his choices down, he figured he'd had enough surf at the lunch buffet and now it was time for some turf. There were still plenty of things to choose from. All foods that sounded interesting and delicious, in cube form or not. The Cadet wasn't picky, and seeing as he'd eat pretty much anything he was leaning towards going with something new.

Susie only looked at the pair debating over what the food was with a vague interest, but overall she was just getting a read on everyone with these Seekers. The big strong one definitely showed his intelligence, or lack thereof, with her new ‘friend’ Blazermate almost humoring the big guy. For now she just decided to sip on her milkshake as she watched everyone else chatter.

”I don’t exactly do tricks-” the mage began to say, before seeing both Rika and Jr leaning over to look at her expectantly and sighing to herself.

”Oh all right” she said, before vanishing and then repairing a second later holding Bowser’s top hat, just shrunken down, and a magician’s wand she had gotten from pocus. She showed them it’s inside. ”Empty, see, but watch, with a wave of my wand and a magic word,” she said, before waving the sparkling wand above the hat and saying, ”Hocus, pocus!” before seeing the wand down and reaching into that hat while saying, ”And now you’ll find that within we have-” and finally pulling her hand up to reveal:

“Bwaaaaa!”

A rabbid, held by the ears.

Anyone looking at Kamek’s face rather than her spell would have found the mage quite confused by this turn of events, especially when the obnoxious bunny hopped out of the hat and vanished out of the door of the restaurant, rushing off to cause chaos in town.

Meanwhile, Rubick found this turn of events quite entertaining, giggling with delight as he clapped in applause. “Good show, good show!” Rubick exclaimed. “Are there any more of them?”

”Um, ta da?” she said, pushing the shadow clone of Bowser jr she had intended to pull out of the hat down before anyone could see it.

Geralt and Yennefer shared a raised eyebrow and a smirk at Kamek’s little trick, both quite content to keep their own magical talents off of display, especially given Yennefer’s current inability to access a wide variety of what was once available to her. Geralt was still thinking over everything Nadia had told him. She’d been robbed, and the thieves tried to kill her when she went to retrieve her belongings, showing a sick desire to torture her while doing so. Frankly, they’d reminded him of Whoreson Junior, who Geralt had ensured wouldn’t be hurting anybody else again.

He was still somewhat concerned that she might be confronted about the attack, whether it be by the survivors or the peacekeepers in the city, but as long as they were gone sooner rather than later, it shouldn’t pose much of a problem. He’d promised to fill Yen in on the details later, knowing she’d be able to keep the secret.

Other than that, he hadn’t been able to offer much other than the assurance that her secret was safe with him, and that he of all people didn’t -couldn’t, even- think less of her, not that he thought she needed the platitude.

When he turned to the menu, however, he found himself a bit overwhelmed by the choices. It didn’t help that he hadn’t heard of some of these foods at all, such as plantains and yuca. In the end, he settled for a meal combining stewed beef, rice, beans, and the aforementioned vegetables after a quick explanation from a waiter. Yennefer chose a lighter meal, a soup combining a variety of light ingredients, a small amount of meat, and potatoes. Each also added a glass of wine to their meal, despite the venue’s name.

On the other hand, Nadia had managed to zero in on something that sounded excellent pretty fast, despite being just as spoiled for choice as Geralt. No matter how much she leafed through the pages, nothing tickled her fancy quite as much as the Poor Man’s Steak. Just the description of juicy flank steak with fried eggs, black rice, black beans, and avocado slices was enough to make the feral’s mouth water. Rather than fruitlessly peruse other options further she decided to go with her heart then and there, which gave her ample time to be distracted by the magic trick. Kamek managed to expertly and very intentionally pull off the classic rabbit-from-the-hat, although the rabbit in question looked a little on the loopy side. As he hurtled off to cause problems on purpose Nadia rewarded the mage with a congratulatory clap. “That deserves a round of a-paws!” Blazermate clapped with Nadia, not clapping too hard to not drown the noise of the restaurant out with clanging metal.

Sakura clapped, smiling brightly. She nudged Karin with her elbow, and Karin also started clapping. For a little bit.

Kamek gave a little embarrassed head bob of a bow as Jr and Rika also gave him a clap, while the king just gave her a grin. ”Ah yes, well, thank you all it was nothing” she said, before glancing over at Rubick and asking ”Don’t suppose you would care to take over?”

“Oh goodness, my magicks aren’t really meant for showmanship,” Rubick admitted. “I am a duelist; most of the spells I’ve still retained in my memory are purely for combat.” Rubick then put a finger on his chin as he tilted his head, thinking about it a bit more. “Though now that you mention it, there is a fun little toy of mine that I often use to entertain myself.”

"More?" the monster hunter croaked. As the waitstaff was making their way around the table with the drink orders, he flagged one down to distract himself by putting in his food early while Rubick prepared the demonstration - an order of croquettes, empanadas, chicharrones, a dish of paella as well as roast chicken breasts to start. The pronunciation was, of course, totally butchered.

Whipping out his staff, Rubick tapped it on the ground three times, and the goopy head of his staff took on a more cubic nature as a green cube of evermoving cubic and rectangular pieces appeared. The pieces shifted in a way so that it always attempts to form a perfect cube, but never does, as bits and pieces constantly stick out, forcing the cube to rearrange itself again and again. “Behold: the Puzzle of Perplex,” Rubick announced. “A mysterious puzzle so complex that even I have yet to solve it. No one knows what will happen on the day it stops moving and becomes a perfect cube. Some say it will unlock the secrets of the universe.” After a second, Rubick tapped his staff on the ground again, and the cube retreated back into his staff, which also reverted back into its goopy nature. “Or so that silly little legend goes. I personally just find it charming.”

Sakura’s eyes widened, leaning forward to get a better look at the Puzzle of Perplex. As it vanished, she considered its mysteries. "My master always says that the answer lies in the heart of battle…has anyone tried punching it yet?" She ventured. At this point she was completely used to strange strangers popping in and out of their little group and had totally neglected anything like an ‘introduction’. She seemed to consider the wizard for a moment. ”Oooh! I get it! It’s Rubick’s Cube!" Laughing she sat back in her chair and crossed her arms, raising her eyebrows at Karin. "Get it? Rubick’s Cube? I think that’s the answer."

"...I suppose?" Karin said, humoring Sakura, looking a bit apologetically at Rubick. "She’s referring to a little trifle in our world called a Rubix Cube. A little children’s puzzle toy. So I doubt the pun is anything more than a coincidence. Or the answer to the secrets of the universe."

”Punching’s what I did with my puzzle cube” Jr piped in about his experiences with his universe’s own/non-brand Rubick’s Cube equivalent ”I smashed into little bits and then stuck it back together again”

”Wait you did? You told us you did it legitimately. We were all very impressed!” Kamek said, quite aghast at the child’s lies.

”Oh… Oops?”

”I’m not a fan of those cube puzzles. They take so long to finish sometimes.” Blazermate said, the irony of a robot having trouble with cube puzzles lost on a lot of the group.

Susie then said her piece, agreeing with Rubick’s assertion of his ‘magic artifact’. ”Agreed. I once had something called Star Dream, a supercomputer that could grant wishes and could do no wrong. In the end it was all a lie, so it's best not to put much stock in rumors, but instead what you see before you.” Susie was at a loss of what to actually order herself, but eventually she just decided to try the most expensive dish on the menu. If she didn’t like it, she’d just have her big bodyguard finish it off.

“Well, I’m not really the type for puzzles myself, so that cube thing is purr-etty cool to me!” Nadia told Rubick cheerfully, hoping he didn’t feel too bad after the others compared his inscrutable enigma to a kid’s toy. “My world doesn’t have magic. I mean, not the sort ya see in movies, anyway. People don’t cast spells, but parasites can pull off some real freaky stuff, lemme tell ya. Then there’s livin’ weapons that change shape, and this one kid called Peacock who’s basically just a big ball of cartoon nonsense.” She shrugged. “That said, even that wrestler guy Beowolf’s got some crazy tricks, and he’s supposed to be normal…I think?” She raised an eyebrow as the memories of what he could do came back from the time she fought him. The big bozo just came up to her, acting as if there was a film crew around, and proceeded to grapple the ever-loving crap out of her. Could you really call someone like that ‘normal’? No way. “Then there’s my whole thing,” she added. “I’d show ya, but a severed head might put people off their appetites, nyeheh.”

"Have to get into the right headspace before seeing it," the Cadet agreed. Letting alone appetites, it took some getting used to in order to remember that she was alright when it happened. He could imagine the shock it would cause their new friends.

While listening to the conversation the Cadet had the chance to sample his drink, the restaurant's namesake. The rum did not disappoint. It was strong, with an aftertaste of something heavy and sweet like molasses. Not what he'd been expecting exactly, but it was good. He took another sip of it before going on.

"But hey, be positive! There's always after dinner. Night's still young too! Bet there's plenty more to do in town."

”There is probably some kind of dance competition near that giant crystal thingy if you two are up to it.” Blazermate said, leering at Cadet and Nadia, trying to get an idea in their heads.

A competition? Nadia wondered if the Medabot had seen Shantae’s dance lessons from afar. As much as she’d enjoyed herself then, the feral assumed that the Octant would be free of such spectacle the vast majority of the time. Other than that, Nadia only got a glance at a number of sights throughout the city during her flight with Blazermate, and she didn’t plan on mentioning the shanty-town as an attraction the others ought to visit, so she found herself a little stuck when it came to recommendations.

The conversation came to a brief halt just then, however, as the staff of Rum for Ale arrived to take the Seekers’ orders. Nadia couldn’t request the Poor Man’s Steak fast enough, and neither could Bowser. After some last-second deliberation, Peach opted for Lechon Asado, figuring that she couldn’t go wrong with roast pork plus tasty sauce. Susie ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, not really caring what it was, while Blazermate just told the waiter to ‘surprise’ her. When she heard this request, Cerberus thought about it for a moment, then when Blazermate’s back was turned, tackled her from behind.

It took a moment to sort that out, with the Cerberus in question sent to time-out, before business resumed as usual. Kamek eventually found a herbivorous option in the form of Banana Fufu, which consisted primarily of mashed boiled bananas, while Jr and Rika ordered a spread of Tamales between the two of them, that would be filled with a variety of meats, cheeses, sauces and fruits.

Rubick perused the menu for a good while before ultimately deciding on a Bistec de palomilla. It was a beef steak marinated with garlic, lime juice, salt, and pepper. It was also served with black beans and yellow or white rice, of which Rubick chose the former option.

Sakura leaned in to listen to what the other people were getting. To be honest, she had no idea what any of this stuff on the menu was. She saw the word ‘hamburger’ and recognized it. El Fuerte was probably disappointed in her, somewhere. "I’ll have the…Frita Cubana, pretty please. It has Cuba in it so it can’t be that bad. You don’t just put the name of your country on bad food, right?" She started thinking about a dance competition.

Having actually been to Cuba before, Karin wondered if things would still stack up in this World of Light they were all apparently now stuck in. "The boliche for me, thank you. And a cafecito, please, barista’s choice."

”Wait- coffee for dinner?" Sakura asked. Karin just clicked her tongue. "It is a part of the culture. A refined beverage." She flattened her monogrammed napkin against her lap.

Geralt was quick to order the Ropa Vieja he’d decided on earlier from Cerberus, while Yennefer gave her order for the Ajiaco Cubano. Each ordered a glass of wine to go with their meals. Geralt chose to pair his meal with a red wine, while Yennefer selected a sweet white wine for her meal.

“So, Geralt, would you be interested in that dance competition tonight?” Yennefer asked with a subtly sultry voice, causing the Witcher to raise an eyebrow.

“Not sure it’s your kind of dancing, but it certainly should be interesting. Sure, we’ll check it out.”

Nadia’s eyes widened as she realized that the pair might be getting off on the wrong foot. “Oh, uh. Unless Blaze saw somethin’ I didn’t, the dancin’ thing ended this afternoon.” Her attention then shifted over to the Medabot in question. “Er, didja actually see somethin’ like that? Not that I learned enough today to even dream of competin’ at all’, but…yeah.”

Recovering a bit from Cerberus jumping her, Blazermate said. ”Well, I just figured it’d be a fun activity for you two.” Blazermate said, gesturing to both Nadia and Ace. ”A strong guy and an immortal girl who can detach her head… I’m sure you two could come up with some creative stuff.”

”Lucky them, because if it was on I’d have destroyed the competition” Bowser insisted based on one of the many weird side activities he’d done along the years along with the mario crew.

The feral flashed her pearly whites in a wide grin as she tried to picture it, her arms crossed with her elbows on the table. “Nyaow that’s somethin’ I wanna see.” Nadia did her best to move right along from Blazermate’s suggestion, wondering if she might have barked -or meowed- up the wrong tree when she enlisted the machine as a wingbot. With how well she and Ace got along on their own, the extra attention veered a little close to embarrassing. “What kinda moves ya packin’, big guy?”

Geralt and Yennefer shrugged and nodded a little sadly, respectively, at Nadia and Blazermate’s corrections. “Ah, that is quite a shame. It would have been fun to show off a little. Though I suppose if we really wanted to, we could host our own small dance-off.” Geralt let out an amused breath at that. She really did just want to show off, especially since he doubted she had any faith in the big man’s skills. Geralt, at least, had learned to go with the flow and accept that he was just oddly well-rounded for a so-called King. He figured the guy didn’t exactly mean ballroom dance when he boasted about his own skills.

”Oh, yeah, that’d be great! Oh man, I have this one move I invented- it’s so good. You guys would love it." Sakura nodded eagerly, bragging somewhat.

Rubick chuckled, then dejectedly said, “I enjoy putting a spring in my step every day, but I never did commit the arts of dancing to memory. I’m ashamed to say that I must sit this one out, but I will gladly enjoy the show.”

“Hmm…” Peach mused, seriously considering the suggestion of the sorceress. Despite appearances, the princess was no stranger to dancing thanks to the Mushroom Kingdom’s Dance Dance Revolution, the one and only time the seldom-relevant Waluigi had been anything but a vaguely antagonistic background element. “If we could drum up a location and some music, then, perhaps…”

Since the Cadet wasn't privy to Nadia's agreement with Blazermate, he gave the medabot a curious look. Dancing sounded fun, sure. He was always down for competition too, even if he thought he didn't stand a chance. That it was a suggestion specifically aimed at them was surprising. Or... maybe not? They probably hadn't been very subtle with their flirting after all. Well, no matter how the suggestion started it turned out to be a good one, with most everyone on board. Especially with Yennefer's further suggestion to host it themselves.

"Sounds like fun to me!" the Cadet said. He gave Peach and Yennefer a wide grin. "I don't think it'll be too hard to find a spot."

He turned to Nadia, giving the cat burglar a wink to accompany his next words. "Not to toot my own hunting horn, but I do have some groovios moves."

”I am more for singing than dancing myself. Perhaps I could give you all a rendition of the great Haltmann?” Susie said, a bit tuned out of the conversation herself unlike her other robot comrade since she didn’t know about the agreement between Nadia and Blazermate.

”I could try, but I think no matter what I do people will think I’m doing the robot.”” Blazermate said, chuckling to herself.

The sudden surge of ambient confidence, accompanied by the earnest proposition of a group dance-off, left Nadia just a little starstruck. Did this ragtag band of heroes really have so many talented dancers!? She’d only just gotten a crash course herself! Then again, Nadia Fortune was no shrinking violet when it came to spending time with friends. As long as she was amongst friends, who cared if she was any good or not? And she couldn’t disappoint Ace, either.

“Wow, you guys too? If you can bust a groove half as good as ya bust the bad guys, we’re in for one kickass party. Un-fur-tunately, all this cat’s best moves are for fightin’,” she admitted. Thinking about what she could do brought to mind the new stuff she’d tried that afternoon in the city, and the sudden remembrance of a half-baked idea perked her right up. “Oh, that reminds me! This is my first time really bein’ part of a team, and I figured if we put our heads together, we could come up with some really cool team attacks!” She looked over at Geralt. “Like when ya threw me at that water monster, like a giant sawblade. Course, you’re too small for that now, but I’m sure we can think of something! Like, uh…”

As she looked around the table, her gaze landed on Bowser, and in the moment that passed before a lightbulb went off the others could see the gears in her head tear in real time. “Oh-oh-oh! What if ya span around in your shell real fast, and I rode on top usin’ my blood jets to spin ya even faster, just shootin’ and breathin’ fire the whole time? We’d be unstoppable!” She made a frenetic spinning motion with her hands to try and show what she meant, before she calmed down and put her hand to her chin thoughtfully, eyebrows scrunched. “Gimme a sec and I’m sure I can make a pun name for the move, too…”

”Throw in these shooters,” Bowser said, briefly popping out his new setup for his shell mounted guns to show what he was talking about. ”And we’d be a real Carousel of Cat-astrophe”

_{"Heh, good one!"}

”That sounds… very dangerous,” Kamek had to point out, as in her mind's eye she saw the pair careening all over.

”Yeah, it sure would be! It’d be like the trick with the shy guy squad, only even better!” Bowser declared, referring to an as of yet unseen minion attack where the masked minions used a bungeecord to propel him at his foes at high speed.

”For us I mean,” Kamek clarified

”Oh... Eh I’m sure Nadia can handle it,” the king declared confidently ”right Nadia?”

The feral smacked her fist into her palm with a grin. “You betcher ass I can! When it comes to livin’ through stuff, I’m best in show–I don’t even need to be in one piece!”

”Again, I was mostly worried about… never mind” Kamek sighed, and then directed her gaze to the others, asking ”I don’t suppose anyone else has any similar ideas? They could be quite handy if they aren't so… collateral prone”

”Are you guys talking about some kind of combination attack? I don’t think I can help much with that besides buffing you. But combination attacks are something I’m familiar with.” Blazermate said, tilting her head as Nadia, Bowser, and his family started to talk about a combination type attack. Susie, not knowing what they were all talking about or what they could do, just listened as she started to finish her milkshake.

”So if you guys do one, what buff would be best then? Damage or invincibility? A bit of a shame I can’t do any other than those, but hey, it's still way better than just straight healing!” Blazermate said, trying her best to join the conversation but being a bit unable to.

“I would go for damage. More damage is more fun!” Rubick interjected, chuckling as he tried to add more fuel to the chaos.

Nadia tilted her head as she thought about it. “That’d be fun, I guess, but one person rushin’ ahead while the other stands back powerin’ ‘em up is kinda one-sided. If you and me both got fired up, Blaze, we could probably pull off a sick crossfire beam attack! I have a water beam now, by the way~” Her attention drifted back to Rubick. “If you’re gonna be rollin’ with us for a spell, I’m eager to see what you can do! Betcha got all kinds of hocus pocus!”

Rubick tilted his head as he turned to stare at Nadia. “Very well!” Rubick complied happily. He too was eager to show his stuff, or rather, other people’s stuff. “Allow me to show you just what a Grand Magus is capable of.” Then he proceeded to jump up from his chair and raise his arm, summoning his staff and twirling it around before pointing it at Kamek. A green wisp of energy trailed off from her and into Rubick, who then went wide-eyed as the knowledge of Kamek’s teleporting Power flowed into his mind.

“So that is how it is done…” Rubick muttered to himself. With a gesture of his staff, he teleported himself onto a table in a puff of smoke. He proceeded to teleport around the restaurant a couple more times while also pointing at Sakura.

Again, a wisp of green energy trailed out of her body and into Rubick’s, whose palms began to glow blew. He then proceeded to strike a few poses similar to Sakura’s before announcing “Hogosho!” and launching a short-ranged blue burst of energy into an empty space next to him.

Finally, he pointed to Nadia with his staff, and he gained a bit of knowledge of Nadia’s power. “Oh-ho~ does that water beam of yours go like THIS?” Rubick asked as he proceeded to fire a large stream of water from his staff towards the entrance of the Rum for Ale, blasting the door open while completely drenching the area outside of it. This lasted for a few seconds before Rubick ceased the attack. Turning back to Nadia, Rubick proceeded to ask, “What do you think?”

The wide-eyed surprise on the feral’s face told him just how impressed she was. “...Whoa, you really nyailed it. Just be careful with that thing man, it packs a punch!”

Peach clapped softly. “I admire your power, as well as your enthusiasm. But perhaps you could have fired up into the air?” she suggested gently. The restaurant staff looked on with an air of rather less constructive criticism as they gathered together for a hushed discussion. Since there had been no furniture in the arched hallway through which the mage’s copied torrent fired, nothing had been destroyed, and the water would evaporate in time, they decided not to take any sort of action. With the excitement over they went back to their duties, which included kicking Cerberus out of the kitchen since none of them knew a thing about cooking. It wouldn’t be too long before the party’s meals were ready.

Karin clapped, and so did Sakura, but the latter’s subtle pout indicated she was kinda miffed that someone was able to replicate her hard work so easily.

”Oh, oh, do me! Do me!” Blazermate said, excitedly clapping as she saw what Rubick could do. Apparently he could use abilities from the others, and since Blazermate was all support, perhaps he could start healing others too?

Rubick stared at Blazermate quizzically before shrugging and copying her Power as well. As the wisp of green energy entered his body, Rubick learned of Blazermate’s purpose as a robot and presumably her main method of performing her intended function. Pointing his staff at Blazermate, Rubick proceeded to fire a green beam of healing energy at her, which would begin to repair any damaged bits she may have. “One dose of healing beam coming right up!” Rubick said.

Geralt watched the self-proclaimed ‘Grand Magus’ proceed to point his staff at their allies and, somehow, copy their abilities. Some he knew came from Spirits, which actually made him somewhat curious as to what he could conceivably copy. Would he know how to perform a Sign if he turned his staff towards Geralt? Would he simply be able to recreate the effects of one if he did so? Deciding that he didn’t want a hyperactive mage wielding the powers of Axii, he once more decided against drawing attention to himself, instead watching curiously.

Most of the troupe were very impressed, but Jr did have to point out that ”Mimi can kinda do that too, can’t you Mimi?” which got his little mon to hop onto the table and, at the prompting of her trainer, show off her own power copying ability. With a “Mimik!” She used her newly acquired better version of copycat: mimic, to copy and temporarily learn the most recent move. In this case she thrust out her tail stick and shot a little healing beam at Rubick to show him he wasn't the only copycat in town (even if she wasn’t quite as good as him) and then turning it off only to shoot another one at Blazermate to show off her new ability to use the moves as much as she liked after copying it to her suitably impressed trainer.

”We could certainly get a lot of versatility out of triple attacks or skills this way. Being able to render 6 people invulnerable would be quite the boon, for example, or hitting something with three flash cannons or other big charged attacks” Kamek noted. Mimi alone had been quite hady and with Rubick being an even more versatile equivalent, that optioned up a whole host of options.

”You should give it a name like… Terrible Triple Trouble! Or something” Bowser suggested, giving the move a suitably cheesy name.

”I don’t think people who copy my healing beam could also make people invincible. It's a bit tricky to explain, but while they are related, the invincibility and my healing beam are very very different.” Blazermate mused at Kamek’s suggestion. After all, while they copied her healing beam, they probably weren't copying her medaforce that was needed to make people invincible.

“It is true,” Rubick dejectedly confirmed. “I believe they are two distinct abilities, so it is impossible to use them both at the same time. For now, at least.”

Watching this all unfold, Susie was more confused than anything. Sure it made sense for this mage to copy ‘magical’ abilities, but once he copied Blazermate, a robot, Susie couldn’t help but take notice. ”Copying a robot with magic…. That is curious.” Susie then decided to join the conversation about combo attacks, although she still couldn’t call her business suit. ”It can’t be helped. Haltmann tech can adapt a bit to magic as well so that working in reverse makes sense I guess. If any of you have elemental attacks, I can use one to infuse my equipment with those properties.” Susie then gave an expression as if she was thinking, before saying. ”Perhaps something could be done with my business suit… I’ll need to think on it.”

The sight of the newcomers already getting along with the rest of her group made Peach happy, but even after some time spent taking it easy, she couldn’t just wipe the fates of the Seekers’ last hangers-on from her mind. After taking a deep breath, she waited for a suitable gap in the conversation and chimed in. “Excuse me for spoiling the mood for a moment, but I should tell the both of you,” she said, addressing Rubick, Susie, and Cerberus. “We’re happy for you to join us, whether for an evening or for the rest of our journey, but you should be warned. What we’re doing is dangerous, and not just run-of-the-mill dangerous, but lethal even for people with advanced abilities. During our last mission, a few people we encountered joined up without understanding what lay in store, or having enough time to regain their old abilities, and they paid the price.” Delsin, Frog, and Mr. L never returned from those curse-shrouded seas, and though Brineybeard and Mirage still lived, Peach doubted she would see either of them again. It had been a miracle that the team didn’t lose Hat Kid, Bowser, and several others too. “So, I guess I just want to say, make sure you think it through. That you’re sure you want to achieve is worth the risk.”

”Thank you for your concern, But I assure you I have dealt with hard stuff before. Void Termina was some ancient galactic evil that destroyed an entire civilization of advanced ancients, yet it fell to Haltmann technology.” Susie said. ”Technology which is for sale, for the right price.”

“I also thank you for your concern, miss, but I am well acquainted with danger,” Rubick replied. “Back where I come from, I dealt with assassins aiming for my life almost daily. I earned my title of ‘Grand Magus’ by killing several fellow Magi in a single grand battle. And I played a large role in the Defense of the Ancients, a large-scale war where beings of all sorts of shapes and sizes came to participate. I may not have my full range of abilities yet, but you can rest assured that I am more than capable of looking after myself.”

Peach nodded her respectful approval. “That’s good to hear. I shouldn’t have worried.”

Luckily, the downer mood didn’t last too long, because the food had arrived. Cerberus and the restaurant staff marched out bearing platters of sizzling steak, pork, chicken, and eggs awash with spice and sauce, luxuriant beans and steaming rice drowned in flavor, expertly prepared yuca, rich stews and soups, corn husks stuffed with meaty, cheesy goodness, banana and plantain, croquettes fried to a tantalizing golden luster, and more. Some came on large, oblong plates where not an inch of the china could be seen beneath the blanket of food except for the colorfully patterned rims, but some of the dishes came on black iron skillets so fresh from the oven that the waiters needed to handle them with mitts and warn their customers to keep their hands off.

Nadia couldn’t stop her jaw from dropping as the servers piled the table high with her friend’s feast, drool eking from the corner of her mouth as her saucer-round eyes shone. If just the smell was almost enough to send her straight to heaven, how was this gonna taste!? Though so famished (despite the sizable barbeque lunch) she could pretty much dive into her plate head first, Nadia also felt oddly reluctant; it was all so incredible that it sort of felt like a shame to ruin it. Almost like she was defacing a work of art, or something precious. Well…almost. That weird feeling didn’t last very long, and after that, the feral seized her utensils, more or less vacuumed up her fried eggs, and started carving up her flank steak like a wild beast.

King and prince more or less matched her table manners and feral hunger, the toothy carnivores chowing down on their meaty meals with gusto, while Rika went about sampling every little thing she could get her hands on, including asking if she could try out other people's dishes, leaving only Kamek as a last bastion of civil dining among the koopa troop.

While Yennefer partook of her meal with the politeness and grace befitting an advisor to the Imperial Throne, Geralt abandoned much of his pretenses and began digging in readily, though not quite as ravenously as the Koopas. That would get him yelled at, though his current behavior was sure to earn him a sigh and an exasperated lecture later as well.

A couple of seats down, the Ace Cadet added to the chaos with his usual gusto when it came to eating. Scarfing up a meal like it would be your last was a hard habit to break. Unless necessary he forwent utensils, scooping up whatever food caught his eye on the plates delivered with his own order. He was equally as delighted by the new and delicious looking items as he was by those he'd actually seen before back in his own world, if under a different name. In between bouts of stuffing his face then washing it down with what remained in his glass, he flung some food Rika's way for the abyssal to catch like a fish leaping from water, though careful not to hit the koopa sorceress beside her.

Rubick was more mannered than some others at the table, neatly cutting into his steak with a knife and using a fork to deftly eat underneath his mask.

”Itadakimasu!" Sakura exclaimed gleefully as her meal was set in front of her. ”Thank you v-very much!" She took a big bite out of the burger. ”Mmm…no food tastes better than food someone else is paying for!"

Karin was firmly in camp ‘eating with manners’, though her meal seemed to disappear quite quickly whenever no one was looking. "I’m not sure it was ever established who exactly was paying for all this." She said coolly. The thought caused Sakura to freeze mid-bite. For a moment she panicked, worried that she had just blown all of her allowance. But then she remembered what she kinda did for a living now.

”Oh. Oohh well. Okay. I’ll just use…yeah I’ve got money left over. I’m an adventurer, so that means I have treasure or something. Wow, you gave me a heart attack with that one."

Nadia raised a hand for attention, although since she was still chewing she ended up signaling that she needed a moment. When her own steak was safely disposed of, she hastened to address the street fighters’ concerns. “I am, actually! All that moolah I got from the island last night was sorta burnin’ a hole in my pocket. Figured I might as well blow it on somethin’ that I could enjoy with everyone.” She took a big swig of her bright-orange beverage, then added with a grin, “If ya wanna pay for yourselves though, don’t let me stop ya! Any leftovers will sure help meowt if we go shoppin’ later.”

Seated together on a single bench next to Peach, Cerberus paused in their ravenous consumption of various scrap meats from the kitchen to look Nadia’s way, their ears perked up. “Oh, are we going somewhere exciting after this?” the Triple Demon chorused.

”Oh! Thank you Ms. Nadia." Sakura laughed slightly, wiping her forehead in an exaggerated manner. ”I don’t think I’ve really had a chance to go shopping yet. This should be fun! I want a bicycle. I’m gonna buy a bicycle." She said, nodding, satisfied with that. ”...Where I’d get a bicycle, I don’t know.”

“Well there was that big boat that came in while you were fighting. Supposed to be shops on it? I was thinking on going there afterwards” Rika helpfully supplied Sakura “Maybe they’ll have one of those bicycle things there?”

"Yeah, plus this city has a little of everything. I bet you'll find it, whatever it is," the Cadet said from across the table. He intended to go right back to eating, but a thought soon occurred and he swallowed the croquette he'd just popped into his mouth whole so he could get back to talking.

"Oh yeah, but speaking of shopping! I didn't get a chance to tell everyone earlier with everything going on at the beach, but I ran into this biiig carapaceon, and found some cool shells and all these sea pearls. Nadia said they're probably valuable, so I was gonna share 'em with everyone! We could all go on a regular seeker shopping spree and check out that ship." The monster hunter gestured widely as he spoke, including touching his fingers together in mockery of a crab's claws. He thought that there were probably enough pearls to split a small handful with everyone, including their newcomers and even save some for Link and Hat Kid too.

“Oooo, shopping! What fun!” Rubick said as he clapped his hands together. He had wanted to look for some items to fill in for his missing repertoire of abilities, but he had precious little opportunity to do so in the past. Now it seemed he would get his chance.

With the group’s next activity decided upon, everyone hurried to polish off the remainder of their meals, although not so fast that they couldn't savor every last bit of this hard-won feast. Princess Peach, thinking that she could make good use out of the coins stored in her new Inventory, elected to join everyone on their trip to the merchant vessel. Those less inclined to accompany the shoppers on their excursion could, naturally, turn in early, but from the looks of it a visit from the Argentum Trade Guild was a rare treat as the circus coming to town, and not something to be passed up lightly. After paying for the Seekers’ meal Nadia was left with only a pittance of gold pieces, but if Ace succeeded in his plan to pawn off the pearls, she’d at least have a little something to spend. Once everyone was ready the large group set off at a leisurely pace, too full of good food (and in some cases, potent alcohol) to do much but take their time.

Ms Fortune

Location: Deep Blue Seaside - Limsa Lominscuttle Town
Level 9 Nadia (28/90)
Word Count: 954

Now that it was moored in the ocean waters just outside Limsa Lominscuttle Town’s harbor, everyone could really begin to appreciate just how massive a vessel the Argentum Trade Guild was. In fact, its size prohibited it from pulling into and docking at port, so once it arrived Limsa deployed a ferry service operated by volunteer shipgirls that pulled rafts filled with eager traders to and from Argentum. If not for the place’s rather rustic, copper-and-wood aesthetic, in fact, being dragged toward its bowels might have been intimidating. Even discounting Goldmouth, the colossal, whale-like Titan that floated in placid serenity overhead like an enormous dirigible, the ship was easily comparable to a cargo freighter, but this boat went far beyond the confines of a mere vehicle meant for transport. Instead, the immense merchant ship managed to achieve the status of miniature city in its own right, featuring not just the warehouse and floor space necessary to house and sell a wealth of goods, but its salvaging industry and its own residential area, complete with onboard dining, entertainment, and more. It even had its own flight deck up top, and an entire dock down at water level below, fully retractable into the side of the ship should inclement weather or a rogue sea monster make an impregnable hull a necessity.

When Nadia, already awestruck by the scale of the place, first stepped foot from the entry port into the belly of the behemoth, she looked up to see layer upon layer of spacious upper floors accessible by stairs and connected by well-lit catwalks. The patrons of Rumbletum Canteen, the Bower Lounge, and Lemour Inn were so high up that she could barely make out their features. Of course, the main event, and the reason why her group came here in the first place, lay directly ahead: the spectacular Argentum Bazaar.

There were so many shops that Nadia found herself struggling to take it all in. Even at their best, the open-air markets of Little Innsmouth had nothing on this! Everywhere she looked she found crates and barrels stacked so high that they more or less formed the walls between the stores. Right away the feral spotted ornate pottery, casks of exotic liquor, silks and rugs, various clothes, pastries, seafood, and produce, maps, sacks, bags, furniture, weapons, armor, trinkets and collectibles, and so much more, all cast in the cozy, warm glow of lights strung together across hanging cables above. Names like Cleo’s Cosmetics, Honeycomb Sweets, Strummer Instruments, Nopox Hobby Store, Reedirait Bookstore, Whiteside Salvaging, Shroomblade Smithy, Shynini’s Accessories, and Noodler’s Delight confronted her from every side. She, like all the shoppers from Limsa Lominsa, found herself so spoiled by choice that for a moment she didn’t know what to do with herself, so she decided the best thing to do would just be to wander around.

Nadia soon observed that practically every shop appeared to be run by a rotund, fuzzy creature. While she mistook them for mascots or something at first, a little listening-in quickly revealed that no, the Nopon weren’t just people in their own rights, but merchants of remarkable uncanny sense despite their cutesy appearances. They came in all colors, with hair that didn’t always match their fur, and most of them wore clothes of some stripe, but all sported stubby little limbs and a pair of larger, dextrous wings they used to handle their wares and their customers’ cash, the latter of which they seemed to covet with greed that was thinly-veiled at best. Nadia’s time spent in Little Innsmouth gave her a sense for when the Dagonian locals were trying to fleece outsiders, and if anything these guys seemed worse, offering dubious prices, whimsical embellishments, and hard bargains. Still, Nadia found it hard to take the idea of them being tricksters seriously. After all, with their round little bodies, funny outfits, and oddly endearing speech, they were just so cute!

One of the most eye-catching displays, however, sat amidships between the dividing wall that kept the public out of the warehouse block and the bazaar itself, flanked on either side by a giant marble statue of a hand whose palm overflowed with coins. Resembling a circus tent with its wooden supports and red-white striped awnings, the Grand Exchange featured a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree counter around its central shelves, manned by a full contingent of staff, and yet it still managed to seem rather small compared to the gargantuan crowd around it. A cacophony of voices rolled out from the throng across the bazaar, a chorus of offers to sell and requests to buy, prices, and currencies like gil, gold, zenny, and platinum. And as if that wasn’t chaos enough, a few of those present present seemed to be solely interested in starting rows of fires along the floor, even at the feet of the traders, all of which caught practically the instant the would-be arsonists plonked down a few logs and burned to ashes without actually igniting anything or anyone else, which came as a major relief to Nadia when she realized.

In short, the Argentum Trade Guild offered an absurd amount of merchandise for how little money Nadia Fortune had left to her name. Still, she could hear her bed back at the Mizzenmast calling out to her almost as much as this incredible marketplace. Between her reduced funds and flagging stamina, she didn’t know how long she’d be able to last before heading back. If she was going to buy just one thing among the vast smorgasbord on offer, she needed to get cracking.

World of Light

Alright, thank you for the clarification. It would be ideal to include what each emotion does when they're used in powers just to have the data in-house, but all in all the sheet's looking quite acceptable.

World of Light

The sheet seems good. The backstory was tough to wrap my head around, but I assume that's just a product of a more abstract sort of game, so that's just my problem. I just have a couple questions about his abilities. Do the emotions Omori inflicts have any gameplay effect, like debuffs, or are they just emotions? Does 'initially in a battle' mean 'once per battle'?

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

Cool! Being able to just place things like in Sims would definitely speed up the process over ordering construction and all that. Thanks!

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

Just for the sake of clarification, are the new factories already built? Earlier in the meeting (although six months ago IRL time) it sounded like we just had the blueprint, and it would be up to the overseers to design their floors. From the most recent post it sounds like they're done and ready to be turned on and explored though. In either case, could I also ask who built/will build them?

World of Light

Asbestos

Location: Sandswept Sky - Gerudo Town
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Raz’s @TruthHurts22, Raiden’s @XoXKieroBombXoX, Panther, Necronomicon, Peacock, Tharja
Word Count:

With the men of the group and any of their sympathizers left behind, the remainder of their party made their way toward Gerudo Town. While not paved at all, the path there across the sand was a well-trodden one, and with the veil of nightfall pulled once more across the Sandswept Sky, it was a journey the lucky few could make in relative ease and comfort.

Asbestos, for one, seemed to be in a good mood. Compared to the others the savra girl had barely broken a sweat at all today, with nothing more than a few training exercises from that morning under her belt, followed by the boredom of sitting on her hands during both legs of the Virgin Victory’s desert voyage. The chance to bully some monsters with her explosive greatshield came as a rare treat for her, but the opportunity to explore somewhere new and exciting was something she treasured above all else. Without the fatigue accumulated by the others during the day’s ordeals on Split Mountain and the Railway Gun, she sauntered along at the forefront with pep in her step, her salamander tail bouncing along behind her with a lantern held tight in its curled tip. That said, a rather severe case of RBF suggested that she wasn’t frothing at the mouth to make new friends or bother with idle chit-chat.

When Jesse spoke up en route to Gerudo Town, therefore, she quickly found herself on the receiving end of a derisive snort from Asbestos. Her tail came around with its lantern to shed some light on the woman who disturbed the peaceful silence. “Huh! If yah came up on deck eahliah, yah woulda seen fah yahself, Red. Look!” She motioned with her head toward their destination. While the gloom made it difficult to perceive all the details, the light of the world’s moons plus the many blazing braziers of Gerudo Town provided enough illumination for a keen pair of eyes. From their position on the ground the campaigners could see only the sandstone walls that encircled the place and guarded the city inside from view, most of which featured tops of uncarved stone rather than battlements, but where walkways existed the fires of torchlight revealed the well-armed guardswomen that patrolled them. Beyond the walls, only the three goblet-shaped monoliths could be glimpsed, their sides and streams of crystal-clear water catching the fickle firelight from below. “It’s like an ancient walled city. And if that ain’t good for yah, just shut yah yap an’ pick up the pace!”

From a distance Gerudo Town appeared to be on the smaller side, judging by the two lady warriors guarding the main entrance, but as the party grew closer they realized their metrics might be a bit off. When she realized that things looked to be a little bigger than they first seemed, Asbestos scrunched her eyebrows up in bemusement, and her confusion only continued to grow until she and the others finally reached the front gate, where she stared up at the spearmaidens in astonishment. The Gerudo, side-lit by the fire bowls set in recesses to either side of the entryway, were no ordinary women; standing up to eight feet, these brawny lasses towered over every newcomer sans Sectonia, and over Asbestos in particular. At a mere five foot one, the defender barely even reached the guards’ belly buttons. When the Gerudo glanced back down at her imperiously Asbestos made sure to give both of them the stink eye, just to make sure they knew how little their stunning physiques impressed her. Anyone who dared look down at her, after all, would soon find that her attitude far outstripped her dimensions.

Although the surliness earned Asbestos a stern look, the newcomers passed the guards’ brief examination. In particular they seemed to approve of Tharja, whose attire suited both their purposes and their civilization’s culture, even if her mood remained murky and distant. After they unbarred the entrance corridor with their spears the Gerudo stepped aside to admit their guests. “Welcome to Gerudo Town,” the more elaborately-armored of the pair told them, her rigid features and commanding glare a little less hospitable than her words. “We hope you will enjoy your stay.”

The rather strict inspection at the entrance set somewhat of a dour tone for the group, but the moment Asbestos proceeded through the stone corridor and Gerudo Town opened up before them, she quickly forgot all about it. A beautiful main thoroughfare greeted them, floored by mosaic tiles, studded with tall coconut palms that swished in the evening breeze, and cut through by glittering canals that babbled softly in time with the flutter and billow of splendid storefront cloths. Masterful statues and obelisks, many with a decidedly Egyptian flavor, could be seen along the avenue at regular intervals. Even the sandstone walls of adjacent buildings featured lovely murals, which danced in the light of the braziers as they flickered and sputtered. Though much smaller in scale than Al Mamoon, the place possessed a sort of thematic, historic beauty that the Cream of the Eastern Desert did not. It also seemed to be much quieter and more serene in the dark, although with dusk only recently fallen and the night still young, plenty of its citizens were still out and about.

And for the most part, Jesse’s intuition was spot-on. A sizable chunk, if not a majority, of the town’s residents appeared to be Gerudo, and one would be hard-pressed to find fault with their appearances, especially if one possessed an affinity for height or musculature. That said, Asbestos noticed a bunch of other female characters as she looked around, a number of whom didn’t fit the place’s aesthetic, such as blue-skinned Elerians and the feline Kaka Clan, so she assumed that this area must be about as jumbled-up as the rest of them. Instead of the local people, however, Asbestos cared more about the town’s facilities. Quickly taking stock with the aid of a signpost, she spotted a handful of stores and stalls that seemed to be open, including a smithy, grocer, and loot exchange. To the left were the Sand Seal Pens, ahead was a commissions counter, and farther on she could see a pub called Warrior’s Honor, the Grand Cathedral of the Chantry (which judging by a cursory glance didn’t look as big as its name would imply), a large inn nestled among the residences, and one fortified structure closer to the palace that appeared to be a dual-purpose barracks and jail, complete with a training yard outside. There seemed to be some sort of commotion over at the jail, but the Savra girl didn’t care. Then there was the palace itself, but Asbestos certainly had no plans to go there. Instead, her hunger and thirst compelled her to set a course straight for the pub without so much as warning the others.

Alice took in the sights through half-lidded eyes, her manner languid as usual. “Hopefully this place is somewhat less medieval than it appears, or we may have some trouble procuring the fuel and material to return the Virgin Victory to mint condition.” She turned to face the others and bid them farewell. “What you do next here is up to you, but make sure you rest well. I would guess that you’ve all more than earned it.” With a slight smile she went off on her business, in search of a workshop or depot. She set her sights on a building of brick and glass, one that looked rather like a train station, which was odd since nobody had seen a train track to or from Gerudo Town since their arrival.

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

Location: Frozen Highlands - Dragonspine Foothills
Linkle’s @Gentlemanvaultboy, Frisk’s @Majoras End, Prisoner’s @XoXKieroBombXoX

An eager smile briefly passed across Albedo’s face as he slowly nodded his approval of Frisk’s decision, as well as the reassurance it gave Joel. “My thoughts exactly.” When he leaned over and patted the child on the shoulder, his touch was cold. “We’ll get him back before you know it.”

The alchemist then addressed the group at large. “As for how we might go about doing this, I may have a plan of action. Linkle, while I’m sure you want nothing more than to aid in this search and rescue, since you are the strongest of us I would ask you to stay here, and keep young Joel safe from anything that might chance upon the campsite.” Though sympathetic, his expression and tone of voice were also firm. He spoke with the authority of someone who could figure out the best way to get things done, and despite any misgivings on the Skullgirl’s part he would brook no argument. “The purpose of this is so Teba can join us in our search. Since he is the most familiar with these environs, his presence would be an invaluable asset.” His gaze landed on the Rito archer, who looked annoyed at the proposition. “While I know we may not be on the best of terms yet, I urge you to put your suspicions aside, and to think of Joel. We need your help if we are to find his father, and not aimlessly wander until another avalanche buries us, and rob the poor boy of the last of his hope.”

Though he took his sweet time doing it, Teba couldn’t help but to concede when faced with such a potent blend of reason and pathos. “...Fine. Just don’t expect me to save you if you trip and fall off a cliff.”

“I am grateful.” Albedo paid the bowman’s brusqueness no mind as he focused on Melony, who he offered a reassuring smile just like Frisk had for Joel. “And we’ll keep an eye out for your Pokemon, too.”

The trainer smiled bitterly. “I appreciate it.” A second later, however, her expression tightened. “Wait…but how will you find them, if you don’t know what they look like?”

A moment of silence passed before Albedo blinked twice, his expression emphatically neutral. “...Excuse me, you’re quite correct. Could you describe them for us?”

Melony thought for a moment, then complied. “Yes. One is a Galarian Darmanitan, who looks somewhat like an ape, with blue skin, white fur, and a mustache. Answers to the name Gordon. A stubborn creature, but…lovable, and dependable when push comes to shove. The other is Frosmoth, an elegant insect with a pillowy ruff and iridescent lavender wings. His name is Fionn. Though quiet, he is jealously protective, and would always stay right by my side…”

“I see.” Despite the descriptions, Albedo did not seem confident. He crossed his arms. “These Pokemon sound quite precious to you. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather come with us, and seek them yourself? You seem like a tough, capable lady. I’m sure if anyone can overcome this mountain, it’s you.”

Already teetering on the brink, Melony was won over by the flattery. She was a premier gym leader, after all; it wouldn’t do for her to sit here by the fire while the others searched high and low for her precious companions. “...Yes, I think I will.”

“Hold on, that means living Joel in the company of this...girl!” Teba objected. “Let’s at least have them both come with us. With four fighters, we could definitely keep him safe!”

Albedo shook his head. “This mountain is incredibly dangerous, and no place for a child. Linkle here has a true hero’s spirit inside her. She would rather die than harm a hair on Joel’s head, or let him come to harm. Isn’t that right?”

For a moment Linkle looked uneasy, but hearing her heroism brought into question bolstered her resolve, and she clenched her fists to give a determined nod.

“Besides,” Albedo continued, “With my plan, we’re most likely to finish this mission and all get home as soon as possible. No more Dragonspine for anybody.”

His gaze landed on Teba as he said this, and the Rito’s complaint froze in his throat. While he did have a soft spot for Joel, and his conscience wouldn’t let him abandon the poor boy, it was true that he didn’t want to be here, doing this. He glanced at Linkle one more time, unhappy about the half-skulls in her red eyes, but ultimately sighed. “...Understood,” he grumbled, before stalking over to Linkle. “But if anything happens to him, I’ll hunt you down. Understand?”

Linkle did.

Melony, Meanwhile, had been thinking, her lips pursed. Something wasn’t quite adding up. Before she could come to any conclusions, however, Albedo rose from the fire. “I’m good to go, so let’s begin. No time to waste.” Melony rose, and since Teba was already up, he seemed ready to depart by default. The Prisoner joined the three without a word, and Frisk made four. Teba set off in the lead, with the rest right behind, and together they crunched up the snow-laden path.

---

In just a few moments the team left the camp behind, but they soon found they hadn’t seen the last of giantwood. The surface of Dragonspine was rocky, with large stone outcroppings piled high with snow, steep rises and falls, and countless dead trees, many of them a lot like the grim copse they just left. What trails they found were narrow, snaking up and down or curving along the mountain’s slope, but here and there the rescuers found traces of old ruins. Some of the more inhospitable climbs featured eroded stone steps, and both bridges and pillars hewn from the rock lay partially hidden under the snowfall. While Albedo kept his eyes out for any clues, he knew that if Joserf could be found this close to the camp, he would have been already. “Any idea where to begin?”

“Somewhat,” Teba replied as he walked on, bow in hand. “Since arriving, I’ve noticed a number of small camps of similar build, all with numbers. Like ‘Dragonspine Camp Six’.”

“Perhaps set up by experienced trail guides so that adventurers could find shelter anywhere on the mountain,” the alchemist mused.

“Right, but there are fewer now than before. At first I could find two, three, five, six, seven, and ten. But last time I checked, only two and seven still exist, and two’s already beneath us. Though, I haven’t gone up to check ten again, I guess. Point is, more and more have been torn up and buried. Too fast and continuous for the storms to have done it. Something’s been destroying them.”

Albedo’s expression was guarded, as if he didn’t want to worry Frisk. “Possibly. Have you found any trace from any campsites? Either from Joserf, or whatever destroyed them?”

Teba nodded. “Yeah, I found a bowl up by site six, plus a note from Joserf. Said it’s for feeding the foxes that kept him company while he went up to reach the peak, and asked whoever found it to use the bowl to feed them, too. What a softie. Who’d waste food like that?” He cleared his throat roughly. “Anyway, that’s where we’re headed. Last place we know he was.”

Well before they reached site six, however, the team found something else. At the top of a snowy path where a handful of autumnal trees held out against the cold, they found the half-buried wreckage of a campsite beneath a trio of strange arches, curved like enormous rib-bones through the air. Along with them were the remains of a ladder that once provided access to the cliff-top just ahead, without which there was no easy ascent. Teba had already taken to the air when he realized the others couldn’t follow him, at which point he landed. “...Right, you’ll need to find some other way up. This is site four, by the way.”

“I was wondering,” Albedo remarked. He knelt over the debris and sifted through the snow. “Have you checked these sites thoroughly?”

Teba shrugged. “Pretty much. I mean, snow’s not good for my feathers, so I just scratched with my feet a little.” Melony gave him an incredulous look.

A moment later, Albedo pulled a piece of rumbled paper from a frozen knapsack, scanned it, then handed it to Frisk. It read:

Nothing untoward happened on the way here. The weather remains fine indeed. It seems that my luck has turned at last. Perhaps I can make a run for the summit after all...I'll just give it a little go. If anything happens, I'll turn back right away.

“Promising?” Melony asked the two. She then looked at Teba. “It makes sense that he would stop at each of the sites in his path.”

The archer opened his beak to respond, but before he could there came a rumbling sound. From the earth clawed a squadron of Draugr, the fractured and warped remains of northern warriors, stiff with ice but burning with hatred. Among them were a couple Hel-walkers, the malignant souls spat out by Helheim to wander the earth as accursed beings. All bore vicious weapons in various states of disrepair, and a snapshot arrow from Teba right into the nearest one’s head failed to instantly put it down. Albedo held out his hand, and a frozen sword grew into existence. “I knew it!” Teba groused.

“Focus on the enemy! Come on, you two!” the alchemist urged as the enemies closed in. He charged toward the undead enemies, leaving a surprised and horrified Melony behind.