OwO

The Little Hamlet

@OwO eyo you still here?

@Dark Cloud

VAGUELY

The Little Hamlet

Ingrid Lucentia von Draph

^{Interacting with: Wormwood @Dark Cloud}
The Bridge || About to Meal Prep || Gramhundling--whatever that means

Ingrid slung her rod over her shoulder and let out an exasperated breath. "Quit the plumbuckering."

Ingrid's diction was strange. At times, she spoke true to her noble roots. Other times, she spoke in the same brash ways as a commoner. She even knew multiple languages of which were complex and ornate. Unfortunately, Ingrid didn't quite have the capacity in her brain to properly be a polyglot. Sometimes, she used the wrong language for the wrong people. Other times, it led to something known as an Ingridism: a word that had been completely and independently conceived in Ingrid's mind as an actual word, yet it was a complete mystery of how it came about.

Today, that word was plumbucker.

"You just have to answer honest and earnest." She said as she scratched her head. Even if someone could be picked up by the head and used as a ball for games, that wasn't any reason why they would react like a fish out of water.

"Answering like you got ants in your boots will just make it seem like you're up to something. And if you're just looking to fish, then by all means fish. Just like how I need to go prepare these fish, I don't need permission to do so.

She pat her hips as if looking for something.

Ah, that's what she forgot. Her knife.

Expedition to Isekai

---

And there was Rin flying a second time.

It was a cruel twist of fate that the girl so interested in reenacting the Wright brothers had flew so often.

Rin's mind sharpened. How could she avoid this? Everything was out of the question because she was spinning so quickly.

What was her power anyway? Math? She perceived lines on a coordinate plane to make slashes. But how did they slash? Well, fundamentally, it was just a force. And if she had access to forces, then she had access to vectors. When your mind functioned with such acuity, you could pick out how the environment around you looked even if you were spinning. With a click of her fingers, she emitted force with when her vision settled laterally.

She flew away from the trajectory of the long-tail's attack, spinning lessened from the sudden force on her body.

If what she needed was stopping power, then she'd use stopping power. If a needle wasn't enough, then Rin just needed a bigger attack.

With Shun acting as her flashing distraction, Rin generated a new shape. One infinitely more complex than a simple line. 3.14... times, even.

With her mind focused on the beast, a new shape formed upon her hand. One that spun and spun, its circular nature concealing just how fast it was rotating.

It was a god damn destructo disc and it was coming straight for the long tail.

Expedition to Isekai

---

It was enough. Rin saw the path that she could take. Just as the beasts could act to their own accord, so too could Rin. Her slash didn't do much, yet it was enough. Enough to instill a drop of confidence in a world that had hours earlier flung her into a tree. Confidence that would let her trust Shun to not allow beasts to swarm her. She'd finish off this beast with her geometric slashes.

The simplest way forwards was to overwhelm the beast. But if she had done so, she would be staking the strength of their selves against one another. Trying to outgas a beast was, perhaps, not the best way forwards. Humans were endurance animals, but only over the course of hours and days. Minutes? Beasts were much better. However, she possessed what beasts didn't; what humans lacked in intuition, they more than made up for in cunning.

She created another arc to throw at the beast. Blinding, blooming, violent. More dangerous-looking than before. However, its looks were the only thing dangerous about it. She put little force into it; what power it did possess reserved for visual flair. Behind it, she tracked the beast with her eyes. Her vision in the night wasn't the greatest. However, her perception gave ample time to parse the forms before her.

Behind the arc, she traced a simpler line. One that would drive forward. It was designed to pierce the beast. If it could simply clash with large arcs, then the answer was simple: a needle-like mass that focused all of its intensity towards one point. A penetrating attack that could not easily be blocked or deflected.

Persona ~ Alone at Sea (PERSONA WITH A BOAT 𓊝)

---

Of course she worried. There wasn't a bone in Maive's body that wouldn't. While previously Maive had been preoccupied with helping others, the sudden trip to a surreal balmy island had marked a change in her behaviour. Now, she always had something to do. Sorry, she'd tell others, I don't have the time right now.

Long walks along the beach were romantic. Searches along the English coast were less so. Maive patrolled the waters and looked for any clues. Unfortunately, her searches turned up with nothing. Perhaps if she was brave enough to jump into the depths again, she would find something... But she wasn't. She saw Victor frequently. Of course, she didn't have the heart to talk to him about it. She didn't have the heart to talk to anyone else about it, for that matter. After that all happened, Maive had receded into a shell of worry.

And then she was called into a room for an interview and saw two detectives staring her down.

Maive was, of course, not the type to get in trouble. In fact, this was the first time she was called to talk about anything. In anything, she was on the other side of the table whenever her siblings were up to no good. So she would react like anyone in her position would: she'd squeal like a pig. She'd tell the detectives about everything. The other world. Summoning a spirit. Launching everyone into the water and how it was her fault.

But a miracle happened. Though, perhaps it wasn't a miracle considering that Maive's tear ducts were closer to aqueducts at this point.

She bawled until she was unintelligible. The detectives still caught the main words. Hazing, dock, fall. The bit about the island had, perhaps thankfully, been shrouded in snot and wails. Any leading questions were answered in a similar manner. With sobbing and shakes of the head. Any attempt at consoling her or calming her down was, frankly, a failure.

"..." Detective Harris looked at Maive with a look of pity before placing a business card in front of her. "Please call this number if you remember any other details."

And that's how Maive's first run in with the cops went.

Expedition to Isekai

---

It wasn't perfect, but it was something. Rin had caused something to happen. She had managed buy a moment of respite, even if it involved shards of wood in her palms and the sudden prospect of being airborne. Landing next to Shun was a lucky break. Shun was battered and bleeding, but she was still breathing. At the very least, Rin knew that they were alive. Beyond that was her reflection of what she had done.

"I get it..." She whispered to Shun. Afflicted by a strange epiphany, Rin's thoughts began to compound.

What was she trying to make? A spear. What was a spear? It was such an ambiguous term. So many things could be called a spear. No, what was physical was not an idea. It was an imitation. It was substance at a point in time. No matter how she tried to imagine it, there was no way to create the perfect representation of a spear.

But why was she getting hung up on what a spear was? She could always take a step back. A spear was merely something used to pierce. Was there any reason why it couldn't have been something else? A bullet could pierce and so could a knife. In fact, was there any important distinction between piercing and slashing? It was all the same in the end. To damage and sunder substance was all there was to it. That was the essence.

She understood that she had to abandon her notions of what constituted a form. Necessity was the mother of invention, after all.

She pulled the energy from within her once more and dragged her finger along the beasts in the night.

What she had drew was not complex. What had formed in her mind was fundamentally simple. Something fundamental to everything, yet could not be observed in reality. It was something that could only be in the mind.

A single bisecting line.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

"Well, I didn't use it or see it be used. I was just involved in-" Roqe immediately froze and looked at Honest. Honest was, as always, mean and glaring. Thankfully, Roqe had caught herself before a third brick hit her in the face. "Won't talk about that. Anyways, that's pretty bold of you to ask how to use it before knowing what it does~! Now I don't want to tell you. Feels like it'll be dangerous if you're in the know now. Try thumbing through the pages and figuring it out yourselves! It's safe enough to do that."

Her face displayed a moment of deep thought.

"Probably."

Expedition to Isekai

---

It missed. Thankfully, Rin hadn't exactly been punished for her failure in that instant. No, the beast had merely dodged and sent a megaflare her way. She was doing better than her partner in crime who had narrowly avoided being called Sh and Un.

How unfair it was. Sure, Rin had an inkling that something in her changed. Just as she felt a wellspring inside her after being flung into a tree, the beast had its own well floating towards her. Only her well was inside and doing nothing. The beasts well had been firing blasts at her. She could do little but move to dodge them. Her speed was lacking. Most of the dodge turned into scraping blows. She grit her teeth. Not the worse mishap she's ever been in. Pain was just a sensory illusion, that's what she'd convince herself to think.

She who dares, right?

Further in she went against the eyeballer and its orb. She'd certainly give it something to ponder. That something was a spear.

She'd draw from her own well. Everything she could. Every drop. Would it work? Who knew. Someone had to do something. Just as the Wright brothers believed they could fly. Just as Cugnot believed in self-propulsion. Just as Hormell Foods believed they could can ham. All she could do was believe that this was her correct choice.

She directed what she could towards her spear and thrust it towards the orb.

Expedition to Isekai

---

Rin could sense it. The monsters didn't give chase. Even if her vision in the night was hazy, she could tell that they didn't follow. Perhaps it was for the better. Perhaps it was the worse.

If her vision was better, she could have used her spear as a javelin. Even if the hide was tough, the eyes were almost always a weak spot. The thought did cross her mind that if she struck one of the laser wolves in the eye while it was charging its blast, its head would just explode. There was no evidence for this to happen unless one took cartoon as fact.

With Shun on laser duty, Rin had to do something. In a creeping dash, she skulked towards one of the laser-wolves. Quiet and fast. She'd pierce one of the laser beast with Shun acting as her cover.

Sleepless Nights\\ Iron Cages

thanks for putting up with my immense delays

I should be back on track now. No exact date on when I'll post next, but I'll try to respond when you guys post.

Soon: a downtime flavour interlude to the next missions. For now, it's just conversation with Roqe time.