Raineh Daze

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Miina

Okay, beasties defeated, and she'd done it with a minimum of magic usage on her end – you never knew when there might be some extra threat, and blighted or not… an animal was still an animal. It was the sort of thing that she had grown up being taught to deal with, even if using a sword for it still had some flashes of novelty.

…

"Oh, c-come on!" She hadn't even said anything and still they were fighting another giant reptilian monstrosity! And this one was throwing out lightning everywhere. Of all the… she liked using it sometimes because it was hard to dodge, but that was exactly what made this such a pain. Especially when everyone had bits of metal on them, which wasn't going to help. Fine, fine…

How nice of Leviathan to give her so much immediate hands-on practice with protecting against lightning. Oh, she had been focused on making it as strong and focused as possible, there, but the manipulation and casting was just a different application of the same thing. Concentrate, concentrate, and… ah, there it was, the faint light settling into her skin with an odd, slick feeling. Was it like that for everyone? Maybe she should ask one day. "Th-That should help. Still, try not to g-g-get hit…"

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Abe Hikari

With the steps to give herself enough visibility, and a good chef's knife in hand, Hikari felt… confident. It was a strange feeling. In the context of a kitchen, she could only ever remember being very cautious handling a knife and making big, rough slices. Even just peeling the shallots would have been a challenge. Now? It felt like it was going to be easy, so easy that it was second nature.

She couldn't say that she had ever had that sort of confidence in anything. Oh, she had been good enough at business, but that always carried the undercurrent of imminent failure and long nights extra put in to prepare, especially with any presentation to give after. But long practice and experience didn't ever make her comfortable, merely… passable. Thinking back, she honestly couldn't say she remembered ever having this confidence maybe since she was a child?

Okay, first the meat – a few easy slices was all it took, although she had the idea that maybe they should have prepared this the day before, optimally. Now… ah, get another chopping board, she wouldn't have thought of that without this strange external knowledge worming into her brain. Hmm, she liked this knife, though, so go clean it, then… finely dicing the mushrooms!

If she had wanted proof that her cheat ability was either to do with her appearance, or maybe just knives for some bizarre reason, then this was it: before winding up here, every movement would have been made with extreme hesitancy to protect her fingers, leading to an even, roughly-chopped mess of mushroom after… well, who knew how long. Much, much longer than the easy work she was making of the mushrooms or the shallots after that.

Not that it wasn't still inconvenient being short, she had to pick up and move the steps – and the ingredients, carefully – to be in position to fry the mushrooms into a duxelle.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

The vampire didn't stop at just the leg, following through with another swing, and another – one for the back legs, and then another through the neck. She wasn't going to have some three-limbed monstrosity pounce on her when trying to enjoy the real fight, oh no.

"Oh, don't go calling yourself a fool, Rozenalt. You're many things; stupid, arrogant, a blasphemer, tasteless…" Tyaethe said with a shake of her head, ticking them off on one finger, "Particularly the tasteless part. With the whole blood thing, I think you're just jealous of me for being a vampire.

"But I'll give you a break. It won't just be your blood I'll settle our debt with," she gave him a toothy grin, and closed the gap again, sword swinging. She didn't expect it to connect, would be disappointed if it did, but that was fine. Attack, attack, always attack! Her sword weighed nothing. Her strength came from magic rather than her barely existent muscles. In a fight like this, momentum was nothing, even if the ligaments and tendons tore and restored themselves at the instant reversal of direction.

Rozenalt would still be able to fight back through this. She remembered their previous bouts, interrupted and shared as they were. If she defended, that would let up all the pressure. If she disengaged entirely, that would be the same. Too much breathing room to give a mage like him from the start.

Dodge a little. Move just as much as she could without letting the tempo up. Barely avoid the retaliation as long as possible – no, keep cutting it too close. Let him get away with small cuts. She wanted the blood spread, too, and what would be more annoying than your opponent laughing off the injuries? They would heal, even with the magic, and he would be an idiot to try and use blood magic with her blood, unless he wanted it to go awry.

Besides: this made it more fun.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Miina Malina

Miina slumped back against the nearest tree. Fine, immediate vengeance was off the table, the world still needed saving etc. etc. If their plan was to get anyone on board with something, there wasn't much that she could contribute; everybody was much better at talking and understanding people than she tended to be. It wasn't as if being local bought her all that much in the way of cultural similarity… she was, after all, from the uncivilised woods as far as one of the Grovemasters was concerned.

"Is there a reason we c-can't just… sneak in? M-Me and her? Help p-people in from the inside…" Miina suggested, pointing at the ninja. Someone completely trained for stealth, she was still pretty good at it (especially getting into places and climbing around), and between them it should be easy to just… subvert a way in. Provided the invisibility mostly worked… maybe a bit of mundane disguising, too? At least she could pass for pretty local and her identifying features were so identifying they should be easily hidden.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Cyrodiil

The elf gives the body a distasteful examination, then makes another gesture and lifts, the necromancer rising into the air as if hoisted under the arms, blood dripping from the gaping wound. "We may as well bring our proof, and telekinesis is less… messy than the alternatives."

The short walk back to the inn is quiet, Lanessa not offering up any conversation as she places the body against a nearby tree and takes over reporting your success – something Malene is more than happy to spend a minute confirming, even if she seems slightly queasy afterwards. Nonetheless, a small pouch of money is handed over, and in turn handed to you: ten septims*, nothing in the grand scheme of the wealthy, but an appreciable fraction of the profits even an inn around the Imperial City's highways can expect and enough for someone of modest means to perhaps eke out over an entire year.

It's quite possibly more money than you've ever handled in your life.

Equally welcome are some supplies for the road ahead. Bread, dried fish, and wine; nothing fancy, but more than good enough as you continue travelling through the afternoon, Lanessa finally breaking the silence. "So, how does it feel, being an adventurer? The danger is real but the rewards…"

* Ignoring the game scaling, here, which has an apple as something like 1/50 the cost of armour. As IRL, gold is worth a lot, and commodities will only use a tiny, tiny fraction of it.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Miina Malina

Proving that she was, as always, a source of surprisingly animalistic noises, Miina's response to being told that they couldn't go kill the grovemasters was a prolonged growl and flattened ears. But she didn't have time to say something until her father annoyingly came bursting in, and then…

Oh, she was cute. And in any other situation, Miina might have been more concerned about making a good first impression and not coming across as overtly hostile, but while the idea that someone had followed them here from Osprey was interesting… it didn't seem that worrying? If she was an enemy, they had the advantage of numbers and having rested, and they'd be moving on soon anyway. If she wasn't an enemy, did it matter? Just don't tell her anything and move on.

Still, her narrowed eyes flicked back to Izayoi. "Not even Isolde?"

Leaving a traitor to try again seemed stupid. Leaving her alone when she was opposed to their succeeding in any other way seemed outright suicidal.

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Abe Hikari

"Did you just… summon a kitchen?" Hikari wondered, following him through the arch. What a fascinating ability to have; did they all get something like this? Hmm, if that was the case… no, it didn't feel like she got anything quite so drastic in her own reincarnation. Hopefully, she got more than just cooking knowledge, or this would be an awfully unfair trade in comparison.

It was a nice kitchen; looking around she could see no shortage of tools – most of which she had never used, and some that she had no names for – but was immediately aware of something that wouldn't have ever been a problem in a kitchen before now but was quite the obstacle for a small, young fox girl…

"Ah, do you think there's some steps I can use? Doing preparation sounds like something perfectly within my capabilities, but…" she moved over to one of the counters for demonstration. If she stretched, sure, but that wasn't the right way to cut anything at all…

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

When the Hunt emerged, the constant static pressure came to an immediate stop; the waste mana that had been fuelling it was finally directed into strength and motion. Tyaethe had evidently adopted an approach of just crash into and through the assembled Hunt, a headlong charge out of the ranks that was nonetheless rapid enough to close into the vanguard of the horsemen before any of the archers thought to get a bead on her. A minor clue for those behind was the odd hope across a seemingly unmarked patch of brush.

"Rozenaaaaaaalt! Get over here, you faceless bastard!" the vampire laughed in Veltish, a jump taking her over a snapping… hound? onto one of the Knights' deerlike mounts for just a moment. Long enough for the figure's polearm to start swinging around. It never hit, a small hand arresting its owner's wrist and heaving the armoured figure from its own saddle – something not so easily done, with its weight instead pulling the mount over, instead. Which simply left Tyaethe free to spring forward from it again and onto the ground, weaving between or generally just brute-forcing her way into the Midnight Hunt.

"Was it hard, finding a mount uglier than you?"

Tyaethe's wondering question announced her arrival to the real target, sword finally being put to use to try and kneecap the whatever-the-hell it was, and bring Rozenalt down to her level.

Another Life in a Fantasy World (Invite Only)

Abe Hikari

"Hmm, I wouldn't mind staying, but I feel I should work somewhere bigger...?" Hikari said absent-mindedly, smiling pleasantly at the unexpected headpats and continuing to return them to the snake lady. "Oh, you cook too, Mr. Li? I wouldn't mind helping out, I feel… much better at it than I remember. I'm not sure why? I used to survive on instant ramen…"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Holding the last note just a bit too long, Tyaethe drummed her fingers on the sword. Not enough time to sing another, and it wasn't like Rozenalt would recognise any of the songs written about him to take offence to, more was the pity. So, was there anything practical she could do to make this easier?

…

Not particularly. She wasn't some grand mage, and who knew what the leaders of the Hunt exactly fell under. It was hard to think of specific countermeasures in that regard, and her resources for Rozenalt's abilities were the same they had been before. She had her sword, she had her body, and she had the stamina to go all night. Though…

"Oh, a warning to you all; try to avoid getting my blood all over you."