SilverPaw

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Nova

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The potion had worked, but regardless of how much Nova shouted in the man’s ear or tugged at him, he remained unresponsive. Unconscious. The griffon would soon be able to attack again, and while Nova could escape on her own, she didn’t think she could take the man with her. Maybe a skill…but then, those that would let her flee had only worked on her before, and even if she carried the man, there was no way to know if it’d still function as intended or not. And that wasn’t something she could afford to test just then.

Steeling herself, Nova prepared to combat the griffon. Protecting someone else while directly confronting her target really wasn’t her stile, as a ninja, but something she could manage against a single opponent. Usually, she was more of a harasser while in this class, but she knew that beyond the bomb she’d used so far, it’d serve her better to switch to close range than rely on mid-range. The latter moves were there more so for support anyhow, used to keep on the heat on an enemy when she had to move away from them. Of course, it also worked for surprise attacks, or just switching up tactics.

All that and more was a mere background consideration in Nova’s mind as she moved. She jumped up at the still reeling griffon, one arm ready at her weapon, other preparing to execute a certain skill. Midair, she jumped again using Heavenly Step, which brought her right to the griffon’s chest. With her left, she applied an Explosive Tag, and with her right, she drew out her blade to block the incoming attacks.

She blocked its claws, but the griffons’ beak skidded alongside her blade when she swung it in a counter-clockwise arc. Seeing that she was about to get hit, she activated Shadow Jump. Her body dispersed into a dark-grey smog, and she re-appeared directly behind and above the griffon. It was mildly disorienting, since she was now facing the other direction, but she quickly got her bearing, slicing at the griffon’s back as she descended.

Her bird enemy, in the meanwhile, was at first confused when its target disappeared from right in front of it. Then, just when Nova appeared above it, the Explosive Tag finally activated after a slight delay (of perhaps a second), exploding upon its chest. The creature shrieked its displeasure, but that was only the first in succession of many injuries it would suffer. Right after, it felt the base of its wings being sliced up, and twisting its neck around, turned to see where the danger was.

As the griffon turned to look at her, Nova landed right on its back. She performed a downwards thrusting attack, which scored a critical hit on the creature. While the katana was still lodged into its back, the griffon extended its neck. Recognizing what was to come, Nova freed her left hand from the hilt of her weapon, and materialized a kunai out of her inventory to deflect her opponent’s beak.

The block with the shorter sidearm was imperfect, and her forearm suffered a long gash for it. But it’d given her enough time to dislodge her katana. Nova pushed herself off the griffon’s back, sending the kunai flying with her left. The bird managed to block it, but it’d served as the distraction that she needed it for. Midair, she sheathed her katana, and performed a back flip, landing gracefully on the ground.

She grabbed a bunch of shuriken out of that interdimensional pocket of space known as the inventory. “Lightning charge…” she muttered – unnecessarily, really, but she was kinda getting into it. Burning some stamina and mana, the five shuriken sparked with electricity. She sent them at the griffon in quick succession. When the last one landed, she shouted, “…And Strike!” and electricity discharged from the serrated metal discs right into the flying beast. It was enough to finish it off, and with a gurgle, it fell to the ground. The thud of the body was heavy, and it raised some dust once more. Blood pooled from its body as it lay there, dead.

Nova looked away, wiping sweat from her brow as she re-focused on the unconscious messenger. Time to get him out, and lay low a bit. She hurried, grabbed the man underneath his armpits, and dragged him into the nearest alleyway. Nova hid them both amongst some trash. Once they were mostly safe, she slumped against the wall, head thudding on the concrete as she half-sat, half-collapsed onto the ground.

That fight had been…taxing. She’d not thought so before, but now it all came rushing back…the many times she could have been injured, the one time that she had been, the griffon’s corpse…She clutched at her left forearm, staunching the blood flow. Nova…No, she was definitely Akira just then, and she needed a breather. So, she stayed there, guarding the unconscious man as she calmed her breathing, glancing around every once in a while.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Nova

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Akira was in the middle of figuring if Nova’s – her – sheesh, that was still confusing – skills could be used normally. The game’s menus had showed up when she just concentrated on wanting one specific thing strongly enough, and she’d even been able to put items from her inventory and back in so far.

She wasn’t able to play test (was that even still the right word, if they weren’t in the game anymore, Akira wondered) anything, however, because the sky suddenly darkened. “Hm?” she looked up, startled, her sight still partially obscured by a skills and inventory screens. For now, she closed out of them all.

The clouds soon culminated into something yet more alarming; a falling red light. It was right above the fountain, and thus, above her head. Fuck, gotta be like Nova…think–No, act!

Moving as if she truly was her character, Nova rolled out of the way, then got dragged even further away by the receding crowd. Having been brought farther then intended, she elbowed her way back to the front, so she could see clearly.

A man had smashed into the mountain, armour all twisted and possibly squeezing his torso dangerously, bleeding as he knelt there. He uttered his message, and following it, several flying beasts emerged from the sky.

As some fled, and others chose to stand their ground, Nova eyed the descending monsters, and weaved her way left and right, evading their claws and beaks until she made her way to the kneeling man.

Opening her inventory with ease, she drew out a healing potion, one of the several she carried around. “Here,” she said, kneeling next to the man, handing him the flask. As she crouched by his side, ready to help him drink if he needed it, she kept a wary eye on the surrounding enemies.

When, as expected, one of them, a griffon, begun to descend upon what it’d judged as easy prey, Nova withdrew a bomb from her still opened inventory, and threw it right into the bird’s face.

“Let’s retreat,” she ordered, and crept closer, extending an arm to put around him. She’d half-drag him if she had to, but he kind of did have to cooperate for this part.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Nova

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After a long day at the university, shopping for food, and getting some stretching in before her planned gaming binge, Akira was more than ready to flop into the chair before her computer. She had her water, snack, and comfy pajamas all ready, computed booted up, Emerald Odyssey ready to play.

She clicked on the game’s icon, and took out her phone. She checked to see if there were any in-game videos of the newest update, but it seemed like people were too keen to try it out all to have made any yet. Not too unexpected, given that it was launch day, and that the update had gone live within the last hour or so.

Akira tapped on her phone mindlessly as she waited for the game to load. She expected a significant wait when she clicked into one of the servers, but oddly, there was no waiting queue. Setting the phone aside, she readied her fingers at the keyboard and mouse, but then–

A blinding white light enveloped her.

One minute, she’d been in her room, and the next…She was standing in front of very familiar city gates. Aluvera. The city was distinct and familiar, and she recognized it immediately. She’d seen it often enough for one, and for another, it had been only a few days ago that she’d left her character her the last time she’d played.

Right. Her character. Could it be…? Akira looked down, and saw the familiar fashion, as well as the katana sheathed at her hip. Amazed, she touched the clothing, the hilt, the scabbard…It was immaculate, truly.

Making a final check, she pinched her cheek, and her eyes slightly watered. Well. It felt real enough, huh. But Isekai wasn’t supposed to exist outside of stories…

Looking around, the choice of whether to wander farther away into the wide stretch of grassland or to enter the safety of the city was an easy one to make.

As she passed through the gates, she caught sight of some guards, and approached. “Hey!” she greeted somewhat forcefully, and walked closer. They shifted slightly, and one of them nodded in invitation. “Do you know how I came to be here?” she asked.

“I…am unsure what you are asking, miss,” one replied. The guards glanced at each other, apparently deeming her as a weirdo.
“You must have travelled here,” another pitched in with a shrug.

Akira exhaled forcefully, brushing a hand through her hair. Even this minor gesture revealed something new – her wolf ears. She touched them cautiously, trying to look up to see, which was of course impossible.

“Ahh, I’d forgotten about this,” she muttered, removing the hand from her head, and looking round at her rump. A wide sweeping tail was there to meet her, black furred and swinging from side to side. These additions had been so natural, she’d not felt them at all till now. Also, her mind her been honestly too preoccupied by this whole situation to also remember that she wasn’t exactly human anymore.

“Miss?” one guard questioned, and Akira realized he’d been saying something while she was absorbed in her inspection. Seeing he’d caught her attention, he added, “Perhaps you should go see a healer. You do, er, seem to be…suffering from some memory loss, perhaps?” he suggested warily.

Akira scratched her – Nova’s? – ear ruefully. “Yeah, alright. Thanks for the help, mister.”

Then, she departed, weaving through the crowd as she walked briskly towards the town square. She saw plenty of players, all as confused as she was, trying to log out, or find people they knew…she could be doing that too, she thought, but there was one thing prior to that she wanted to accomplish.

Once at the town square, she approached the fountain, and peered into her reflection. “So, it is Nova,” she stated, unsurprised. She’d already concluded as much. Should I go by Nova rather than Akira, at least while I’m stuck here?

On the one hand, there were people who might recognize her by her real name rather than her game name, but the vice versa also held true. Regardless, her intuition said to go by Nova. Maybe it’d make it easier on her while she had to be in this world, too. And yeah, she was pretty sure there was no easy way out.

Still, she began trying to access the menu. “Options…log out…character select…exit…friends list...” she muttered a variety of ingame functions, starting with those that had enabled her to exit the game in the past, and proceeding to those one would expect to find in a game, such as the world chat window, inventory, or the skills menu.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Caelum Harrington

Caelum stared at Pondwater with narrowed eyes, the frown twisting his face soon twisting into a snarl when the judge continued with his patronizing criticisms. “Pretending?” he scoffed, and dearly wanted to ask the man if he wasn’t mistaking Caelum for himself. This self-deluded maniac certainly had scars of a very specific nature.

The more he listened, the more aghast he was that he’d agreed with even part of what Pondwater had said, about winning and losing. That, at least, had been simple enough to be agreeable. But all his ideas of how he, personally, was to judge a myriad of people by subjecting them to some absurd trials? No one could possibly stomach it.

Thus, when Pondwater first lined up the guards for them to fight, Caelum inspected thoroughly, trying to think of ways how to take one of them one. Surely, even if they were trained, it should be possible to defeat one with an unexpected or underhanded attack, at the very least? After all, this wasn’t like before, when they’d ganged up on them. However, just as he’d steeled himself to physically confront one of the guards, those questionably human beings revealed their true monstrous nature.

Caelum’s mouth dropped, and he shifted his stance into an evasive one as those things appeared. Deformed storks, tangled balls of limbs with a lion’s head atop each, and even a Cerberus of all things. “No fucking way,” he whispered, taking a subtle step back, ready to flee. No way he could fight these monsters; any of them was liable to kill him with one strike from a maliciously sharp appendage.

Exactly when Pondwater started to give out an order for the dog to maul a student to death, a shape crashed through one of the windows, and skewered the Cerberus’ middle head into the ground. Now, that she was still for a moment, Caelum recognized her as the police woman from his dream. His mind boggled as to how and if he’d transited from reality to dream – but perhaps, it was the other way around. His neurons were still firing up in response to his previously suffered pain and the danger he was currently facing, after all.

However, he had better things to do then ponder upon the strangeness of this situation. The police woman had it right – they should use this opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, two Shaxes stood in their way. While Caelums studied the surroundings for a way past that did not involve meeting them head on, there were several students who did just that – charged straight into danger.

“Ah hell,” he muttered. He raised both hands above his head for a meagre measure of protection against those beaks, and ran after the others. Honestly, Caelum was mostly hoping the duo of monsters would be too preoccupied by several charging people to pay any attention to someone who merely followed the pack. He supposed he could try punching them in the neck, if he had to, but he’d rather not risk getting an arm taken off, or something. So, he focused mostly on evasion as he made his escape.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Nova

Name: Akira Sakai

Character Name: Nova Albright

Race: Shenke

Appearance:

Link to the Artist

Age: 20

Personality:
An energetic, competitive young woman who got hooked on the sense of achievement and companionship games can provide. Akira is a bit loud and quite impulsive, so she often slips up and interrupts someone when she doesn’t mean to. She’s the type to speak up, and nearly always tries to contribute to a given conversation. She does try to encourage others to join in, but can come off as pushy when she does so. She’s both spirited and temperamental, and sometimes inadvertently reacts in anger. Of course, Akira can hold herself back, but it takes effort, and may leave her smoldering in quiet resentment for a long while afterwards. Other times, however, she becomes provocative on purpose – this side of her especially tends to manifest in online games.

Though gaming is one of the hobbies she spends the most time one, Akira also enjoys sports, and plays volleyball two to three times a week, and often goes jogging the other days. She got used to gaming late in the night, even overnight or through most of the day(s) over the weekend. It leaves her utterly exhausted when she’s done with her gaming binges, but the satisfaction of getting accomplishments, contributing to a guild, and obtaining recognition is too compelling for her to give up.

History:
Born in Japan as the older twin of Akito, a brother younger than her by 13 minutes and 48 seconds. Though she was smug about this fact, they got along well. Their parents were often busy with work, which left them spending a lot of time with each other. They were especially rambunctious when younger, and teachers would often comment (or complain) about the shenanigans they got up to. Their parents signed them up for sports to redirect their energy, which mostly worked. Of course, they also calmed as they matured.

Though both siblings casually played computer and console games here and there, they were young adolescents when they first tried an MMORPG. Akira played longer than Akito, who was interested more so in battle royales. When she had enough of that first game, she sought out others. She eventually discovered Emerald Odyssey when it was in one of its trending periods. She got hooked, and played it intensively for a while, then switched to playing it intermittently whenever an update came out. Recently, she once again to returned to the game due to its release of Cloudfall.

As for her history with Emerald Odyssey, she’s a decent enough player to have earned some recognition in PvP content. Nova might not have been a top ranker, but when she was out to accomplish something, she usually did so. She’d been through a few guilds, but none on a long-term basis. She’d gained enough money to obtain some of the best gear for her combat classes, and had a sparsely furnished player-owned house.

Emerald Odyssey has brought her plenty of joy, but Akira does not intent to accept the strange fate that has befallen her. She is motivated to discover how and why she’s found herself in the game, and is determined to find a way back. After all, a game world is only a game world – it can’t replace real life for her. Especially since she has her family, including Akito, back home. Though she misses her brother, she thinks it better that as few people suffer this tragedy as possible, and does not bemoan having been left on her own in this strange world.

Combat Classes:
Pyromancer. An offensive sage of fire magics who uses staves, grimoires, or orbs. Their attacks stack burning debuffs, which cause lingering fire damage for a short duration. They have an AoE that is guaranteed to crit against any enemy with a burning debuff but consumes one stack per enemy. They also have a single-target attack whose base damage gets an increase per burning debuff on an enemy (up to a certain maximum) in exchange for consuming all stacks of burning.

Brawler. A vicious close combatant who fights with knuckle dusters, but can also use improvised weaponry (rocks, bricks, molotovs…). They rely on exploiting enemy weaknesses, which results in a several dirty moves, such as eye poking, headbutting, throat jabbing, and so on. They also employ regular fighting attacks, mainly grapples and elbow or knee strikes. Brawlers are masters of debilitating an enemy; they can inflict stunning, bleeding, and blinding debuffs, can knock down an enemy, and even interrupt their skills.

Ninja. A highly maneuverable stealth-based class. They focus on surprise attacks, hit and run tactics, and quick escapes. They mostly wear a combination of leather and chainmail, similar to a samurai’s armor, though can also use cloth. They can specialize in melee (katanas, kusarigama) or ranged (bows, light firearms). Regardless of their main weapon, all ninjas can use grappling hooks, kunais, shuriken, caltrops, darts, and even bombs. They can apply poison to any of their melee or ranged weapons.

Non-combat Classes:
Jewelry maker. A metalworker who specializes in the creation of jewelry, such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, and tiaras. They can also refine and cut gems which are then inserted into their creations. If they have the prerequisite items, they can work with other materials; e.g. using glass beads, strips of leather, and so on.

Runemaster. A scholar and an artist who seeks to learn, apply, and combine all sorts of runes. These runes can then be inscribed upon any item to imbue it with various effects. As an arcane class, a runemaster does draw upon a small amount of mana when imbuing an item with runes.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

I still like the idea of sabotage as a non-combat class, but since I don't feel like going for that setup and prepwork it'd involve, ended up going for something else.

Nova

Name: Akira Sakai

Character Name: Nova Albright

Race: Shenke

Appearance

Link to the Artist

Age: 20

Personality:
An energetic, competitive young woman who got hooked on the sense of achievement and companionship games can provide. Akira is a bit loud and quite impulsive, so she often slips up and interrupts someone when she doesn’t mean to. She’s the type to speak up, and nearly always tries to contribute to a given conversation. She does try to encourage others to join in, but can come off as pushy when she does so. She’s both spirited and temperamental, and sometimes inadvertently reacts in anger. Of course, Akira can hold herself back, but it takes effort, and may leave her smoldering in quiet resentment for a long while afterwards. Other times, however, she becomes provocative on purpose – this side of her especially tends to manifest in online games.

Though gaming is one of the hobbies she spends the most time one, Akira also enjoys sports, and plays volleyball two to three times a week, and often goes jogging the other days. She got used to gaming late in the night, even overnight or through most of the day(s) over the weekend. It leaves her utterly exhausted when she’s done with her gaming binges, but the satisfaction of getting accomplishments, contributing to a guild, and obtaining recognition is too compelling for her to give up.

History:
Born in Japan as the older twin of Akito, a brother younger than her by 13 minutes and 48 seconds. Though she was smug about this fact, they got along well. Their parents were often busy with work, which left them spending a lot of time with each other. They were especially rambunctious when younger, and teachers would often comment (or complain) about the shenanigans they got up to. Their parents signed them up for sports to redirect their energy, which mostly worked. Of course, they also calmed as they matured.

Though both siblings casually played computer and console games here and there, they were young adolescents when they first tried an MMORPG. Akira played longer than Akito, who was interested more so in battle royales. When she had enough of that first game, she sought out others. She eventually discovered Emerald Odyssey when it was in one of its trending periods. She got hooked, and played it intensively for a while, then switched to playing it intermittently whenever an update came out. Recently, she once again to returned to the game due to its release of Cloudfall.

As for her history with Emerald Odyssey, she’s a decent enough player to have earned some recognition in PvP content. Nova might not have been a top ranker, but when she was out to accomplish something, she usually did so. She’d been through a few guilds, but none on a long-term basis. She’d gained enough money to obtain some of the best gear for her combat classes, and had a sparsely furnished player-owned house.

Emerald Odyssey has brought her plenty of joy, but Akira does not intent to accept the strange fate that has befallen her. She is motivated to discover how and why she’s found herself in the game, and is determined to find a way back. After all, a game world is only a game world – it can’t replace real life for her. Especially since she has her family, including Akito, back home. Though she misses her brother, she thinks it better that as few people suffer this tragedy as possible, and does not bemoan having been left on her own in this strange world.

Combat Classes:
Pyromancer. An offensive sage of fire magics who use staves, grimoires, or orbs. Their attacks stack burning debuffs, which cause lingering fire damage for a short duration. They have an AoE that is guaranteed to crit against any enemy with a burning debuff but consumes one stack per enemy. They also have a single-target attack whose base damage gets an increase per burning debuff on an enemy (up to a certain maximum) in exchange for consuming all stacks of burning.

Brawler. A vicious close combatant who fights with knuckle dusters, but can also use improvised weaponry (rocks, bricks, molotovs…). They rely on exploiting enemy weaknesses, which results in a several dirty moves, such as eye poking, headbutting, throat jabbing, and so on. They also employ regular fighting attacks, mainly grapples and elbow or knee strikes. Brawlers are masters of debilitating an enemy; they can inflict stunning, bleeding, and blinding debuffs, can knock down an enemy, and even interrupt their skills.

Ninja. A highly maneuverable stealth-based class. They focus on surprise attacks, hit and run tactics, and quick escapes. They mostly wear a combination of leather and chainmail, similar to a samurai’s armor, though can also use cloth. They can specialize in melee (katanas, kusarigama) or ranged (bows, light firearms). Regardless of their main weapon, all ninjas can use grappling hooks, kunais, shuriken, caltrops, darts, and even bombs. They can apply poison to any of their melee or ranged weapons.

Non-combat Classes:
Jewelry maker. A metalworker who specializes in the creation of jewelry, such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, and tiaras. They can also refine and cut gems which are then inserted into their creations. If they have the prerequisite items, they can also work with other materials; e.g. using glass beads, strips of leather, and so on.

Runemaster. A scholar and an artist who seeks to learn, apply, and combine all sorts of runes. These runes can then be inscribed upon any item to imbue it with various effects. As an arcane class, a runemaster does draw upon a small amount of mana when imbuing an item with runes.

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

@PKMNB0Y Can we assume that once the transferral happens, everyone (players and NPCs) in that world will automatically speak the same language? Or understand each other regardless of the language?

Emerald Odyssey (MMO Isekai; Interest Check)

@SilverPaw: I'd prefer more specific if possible. Leaves room for variance between players even if they pick the same weapon type for a given class.

@PKMNB0Y

Yup, figured. Would even a beginner start out with something specific then? And will the classes operate on stats once isekai-ed? For example, I'm considering a pyromancer with access to brawler skills (and an undecided third class), so they'd presumably have a lot of mana, but not much health or stamina, if the usual stats were in play.

Emerald Odyssey (MMO Isekai; Interest Check)

Yes! I'm in.

Btw, thought of a question: How specific do you want the classes for be? For example, a general class would be ranger, a specialization/advancement could be sniper, scout, tamer etc.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Caelum Harrington

As it turned out, the guards were more than willing to punish the rest of the group for the escape attempt of that one man. In that moment, when the captain uttered his command, Caelum felt a true hatred for Vincent. He watched aghast as the guards dispersed amongst them, delivering the kind of beating that would definitely be news-worthy. But whether this was real, a dream, hallucination, or whatever else, Caelum knew that there would be no stopping these people – if they even were people.

When he was approached by two of them, he instinctively twitched away, though he was too frozen in fear to even contemplate running. Nonetheless, he couldn’t help but try to yank his arm to safety when one tried to grab him. He got a blow across the head with the baton for his trouble. As his head was thrown to the side from the force, and he nearly stumbled in the resultant daze, one of the guards secured both of his arms behind his back.

He blinked dizzily, going from seeing nothing but white to a blurry sight dotted with black. A tendril of blood ran down his temple, and he blinked at the heat of hit. He was only half-aware of the remaining guard approaching from the front, weapon extended. He barely slurred a “Don’t,” but wasn’t helped any. When he squirmed in the hold of the one behind him, an arm was put across his neck. Then, it squeezed, and his panting was forcibly brought to a short. All he managed were short wheezes, and his vision was losing clarity for another reason entirely.

In his weakness, Caelum became limp, ceasing his struggle. Taking it as his opportunity, the guard in front of him brought his baton down upon the young man several times. Caelum gurgled ineffectively, keening wordlessly as his legs were beaten black and blue. After a last blow to a knee, which had him shrieking, he was dropped to the ground. He fell gracelessly, like a sack of potatoes being dumped somewhere – frankly, that was likely all the worth these creatures saw in him.

As he lay there on the floor, Caelum focused on regaining his breathing. He wiped a palm across his face, which came away with traces of blood, sweat, snot, tears, and saliva. It truly brought home how helpless he was, how pathetic. He’d barely resisted, yet he’d been brought down so easily, very much akin to a doll being destroyed by a careless child. And now, he was being urged up by one of the guards, prodded by its baton. He stood up slowly, shakily, and stumbled after the others at the end of the line. Look at us, a procession of cattle led to its slaughter, he thought morbidly.

He took in the bizarre sight of the chained prisoner with barely a reaction, though he did feel a distant urge to laugh when he saw that these people were actually subjected to the use of cattle prods. The eerie silence of all the victims was the most striking, and Caelum wondered if they were actually human or not. However, he was too preoccupied by his own problems to pay them much mind, and so averted his gaze.

It was quite the ordeal for him to make his way to the courthouse, and he immediately slumped against the nearest pillar. When Pondwater appeared, Caelum recognized almost immediately, after he got over his distraction by the man’s unusual attire, that is. He did not answer the man’s questions, however. Firstly, because the burning resentment at his treatment would surely claw its way out of his belly into a vocalized outburst, and any such thing was sure to bring more injury upon him. Secondly, because there were some others more than willing to explain the whole situation, as wildly unimaginable as it was.

He did not react when the escapee was brought in beyond a brief glance in his direction, though he did feel a dark satisfaction at the state of the man. At least he’d suffered for what he’d brought upon them all.

Then, another student’s comment distracted him. She mentioned that the judge looked like Pondwater, but Caelum said, “It is him.” Of course, he was not entirely certain, but aside from the people who’d got here by accident, Pondwater was the only other person who was most like an actual human. Though whether it was or not was certainly in question, especially given some of his odd responses. For the judge, their experience was apparently a usual one, and nothing about this struck him as odd or unreal. In that, Pondwater different from the rest of them.

Pondwater’s speech about the nature of reality rang true, but there were some odd elements to it. The part about ‘his’ anointed, for one. Caelum also didn’t think that falling through the cracks in the metaphorical sense applied to him. Though, he was sure his father would agree with Pondwater regarding that. Now that he was calmer, though also weary from the pain, Caelum decided to speak up. “Quite sensible, your honor, but I am convinced that I am not a failure,” he stated respectfully.