TheDemonHound

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

@Archangel89
Weird, it shouldn’t have expired but here you are just to make sure https://discord.gg/Pbna5M8Q

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Mikhail Feldunn

Mikhail certainly wasn’t surprised that the boat they were about to take got held up, and by Lord Clive of all people. It was like this was all planned from the start for reasons he could only begin to guess. Though hopefully from what he had seen Ashley had good reasons for all of the trouble this was putting them through. Maybe he could pry that info out of her later…

And of course their backup plan arrived, despite the fact that Mik was desperately hoping it wasn’t. But when he saw Xara talking to the captain of the smelly boat he sighed in exasperation. It’s not like it was the worst. He had to be in close proximity to sweaty dudes quite often and it still didn’t smell as bad as wyvern dung. And oh boy did that stuff like to pile up. He remembered his days of punishments cleaning it up as a kid and steeled himself. Maybe this boat wouldn’t be so bad after all. I mean the crew seemed able. And then some new members of the group popped up, two commoners from the bar. The one with the bow seemed able and hopefully she could dodge attacks well. The man with the sword, however, didn’t seem the most fitting. And he started offering out candy… oh Goddess this was gonna be one hell of a trip. He watched as the green haired girl that he invited went on a tirade about how she was going to lead them apparently and how brave and powerful she was and oh no. He was now worried that her earlier claim was all bluster and that she wouldn’t be able to hold her own on this trip. Fortunately he didn’t have to step in as Tonka started pushing for Margot and Ashley to duke it out which he would not have minded seeing. Especially due to Ashley’s proficiency in swords that he experienced and her magic capabilities. But both declined and he was honestly a little disappointed.

______

Nitonka sighed at Margot’s explanation, knowing now that she was 100% full of shit, seeing everything she needed to. However Ashley’s stern warning only made Nitonka want to insult this whoever the fuck even more, but she left it. Her father had mentioned something about noble etique but she really couldn’t give less of a fuck. Nobles had no balls and only sent their lackeys to do the job for them, if they wanted respect, they would do it themselves. Then the tiny girl openly glaring at her, made her glare back, before laughing and turning to her companion Mikhail
“for a short stack, she has some real balls, I see why you’re into her. If I had been anyone else I might have even been intimidated despite my size” she slapped Mik’s back “softly” as a sort of good on ya son. Ashley’s auntie showing up seemed to ease the tension and she once again went back to ignoring everyone, opting to sit with her legs swinging off the dock. She was sure someone would make the decision to leave soon, she just hoped it was sooner rather than later.

______

Mikhail smirked, almost proud at Tonka’s words and feeling he definitely picked the right person by picking Ashley. Until that offhanded comment that implied the two were dating. “Wait wha-” he barely had time to protest before that ‘soft’ slap knocked a little wind out of his lungs. He caught his breath before trying to explain himself after coughing a little bit. “What do you mean I’m ‘so into her?’ I have no idea what you’re talking about.” It was hard to tell if Mikhail was lying, trying to convince himself, or if he was telling the truth. To be fair he himself didn’t know the answer to that yet either. Hopefully Ashley was too distracted with her auntie to really pay attention to what he said. Wait auntie? Must be a pet name cause he knew what Ashley’s aunt looked like. Huh, he never realized Ashley used pet names. There was definitely much more to this woman than he initially thought.

World of Light

Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary

Location: Sweet Canyon - Parnasse
Level 1 (4/10) -> (5/10)
Word Count: 385
@Lugubrious@Rockin Strings

Well isn’t that just annoying. This robot was still standing fairly easily even after Red’s bullets pierced right through it. Not too surprising if she really thought about it but she was still annoyed that this was gonna take longer than those tiny robots she encountered on the railroad. It looked like the strange samurai and the masked kid had ideas though as they both seemed to realize that the joints in the legs were an easy weak spot to exploit. Then the kid… wait what the hell did he just do?! At the sight of seeing the personas for the first time she was genuinely shocked by something. She had never seen a power quite like that and fully realized that she wasn’t special and that just about everyone here was unnatural in some way or another. It seemed all the masked kids had that same power, even their damned cat could do it!

Red listened to the samurai’s plan and scoffed. “Of course I can keep it busy. I’m a professional.” Not that she particularly needed to. That little furball took quite the hite for her a moment ago. It was kind of impressive just how tanky the little thing was. Granted, it seemed to come from the robot girl a good bit too. Definitely have to keep an eye on them. But then again taking some of the attention away from the tank could be a good thing. And this robot didn’t seem fast enough to keep up with her either. She chuckled a little as she planned her attack. “Hope your plan works, Samurai.” She rushed past it and tried to slice through its left leg with her blade as she ran. Even if it only glanced off she would still turn around and lay a few bullets into its legs in an attempt to weaken its joints. “Over here you glorified bucket of bolts! I’ve seen a cleaning robot that was scarier than you.” She taunted and damaged the robot to gain its attention, preparing to dodge if it tried to move after and attack her. And to be fair she wasn’t exaggerating, the ‘cleaning’ robot she spoke of definitely had a few kills under its belt and a few blades coming out of it. Not a fun little guy.

Pokemon Spiral

Alpha Steele

Alpha Steele, the child prodigy. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about her life back in Kanto. Even though she was used to travelling she still missed the feeling of home. Or maybe it’s just that she wasn’t used to travelling on her own like this. Well, mostly alone. The Zorua that had been travelling on her shoulder was definitely enough to keep her company and keep her from going crazy on her first solo journey. Even if at times the tricky little creature drove her absolutely mad.

It had only been less than a week since she had arrived in the region and she finally finds herself in Vareena. Specifically she went straight towards the pokemon center in the town. She had been trying to train up the Axew in her party, Behemoth, who had gotten himself fairly injured on the way over. The little guy had a surprising amount of energy and anger in that tiny body and it made it a little hard to train him sometimes. They had just finished healing the poor guy when she and Cheshire’s attention got drawn by an odd patron of the same center. A blonde guy walked out of the building, let out a scyther, then watched as it flew away before deciding to walk back into the building.

Alpha watched the guy for a second to try and discern whatever it was that he was doing. Unfortunately there was nothing noticeably odd about what he was doing other than staring at a pokeball. “Uh hey, you okay there dude?” She asked concernedly as she approached the strange guy. “I saw the thing with that Scyther and just… I don’t know seriously, are you okay?”

World of Light

Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary

Location: Sweet Canyon - Parnasse
Level 1 (3/10) -> (4/10)
Word Count: 952
@Lugubrious@Rockin Strings@Archmage MC

While walking along with this new and odd group, the one who seemed to be at least a pseudo leader of the group, Joker seemed very interested in the job that she was hired to do. Unfortunately she almost didn’t want to repeat it because of how dumb it sounded to her but she sighed and divulged her information regardless. “Some weirdo called ‘Her Moojesty,’ the ‘Cowlipha,’ from some city called Al Mamoon. After I got taken from the facility I was locked away in I woke up in this place and that was the first place I stumbled upon. Apparently they were looking to hire a mercenary and, well, let’s just say I have a lot of experience as a hired hand. I’m used to having a specific target but apparently they’d been having troubles with that train track shutting down so I walked my way over to figure out what was wrong and probably kill whatever caused the issue in the first place.” Red had no qualms giving up information about her client. As a mercenary she didn’t have any loyalty to those who hired her, she just helped whatever group coincided with her best interests.

The odd looking creature that she had been sticking close to suddenly spoke up, offering… a picture of herself as payment? Looks like this one was a little bit more pretentious than she had originally assumed. Sounded like she was some kind of royalty. “Thanks but no thanks,” she replied flatly. “You just look similar to some things I know, oddly enough.” That annoying creature, the Queen Bee, was vaguely called to her memory. Her and her worker bees that spread like a plague. At least they were easy enough to fight.

While walking along the skull-masked boy, who was apparently nicknamed Skull ‘how original’ got trapped in some weird sap prison. Red didn’t participate in breaking him out just in case. She’s seen enough ‘natural’ traps from other Abnormalities to figure it’s best to avoid something like that until she saw that everything actually ended up perfectly fine. Perhaps this world actually was less dangerous then her own. At least she thought so until she watched the fur ball, apparently named Tora, eat one of the candy insects only for his arm to be turned into… food? If she had to guess it would probably spread to the rest of the body like some kind of poison and was very close to recommending amputation before they started recommending that they should try and heal the poor creature. ‘Ugh fine,’ she thought to herself before rushing past the situation like a couple of the others did. If they were finally gonna have some fun in a fight she was not about to be left behind so easily.

Soon they found themselves facing a town. Robots guarding a cage, even more candy houses, and some… honestly she didn’t even know how to really describe what Midna looked like but it was definitely some odd creature she’d never seen trying to help some caged fairy. At least she’s seen fairies before to know what those were. After Midna freed the poor fairy from her confines the two vanished somewhere else and it wasn’t long before the distracted jailors realized their prisoner was gone and started rampaging. The samurai rushed in right away and started slicing at one of their legs. Thankfully for Red this gave her plenty of opportunity to pull out that gun of hers and put two bullets into the slowed down and possibly immobilized robot in an attempt to finish it off. “Nice work, Samurai!” She complimented the man as she fired. She had a respect for others who could wield a blade well. No one could see it under her mask but she was smiling at a chance to fight again. She lived for that thrill, however short lived it could be.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Mikhail Feldunn

Fortunately for Mikhail the one armed girl did not try to deck him like he assumed she might. Which was good because he had a sinking feeling that if she did, she’d kick his ass even if he got a few good hits in. Instead she actually agreed to his proposal fairly easily, today is just full of unexpected surprises it seems. “Welcome aboard Tonka. And as long as you can hold your own in a fight that is all I’m expecting. Have no use for dead weight after all.”

Thankfully for the rest of the bar patrons, not so much for the ugly bastards that picked on Tonka, the guards showed up with a commander that he’s seen a few times but didn’t really know too well to put a stop to all of the commotion. And Ashley… crying? It was quick to see what was going on and honestly it made Mikhail respect her just a little bit more, she was putting up an act to the guard to get the creeps arrested. The only scary part was how convincing she was. If he hadn’t seen everything for himself he honestly would have believed her too. After watching them all get arrested it was apparently time for them to leave as she called him and a man named Troe who had caught a glimpse of using magic. Great, that made at least three, four if you count the guy who threw himself out a window for some reason, mages in their party. Looks like he’d have to play the role of defender here if he wanted to try and keep everyone alive in this adventure. The only downside to travelling with others is that he wasn’t going to easily forgive himself if he let any of them die.

“Of course ‘dear,’ I’m on my way.” He retorted back sarcastically. Ashley was turning out to be a little bit more sarcastic than he thought her to be, which actually made her a bit more likeable in his mind. So he started feeling comfortable enough to tease her back. “You’re invited too. You too mage girl,” he said to both Tonka and Margot. “Looks like it’s about time to head out.” He followed Ashley and kept an eye on this Troe guy that she invited along. He thought it was slightly ironic that he assumed Ashley would lead considering that Mikhail invited her along first but he was not about to complain. She had more experience leading and well, he didn’t feel like he was in any position or any desire to lead.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Mikhail Feldunn

Mikhail listened to the energetic sounding girl explain herself. It seemed that Margot was a talented mage from the sounds of it if her word could be trusted. Unfortunately he had no way of being able to check for himself if she was truthful when Ashley volunteered them both to work with a scholarly looking boy and she squeezed his bicep. Most girls would get rejected outright or ignored by him if they tried that but he just groaned in response and let it happen.

He was about to try and figure out a response for Margot until he got his attention caught by an incident involving a bunch of assholes. Before he could get up and intervene with the bastards picking on the one armed girl she began to kick the shit out of every. Single. One of them. “Ashley you’re a mage, would you mind making the final decision on this one. I’m about to have some fun and… interview a potential party member.” He started getting up and heading towards the brawl before realizing that Ashley being a knight might have to intervene. “Umm… don’t arrest me?” He asked sheepishly before continuing on into the heart of the bar fight. Though he was slightly worried she was gonna turn ‘arresting him’ into more flirting.

He found the finest dressed dude he could find participating first and easily knocking him out cold. This was the closest he was gonna get to punching a noble any time soon and it was so satisfying. He saw a punch coming towards him and he quickly dodged and landed a left hook to counter before using his right hand to punch his would be assailant in the gut. This was the first no holds barred fight he’s been in since who knows when and he was living it up. Thankfully with his training none of these drunkards and common bar goers couldn’t really stand up to him. One tried to attack him from behind but Mikhail avoided the fist, grabbed his arm and flipped the attacker over himself and slammed them back first onto the ground. Hopefully with his status and them leaving the city soon to go on a quest he’d be able to get out of this whole situation without getting in any trouble.

Eventually he found himself standing not too far away from the one armed woman who initiated the whole scuffle. “Gotta say that was impressive. Name’s Mikhail, me and a partner of mine are currently about to leave to investigate the southern island if you’ve heard about that situation. Someone of your skills in combat would be more than welcome to come along.”

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Mikhail Feldunn

While Mikhail wasn’t entirely sure what Ashley’s reaction to his invitation but he certainly wasn’t expecting that. She looked… happy? Or was she just smirking at him? He couldn’t really tell but he definitely didn’t think she was gonna start flirting with him like that. Wait wait no. What? MIkhail looked fairly taken aback and red started forming at his cheeks. It wasn’t that he minded per se, Ashley was definitely attractive after all. But he had to stop himself from getting too attached now. They were about to go to a potentially dangerous environment with unknown enemies. The last thing he wanted was for something to happen and feel that pain all over again.

He took a brief moment to compose himself and returned with a blank expression just in time for his old ‘friend’ Lord Clive to enter the room. In truth they originally became friends because Mikhail’s father and Clive’s father were close friends and while Mikhail felt he barely knew Clive, Clive apparently decided to keep him around all this time to a point where Mikhail just wasn’t able to refuse lest inciting the wrath of his own father. “Not at all Clive, we’re just planning our trip down South. I asked her to accompany me since I heard she was also planning on making her way down there.” Just like always he avoided the titles and forgo his social politeness he was expected to have. Thankfully Clive had probably dealt with this plenty of times by now.

Mikhail looked between the two suspiciously as they talked about an apparent danger. Potential criminals, sketchy sources and some weird code spoken between the two of them based on how Clive reacted. Though it seemed like everything was going according to Ashley’s plan. He definitely had made a good choice in asking her to come along.

“I think you're inflating your own ego a little bit there.” Mikhail teased at her as he followed her downstairs into the main building. “Though I suppose it won’t hurt to play along.”

Mikhail felt a little bad allowing Ashley to pay for his own drink but to be fair, he didn’t really have the source of income most nobles would expect to have. His whole stay at the capital to train was sponsored by his father and the man had been keeping a tight leash on his son even now to insure that he didn’t run off and do something stupid, as he was definitely intending to do. After all if he had a steady source of income he wouldn’t be so intent on going on this mission. While she paid for their orders another person approached and Mikhail eyed them suspiciously as they walked up. It was a girl, probably not too much younger than him. Definitely didn’t look like a noble from what he could tell. And she already started asking about Irinoth, what perfect timing. “What a coincidence, we were also heading to Irinoth. Perhaps we could bring you along if you can prove to us that you’ve got a skill valuable enough to warrant it. Of course, if my companion here is also alright with that.” He gestured to Ashley. While he wasn’t very excited to invite another person along, especially a stranger, but a group of two was probably not enough to guarantee safety in this situation. A small but efficient party would be perfect if they could find strangers that could prove themselves.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Mikhail Feldunn

Mikhail was satisfied as he watched Ashley scramble, especially considering from what little he knows about her she likes to always maintain her social grace and it was slightly funny to watch her rush to put herself back together again. Also kinda cute if he was being honest. Not that he’d ever admit that to her though. His expression instantly started to sour as she started using titles and manners and all of the things one is expected to do in the face of nobility. At least with the people he was practicing with they made no illusions that they hated him. But with nobles, you could never tell.

He studied her face carefully as she spoke, just as he does with every other noble he meets who tries to make a good impression simply because of Mikhail’s title. At first glance she seemed absolutely genuine, kind. But for some odd reason that was actually the problem. It was always an act. None of them cared for Mikhail as a noble just as a way of moving up the social ladder in one way or another. He had already received a couple of marriage proposals that he had outright refused. Of course without his father’s knowledge. But he assumed Ashley was in a similar boat to say the least, faking her smile and everything about hearself right now. But even though there was something off about it compared to most that he couldn’t put his finger on. Perhaps there actually was something else to her had yet to see.

While he had never, as far as he knew, seen the real Ashley he feels he had gotten somewhere in that regard. During the last party when he had gotten thrust onto the stage for a match against her. Honestly he found the entire thing annoying and boring. If he had to guess, despite never seeing her actually fight before, that she probably used magic normally. While she was skilled in the sword for sure she didn’t seem to be able to match him in stamina and strength. Of course he didn’t hold back really, just enough to make sure he didn’t break any bones by accident. She was still a knight captain overall, he wasn’t going to underestimate her and risk getting his ass kicked to Irinoth and back. Of course the attack that drew blood was a slip up on his part not that anyone seemed to care. But that smile… honestly it chilled Mikhail a little bit. He couldn’t tell if this is how she actually was underneath that but being able to bring out another side to her was oddly satisfying and was in all honesty the only fun part of that night. Of course he ended up excusing himself not long later that night. Parties were not his environment of choice.

“I’ll put up with it at those parties if it makes you feel better, but drop the ‘milord’ and all that anywhere else. Getting called that makes me want to gag.” Mikhail held up a hand to signify to stop. He honestly hated those titles but if he tried to complain at one of those parties he would never hear the end of it. And seeing as Clive continued to drag him to those events he would end up suffering far… far more in the long term. “There’s no need to butter me up and lie to me like that, but yes I am very interested in what’s going on down in Irinoth. And it’s a coincidence that I ran into you because I was going to ask you if you’d care to travel with me. After all I’m strong enough to hold my own but I need someone who’s smart enough to figure things out once I’m down there. And of all the people I can stand in this city, you are definitely the smartest and most familiar with whatever potential evil is plaguing that damned island. So, what do you say?” Mikhail still wasn’t entirely sure he could trust Ashley but it’s not like he could go at it alone. Everyone else in this city that he knew was either going to backstab or leave him the moment things got scary. At least with her he knew she was strong enough, at least mentally, to not do the same.

Fire Emblem: Sunken Flames

Mikhail Feldunn

In the morning Mikhail was up training like always, sparring with some of the other knight candidates in the city. The last match wasn’t a very long one at all. Mikhail parried his opponent's weapon, used his lance to sweep his legs out from under him, and pointed the wooden tip of his training weapon to the man’s throat. He sighed and retracted his weapon and went to put it back on the rack. He heard a few of the others talking as he went. “That guy Mikhail is good. It’s a shame he’s such a pretentious brat.”

Another one chimed in with the first. “Yeah if he was less of a sulky prick he could probably become a great knight no problem. Too bad he’ll probably never change.” The small group laughed to themselves as Mikhail left the training ground to go about his day. Definitely wasn’t the first time he’s heard things like that. He learned it’s better to just ignore it rather than let it become an actual problem.

_____________

After the daily combat training Mikhail went out into the city to occupy his time, still a bit sweaty and tired from the training. He would probably try and find a good drink somewhere till he got a little distracted. Some kind of huge crowd had gathered in the city square. He almost couldn’t hear the announcement over all of the clamoring. But what he heard definitely caught him off guard. The entirety of Irinoth was possibly destroyed? In that short a time? He’s heard rumors but nothing that seemed substantial, at least until now. But damn, that reward sounded mighty nice. Even if he had to split it amongst a party that would be considerable. He could make a life for himself, somewhere far away from the responsibilities that his name brought along. Away from all the memories. He smiled as he walked away into a nearby bar.

“Barkeep, get me something strong.” He said as he went upstairs without even waiting for a response. Mikhail was not known for being a good customer. On his way up to the second floor reserved specifically for nobles he passed an average looking dude that Mik eyed suspiciously as he walked past. Once he got there he saw someone that he actually knew for a change, Ashley Wycliffe. She looked a little peeved to be honest. Mikhail couldn’t hold back the temptation to bother her as he sat down next to her. “So what’s got the Dark Doctor down this time around? Another troublesome hex? Or are you finally figuring out how you’re gonna curse me?” He said with a cocky smile.