”One, two, three-” Bowser muttered drowsily to himself as he counted the number of people in their party once the doors shut, and came to the fortuitous conclusion that
”and yup, that’s everyone””Remarkable work on escaping everyone, and it looks like we’re safe, for now, at least” Kamek, who was only barely holding himself up using his broom as a walking stick, offered as praise to the successful city escapers. After seeing him in this condition, Barnabee courteously lent the old reptile a hand. Out of everyone who made it here, the Hive Knight was in the best condition by a long shot, thanks to his abstinence from the fight with Consul P and the warp-dashes that made him a frontrunner in the Seekers’ flight from the Home of Tears. Thus, he happily offered his assistance to anyone who needed it.
”I mean, Purse did say it was dangerous, but maybe that is just the upper floors like those tree stump guys said?” Rika theorized worriedly, as her scout plane swooped around the rafters to check if that was the case. Neither her scouts nor Barnabee could detect anything wrong though, at least not in the tower’s ground floor. Those hallways with their weird portal-doors might be another matter, but neither dared to go through.
”Even if there is nasty stuff hiding out there, I don’t care, I am beat” Jr replied. The prince might have not had to do any running, having rode first his car and then drake back when his machine got totaled by a kick, but he’d been on healer duty since they arrived at the tower, and his body burned with fatigue and mana overuse resulting from having healed each and every single person back up to full hp, just incase they had had to keep fleeing.
However, with the gates barred, and nothing hammering at them, at least audibly, it seemed that they really were in the clear. The moment that became clear the troop all piled over to warm themselves by the roaring fire. Gauntlets and armor were removed, weapons put aside, and guards were finally dropped.
Well, after a few dry bones were deployed to act as guards anyway, you could never be too careful, especially now that they knew that just not ticking off the Gleaming was enough to be safe from their lifelight touched minds.
”So I guess nowhere’s safe now, huh” Jr said, broaching that subject, but from the rest of the Troop he got no answer. Despite the fancy camping equipment available, the other three had more or less conked out moments after sitting by the fire. Kamek sat with his new wizard’s hat tipped over his eyes just a little ways off, while Bowser was hunched over, with Rika lightly hugged to his side, stilling the nightmares she had immediately started having of friends turning to foes.
The prince longed to join them, but the slowly dulling burnt feeling caused by mana overuse that the same spells that had caused it ironically could not cure was keeping him up. So instead he took a look around to see if anyone else was resisting or being denied the call of slumber.
”Huh, you guys came prepared,” Ichiban said to no one in particular as he picked a nice puffy sleeping bag from the piles of supplies.
”Guess it makes sense. You’ve all been doin’ it for a while now, yeah?” Noticing how many of their party were already conked out, Ichiban decided not to keep blabbing and walked to the fire. He laid his bedroll out on the fringes of its warmth and sat down. Out of combat, his outfit had returned to the normal frumpled suit of his. He wasn’t going to sleep just yet though, instead sitting cross legged and staring into the fire, just… hanging out.
”About … 5 days at this point” Jr replied, counting them off on his fingers
”and this stuff is new as well so, ehhh, we aren't that prepared. Just kind of winging it and hoping we find a town by the end of the day. Guess we’re lucky queen bee got this stuff when she did” While he spoke, the prince pulled over his beat up flying machine from where it had been set down, took a quick look at the internals and started trying to do something about the mess being used as a shield and then being kicked had done to it. After a few moments he ended up giving up however, as it quickly it became clear that not being able to sleep did not mean he had the mental or physical energy to do any engineering
”Not that we’ve not had adventures and stuff before though, though a lot of the times papa’s the bad guy who the hero is trying to stop for those” the kid then went on to say
”It’s kinda fun to be on the other side of things, except for all the stress and death and horror and other not fun stuff” "Hmph, in other words, you've been getting lucky." Ganondorf commented rather bluntly. He didn't try to be hostile or argumentative, though. He was too tired for that. The Gerudo sat a few meters away from Jr and Ichiban, leaned back against the wall. But he wasn't paying full attention to the conversation. He was examining something that he held in one of his hands. The other Seekers would recognize it as a Spirit. And it wasn't the only one in his possession, as the King of Evil possessed a second one that he held in his other hand that currently rested on the floor.
"What a waste of perfectly good talent." He said in reference to the individuals he had obviously had to kill,
"I'd have preferred to add them to my army. They were quite tough." he added with an almost disappointed tone. But he knew he had to do
something with these Spirits otherwise they would fade away and be further wasted.
”We did also have a vague map to find those towns, but only those on the surface. And cars for a bit to get around. Everythings got so much tougher since the Consuls showed up and started messing with us” Jr complained, before frowning a little at the spirits.
”Couldn’t you have, you know, just not killed them then?” he asked after a few moments.
”I don’t believe that would have been possible.” Ganondorf answered after a brief pause of thought,
”These two were relentless, they hounded me nonstop while I was retreating through the cavern,” and then as if prove his point he held up his hand that held Riptor’s spirit for the Koopa kid to see,
”This one especially. It doesn’t help that I defeated them once already in the Thorn, so it’s possible they wanted revenge for that defeat in addition to being controlled.””So you weren't fast, smart, or strong enough to get away without killing them. Got it” the prince casually sniped, before pointing out that
”if you want them in your army, just make them strikers” before snapping his fingers
”oh, I should do the same with the flukes. The flying ones could be good” before popping open his car’s glove box and rummaging around for the glass bottle he used for spirit storage.
Exhaustion prevented tempers from flaring too high, but to make sure of that Primrose chose this point to let out a sigh and stand up. She had been resting with her legs drawn up and her head laying on her knees, eyes closed but not sleeping. The dancer didn't feel comfortable enough to sleep out in the "open" like this, in the lobby of some strange and apparently dangerous tower. Even surrounded by allies, despite the days of danger she'd shared with them so far. She stretched lightly and then quietly approached those still awake, starting with the King of Evil.
"Take this," she said, handing him a delicate, pinkish red pearl. She brushed her hair back to reveal a similar one fashioned as an earring.
"Affix it to your ear. It will make communicating easier."She moved on to Ichiban then Bowser Jr. (giving the prince extras for his family when they woke up), as well as any others awake. Nearby they could see that Therion, still in his beast form and curled up nearest the fire, had one connected to his cat ear as well. Barnabee accepted a linkpearl without complaint. “Thank you, kind maiden,” he told her. “I regret most keenly mine absence from thy battle against the city’s foul despot. Shouldst thy company fall, after all, the hope of Her Majesty’s ill-fated kingdom would die with thee. Now, the fanged blade of the Hive Knight shall know no further truancy!”
”I mean, you weren't the only one. Plus Rika said you helped out a lot on that dicy raid on the crawlers in the dark, or whatever they were called, e’s base so, eh, don’t worry about it” Jr told the bee man as he found a spot for the spare earbuds, putting down the fluke and fallen adventurer filled jar to do so. Then he took his own, tried to put it in where his ears used to be, found only scales, got confused for a very long tired moment, before going
”ooooh, right” and putting it into one of his cat ears instead.
”So are these, like, tiny phones or something? Oh or like sci-fi communicator things? That’s neat if so” he asked as he tried to get it to work with a
”Testing 1 2 1 2” "It's some kind of magic," she replied,
"just focus on them and you should be able to use it."She demonstrated what had worked for her so far, holding a hand up to her ear and speaking softly. Her voice filtered through the matching pearls. She glanced at Barnabee, amused at the way he'd put his regret about not fighting with them against the Consul.
"Indeed, this should help keep us all together - or keep informed when we split up."”ahhhh, got it” Jr replied as he heard her voice in his ear, before doing one or two more tests of his own till he could send a response. Once done, he asked
”Where’d you get these anyway?” "The Mermaid Corps were kind enough to give us a shell that makes them," she said, which might as well have been the truth. She and Therion had been led right into their base of operations, then to the captain's office where the handy magic device was just sitting unsecured. As the thief would put it, they were just asking for it to be taken. Primrose didn't show off the linkshell, just taking a seat after she'd passed out all of the pearls to those awake and lounging on her elbows.
"And considering what just happened, it was the least they could do." Mind controlled or not.”Yeah you don’t say. Can clear their own sewers or whatever, but when it came to hunting us down they were relentless. Their captain especially” Jr agreed, mostly in jest, before picking up the tape they’d recorded, twiddling it between two fingers
”We got a bit more from her as well before we sent her home.” Jesse took Primrose’s pearl and held it between her fingers. “Thanks, Primrose.” She said. “It matches my hair.” She attached it to her ear. “Well, no, it doesn’t. But still, thanks.”
Ichiban turned his pearl over a few times, trying to see if he could figure out how it worked, which was never going to get very far. As he clipped it to his earlobe he said,
”kinda reminds me of these little ear things back in Ijincho. They worked the same, I think, where you connect ‘em to your phone and can talk and make calls without usin’ your hands. I never had one though.” He looked into the fire again, and sighed. He glanced between the other three, Jr, Ganondorf, and Primrose, before he continued talking, to the group as a whole.
”Before all of this happened-” he waved vaguely in the air,
”-there was a while where I was homeless, livin’ in a camp with other homeless people. This kinda reminds me of it. It was rough, but honestly, I don’t feel sad when I look back on it. I made some real great friends at that camp. They helped me get on my feet, showed me how to survive - heck, one of them even saved me from dyin’.” Noticing he was rambling, Ichiban scratched the back of his neck.
”Ah, hahah, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to make a spiel of it. It was just on my mind is all…””It’s fine.” From inside the sleeping bag he grabbed Omori finally spoke up to Ichiban. He sat up quietly, as to not wake Mewo up. Had he been awake the whole time? The boy glanced around at everyone else still up, subtly tensing up when he caught sight of the spirits Ganondorf held. He couldn’t imagine
repeating his mistake killing anyone from the Home of Tears willingly, but between Junior and Ganondorf in their brief argument, he had to take the King of Evil’s side on this. It didn’t sound like he had a choice. He offered an apologetic glance at Ganondorf before turning his attention back to the fire.
”It’s good to talk.”After the Gerudo flared his nostrils at Jr’s insolent remark, whatever he was about to say was cut off by the sudden gift from the dancer. Ganondorf said nothing, but he took the earring regardless. However he didn’t put it on his ear immediately. Instead he just stashed it in the satchel with his potions for the time being. And then he pushed himself to his feet,
”Then by all means, talk to your hearts’ content.” he suddenly said with a snappy tone,
”I’ve had all I can stand for one day.” He began to walk away from the group, albeit slowly due to his exhaustion.
That’s the last time I try to be civil with those idiotic Koopas. If these people want to play hard ball and make snide remarks, then so be it. ‘Friends’ indeed. Tch, what a joke.…Well then. Omori slightly frowned at Ganondorf leaving. Maybe he should go after him? Barnabee just watched him go, displeased by the man’s tone. Such surliness was more demonstrative than anything; there wasn’t anywhere else in the Hub for Ganondorf to go. Hopefully he didn’t disturb those trying to sleep, any more than the conversationalists were anyway.
Jr meanwhile had almost entirely forgotten that he’d made the remark in the beginning, and instead was replying to Ichiban’s spiel by clarifying that
”We do have a home though. Or like a home base I mean. It’s this city called Alcamoth. Its all domes and glass and it floats and stuff. There’s a load of other non-Galeeming people there and everything” ”People who I guess we should probably update on this stuff at some point. You know about the clocks and Consuls and things” "Mhm. Hopefully these little pearls will eventually help with keeping in touch with Alcamoth too, but in the meantime we could summon one of those Moogles... in the morning." Primrose's gaze had trailed after the Gerudo King, only just keeping herself from rolling her eyes.
Leave it to grown men to act as children, she thought to herself, having experienced plenty of that in her lifetime. She looked back toward the others when she spoke, fetching another Linkpearl from her bag and passing it over to Omori now that the boy was up and tapping her ear so he knew where to put it. He took a moment to curiously look at the Linkpearl, then connected it to his ear.
"I'd take comfort in the familiar while you can; it's something one can seldom do in this world, I've found," the dancer added, directed at Ichiban.
”Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” Ichiban said to Jr, then to Primrose.
”I meant like, right here ‘n now. Sitting by this fire, in tents. Guess it’s not so poetic since it’s just exactly how I was livin’ then…” He shook his head.
”Well, if it’s no trouble, what’re your guys’ stories? I know a bit about some of ya already,” he continued, gesturing to Bowser and Ganondorf as he left,
”but th’ rest I’m pretty clueless on. Only if y’feel comfortable talkin’ about it.”Omori shrugged.
”I live in White Space. Me and my friends were searching for my best friend, Basil, before Galeem hit us. He went missing.” He slightly frowned again. [b]
”Still is.”“All my life, prior to my exile, I faithfully served Her Majesty, Queen Vespa, in the Hive,” Barnabee replied simply. There wasn’t much more to it than that.
”Speaking of that, did we get chased in the right or entirely wrong way to get there” Jr interjected to ask.
Barnabee rubbed his fuzzy head, slicking back his feelers in the process, though they bounced right back into their upright position after. “Tis hard to say exactly, young sir. The Hive lies beyond the lower reaches of the bleak Forsaken Lands. On my way hence I ascended to the loftiest heights of said dreary cavern, whereupon I made my way through an expansive crypt and underground wood called Hollow Bough. I can only urge thee to keep thine eyes peeled for any such landmarks as we proceed.”
”Gotcha.” Primrose listened to all the stories being told, making some mental notes on everyone. Though she still didn't plan on sleeping she'd shifted into a more comfortable position, and the conversation made for a good way to stay awake. When there was a lull she considered talking about herself. As far as she'd always been concerned her past was her business and no one else's, and even her closest friends didn't have the whole story when it came to her. But a few personality edits courtesy of fusion and one world changing event later, she found that she didn't mind the thought of talking about herself quite as much. Though some things she would leave out due to present company. Even if the kids had seen their fair share of horrors in the World of Light, she could spare them a little more.
"My life before was much like this," she began,
"traveling the country, helping people. Well, mostly helping ourselves achieve our own goals - anyone else was only by happenstance. There was a group of us. Some of you may have already known that Therion was one of my traveling companions. We're from the same place, Orsterra."Before that I was a dancer." Here she would have fluttered her fan for dramatic effect, if she weren't so tired.
"I was always on the lookout for a certain group of men. I still am, really."She stopped there. It was enough to give her allies a little glimpse into her past, but nowhere near the entire picture. She capped off her tale with a warning, her voice turning sharp and dangerous,
"They were evil men, each with the mark of a crow. So if you happen to see anyone with a crow-shaped tattoo, stay away - and tell me immediately."The Hive Knight gave her a sagacious nod. He knew such villains were never to be trifled with, only to be dealt swift and uncompromising justice. “Thou hast my word.”
“You got it.” Jesse said. “Eyes peeled.” Though when she spoke up, she felt like maybe she should talk, too. “Er- I’m basically a government employee who fights monsters and collects doodads.” She said.
“Before that, well-” She waves her hand dismissively. “It’s a whole thing. Mood’s bad enough as it is.” She said good-naturedly, rubbing her shoulder. “But my job is actually pretty cool. Our HQ actually got pulled through, so hopefully we can make our way up there at some point. It’s north of here, as north as it gets in this world, I think. I might have to head back up there early though. Only reason I left was because I was Gleaming and didn’t know the full story.” Jesse scratched her jaw, and finished with a shrug.
”Huh. Guess we’re all kinda lookin’ for something here,” Ichiban noted,
”ya know, outside of the big stuff.” There were plenty more questions he had to ask them, but he didn’t want to keep anyone awake with them.
”I hope my friends are doin’ alright out there at least.”“Here’s to savin’ the world, then.” Jesse said.
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