Daxam

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

---

Twelve pirates, Sol thought to himself, quickly taking a mental headcount as the pirates began to rush toward him. Time seemed to slow for him as he prepared to “dance.” The first to reach him raised his club and brought it down, but Sol had no intention of staying still. With blinding speed, he cut through the pirate’s club as easily as if it wasn’t even there, then began his dance.

His first target was the one closest, the one with the club. Sol dashed past him and brought the edge of his blade across his side. From there, he wove between the pirates, moving as easily as water through the cracks and crevices of the side of a cliff. His movements could be described as graceful, even almost gentle, if he hadn’t been moving too fast for the pirates to keep track of him. Each time his sword met flesh, however, it was never to kill, only to incapacitate, to make sure they couldn’t fight back.

By the time the end of the first pirate’s club clattered to the ground, it was over. One by one, the pirates fell to the ground, the ones who were still conscious groaning as they clutched their injuries. ”I’ll make sure you all get medical attention as soon as possible,” he quietly told them before he made his way to the stairs nearby.

He steadily climbed his way up the tower, easily fending off the pirates that challenged him. As he walked and climbed, he kept seeing the same symbol over and over again, whether it be on a banner or tattoo: a set of scales in front of a ship’s wheel. As he was musing over the symbol as he approached the floor just below the roof, a large pirate, nearly twice Sol’s size, suddenly rounded the corner as he swung a hammer with both hands.

The pirate didn’t see Sol swing his sword, only that the head of his hammer had disappeared. While the pirate was confused, Sol kicked his opponent’s legs out from under him and pressed the tip of his sword against the pirate’s throat. ”Why this island?” he asked. ”You had your pick of easier targets. Why this one?”

“Screw you, Navy dog,” the pirate growled. “I don’t owe you nothing”

Sol shrugged. ”Fair enough,” he replied as he moved his sword away from the pirate’s throat. Before the pirate could get up, Sol swung his sword again, slamming the butt of the hilt against the pirate’s forehead, knocking him out.

Turning his attention to the last set of stairs, Sol added, ”I suppose I’ll have to ask your captain, then.”

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

---

Luna followed the man down a set of stairs, past a sentry posted just inside the door, who seemed unable to pull his eyes away from Luna as she passed. Before long, the pair entered a wide-open room, the basement of the building above, joining the dozen or so people already inside, all of whom were busy, either with maintaining weapons, treating others with injuries, or pouring over papers. Upon seeing the new arrivals, almost everyone’s gazes turned to look at them. Luna’s sharp ears easily picked up what they were saying. ”Guess the cat’s out of the bag, huh?” Luna commented.

“Not many half-Minks around, especially with stark-white hair like yours,” the man replied. He led Luna toward the center of the basement and gestured with his arm. “Name’s Josiah and welcome to our little rebellion. Not much to look at, but what can you do? Especially with a man like Clay running things.”

”I take it those creatures were his?” Luna asked as she took a seat on a nearby crate. ”What were those things, anyway? Felt like I was punching mud.”

“Clay, actually.” Josiah picked up a rifle and ran his eyes over it while he spoke. “That’s Clay’s power, the Clay-Clay Fruit. Those golems he makes are the reason why he was able to take over this island. You can hack, slash, bludgeon them all you want, but they’ll just reform. And I don’t know how, but it seems like whatever they can see, he sees, too. Otherwise, I doubt he’d be able to control them so well without leaving the governor’s villa.” He set the rifle down and pulled out a small, glass jar from a pack around his waist. He tossed it to Luna, who caught it, only for her nose to immediately wrinkle as an acrid scent wafted from the liquid inside, despite how well-sealed the jar was. “That’s a gypsum mixture,” Josiah explained. “Vineyards use that stuff all the time to keep their grapes healthy. Turns out, it does a good job of breaking down clay, too. Sorry about the smell, by the way. Ever since Clay and his pirates set up shop here, it’s been tough getting a hold of purer stuff.”

Luna thought back to when Josiah saved her, how the golem’s arm crumbled when he threw that jar at it. ”If this stuff’s so good, why can’t you just fight back with it?” she asked as she handed the jar back. ”That’d take care of those golem things.”

“Two reasons. Number one: we don’t have much left. The vineyards have been doing what they can, sneaking as much as they can to us, but they can’t neglect their crops or else Clay’s men will retaliate. Number two: it’s not permanent. The gypsum does make the golems take longer to regenerate, but they’ll be right back at it quicker than you’d expect.”

After a moment, he turned to Luna and asked, “You came here with a crew, right?”

”Yeah, why?”

Josiah sighed and rose to his feet. “If he hasn’t, yet, Clay’s gonna send some men and golems to your ship, probably to kill everyone on board and take whatever’s not nailed down.”

He grabbed a few more jars from a nearby crate and slipped them into his pack before he turned to Luna, only to see that she had already started toward the exit. She looked over her shoulder at him and shot at him, ”The hell’re you waiting for, let’s go! I’m not gonna let some lumps of mud hurt my crew!”

Young Justice

Vincent & Ja

_{Two Days Ago…}

Vincent slowly stretched his arms over his head, then lowered them, satisfied that, despite the dull ache that was still present, his ribs were more or less fully healed. Which meant that he could get back to training as hard as he normally did, something he was more than eager to get back to. He changed into his workout clothes and left his room, his favorite music playing through his headphones.

When he reached the gym, his step faltered when the first thing he saw was a familiar headbush. The harbor shot to the front of his mind, when he was on his back, powerless against the Beast, but he quickly shook his head, clearing it. The person in the room with him wasn’t…whatever that was, not now, at least.

He walked into the room and said with a wave, ”Hey, man. Which, um…which one am I talking to?”

Above was a set of color coded rings hanging from ropes and, between them, the headbush maneuvered like a monkey through branches. The bushbaby had been swinging between them whilst holding a bowl with water between his legs. The idea was to take different routes back and forth, using the differently colored rings. The catch was not to spill a drop of water; it was ‘lava’ or ‘radioactive waste’ and there were people below.

Ja had heard the footsteps approaching the training room, and initially thought that they were Viktor’s. Maybe he’d thought of something different from their last conversation. However, when they stopped at the doorway, Ja stopped swinging. His hand clutched the ring he was on and he had to contort his body slightly to stabilize the bowl— keeping from tipping it. The scent was different, more like that brown coin with the dead man’s face on it— a penny. Vincent? His greeting voice confirmed Ja’s suspicion, and golden globes aimed down toward him.

”…Mhoro, Vin.” His question made him think of what Viktor had told him prior. Did he go over it with the others perhaps? Had they all been talking about it without him? By no means did he feel betrayed, if they did…he…the Red Beast… ”Ja…I was just finishing anyway.”

He’d pursed his lips, letting go of the rung to spread his wings for a second, afterwards comfortably hovering. He then took the bowl from his legs and descended to the landing pads.

”No need to hurry on my account. There’s plenty of space here for the both of us,” Vincent replied as he dropped his headphones to his shoulders. He nodded at the bowl and asked, ”What kinda workout was that?”

As the flying squirrel landed, he himself looked at the bowl in his hold. ”Well…the idea, originally, of those rings was meant to test one’s coordination and agility. But…given my power, that would be too easy on its own…So, Tenzi Dinah said whenever I do it, I should hold the glass bowl. Then to increase the difficulty, add more and more water to it until it is full. Each time, I would have to be careful and more accurate with my movements. Otherwise, if I spilled it, ‘lava’ would hit a civilian below.”

”Ah, I see,” Vincent said with a nod. ”That sounds like a pretty good workout. I doubt I have the dexterity for it, though.” As he started his stretches, he thought about what Ja had said, the name sounding vaguely familiar to him. As he finished up, it hit him. ”You’re talking about Black Canary, right? She’s the one that came up with that exercise for you?”

The young lion nodded his head, taking a few steps away from it, but he paused. ”How are you healing?”

Vincent looked over his shoulder at Ja as he walked over to the weights. He turned to face his comrade and tapped his chest with his fist. ”Almost all healed up, already,” he answered with a grin. ”Still a bit sore and my ribs don’t like it if I twist a certain way, but I should be all good to go by the time the next mission rolls around.”

He turned away from Ja and picked up a dumbbell, but paused. He stood there for a moment, weighing what he wanted to say as if it were the dumbbell in his hand, then finally spoke. ”About that…I wanted to make sure you…and Kila…know that I don’t blame you guys for what happened.”

Ja smiled at first but he felt some sort of confusion build. He understood that Vincent, despite what had happened, was trying to make him feel a little better but…”…What do you mean?”

Vincent looked back at Ja mid-rep, then said, ”Just that. I don’t blame you or Kila. It might’ve used your body, but whatever that was, it wasn’t either of you. It doesn’t make sense to blame anyone except whatever it was that took over. And, hell, I’m not sure I’m even angry at him. Besides…”

He set the weight down and looked up toward the ceiling. For a moment, it looked like he was wrestling with something on his mind, but that moment quickly passed as, without looking at Ja, he continued, ”I got hurt because I wasn’t strong enough. No matter how hard I could hit, you – I mean it, him, whatever – didn’t even budge. It was my fault I got hurt, so I gotta work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Ja watched him with furrowed brows, looking all around the room in thought before returning his gaze. ‘It used his body’…’whatever it was’…With what he’d recently learned about himself…such a statement wasn’t really true. The Red Beast…it wasn’t…he…wasn’t just some creature that inhabited his body. He was as much part of Ja as ‘Kila’ was…Despite his fear of what his counterpart was capable of, he had to learn how to understand himself.

Still…

”…I appreciate your words…I know that an apology doesn’t heal your injuries but I offer one anyway. And…if at any point you want help with your self improvement, whether it be your strength or otherwise, I offer my hand as well.”

Vincent turned to face Ja and grinned at his teammate. ”I’ll probably take you up on that sooner rather than later. I’m always on the lookout for more sparring partners.”

Deciding to move the conversation away from his failure, Vincent took a seat on a weight bench and asked, ”Anyway, enough about me. Other than wanting to make sure you knew I didn’t blame you, I wanted to see how you and Kila were holding up.”

The bushbaby seemed to struggle with the concept, even still. ”I have been doing okay…I suppose. I was only recently told by Vicky about this other side…so that is just another part of my life that I have to learn more about…on top of this business with the Red Beast and what may possibly be setting my instincts off while out in the field…” Ja caught himself mid ramble and looked instead at the bowl of water in his hands.

”Maybe…I am actually not okay… His lip twitched, and he chuckled somberly. ”But I have been told that time heals all…and since I’ll be stuck here…I suppose that is all I have.”

Vincent nodded and looked down at his hands as he laced his fingers together. He had never been good at knowing what to say when someone was going through a tough time, so he was quiet for a few long moments. Truthfully, he had a feeling that he didn't know Kila or Ja well enough for anything he could say to be truly helpful. However, he wasn't the kind of guy to not try.

"Well...maybe it's not all bad." he eventually said. "I won't pretend like I completely understand your situation. No offense, but just the fact that you've got three people in your head is making my head spin, but it's like you said: it's something else you gotta learn about. But think about what you'll be able to do once you've got a handle on everything you've got going on."

Ja gave Vincent’s words some thought. At first he was inclined to simply nod his head and thank him, but that last phrase reminded him of something Iwisa had taught him. ”‘There will be times that the only path forward is understanding where you are.’” He mumbled, slowly nodding after repeating her words in his memory and he looked back up at Vince. His teammate had a reputation for not being too clever, but today he’d shown insight. Even if it was, judging by his expression, by accident.

”I think I understand what you mean. Thank you, Vincent.”

”Ah, don’t mention it,” Vincent replied with a grin. ”I’m just glad it seemed to help.” With that, he laid back on the bench and curled his fingers around the barbell around him. Before he started on his bench presses, he asked Ja, ”Oh, by the way, mind spotting me?”

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

VS

… A giant explosion of smoke appeared on the far end of the stage and Jaden Raldo came sliding out of it, leaving behind a trail of smoke. He came to a stop as he reached behind him to grab one of his katanas and grinned… with that joint in his mouth.

“... Oh, lawd,” Jaden chuckled as he stood tall and shrugged, “Just anotha’ nobody! Get ready to get jobbed.”

The entrance on the other side of the stage was much more subdued. His black robes fluttered around him as Sean, hood drawn, took his position opposite of his opponent, shillelagh in hand. He pulled his hood down, revealing a head of fiery red hair and an easy smile.

”You seem awfully confident,” he responded. He tapped the narrow end of his shillelagh on the ground and violet energy crackled along its length as the ground it struck cracked. With an impish smirk, he added, ”This might actually be rather fun.”

“Confident?! Jaden parroted, “You’re looking at the greatest Nomad to eva’ be born! Course’ I’m “confident”.”

Sean’s smirk spread into an open grin. ”Ah, is that so?” he asked. More energy sparked around his shillelagh as he added, ”If that’s the case, I won’t hold back.”

“Heh, Jaden did a spin and both of his blades were in his hands, he was swirling them around in his hands as he said, “Let’s give ‘im a show, then!”

”BEGIN!”

The Announcer shouted.

Sean raised his crackling shillelagh and brought it down, increasing its weight as he did. The heavy end of his weapon slammed into the stone floor, throwing up numerous shards. Sean held his free hand out and the shards, sparking with that same energy as Sean shifted gravity around them, suddenly flew out toward Jaden. He grinned as ran towards them, teleporting in a cloud of smoke and appearing above Sean with both blades ready. He slashed diagonally toward Sean, intending to give him just a little haircut.

Taken by surprise, Sean reacted instinctively. He felt his body jerk to the side as his gravity shifted, forcing him to fall parallel to the ground he left behind a small tuft of red hair. He twisted in mid-air as he returned his gravity to normal, crouching as he skidded to a stop. ”Teleportin’? That’s gotta be against the rules,” he joked with a grin.

“... Somebody brought a fuckin’ tank in, you know,” Jaden noted as he reached for his belt, “There ain’t no rules in the Fightin’ Carnival, baby!”

That was when he threw a CD at Sean like a shuriken. ”Fair point,” Sean replied. He held his shillelagh out in front of him and created a gravitational field, offset slightly from the path of the CD. Once it came close enough, the CD’s path suddenly reversed as it rounded the field Sean had created, sending it right back at Jaden. It was a simple attack, and easily counterable, as far as Sean was concerned, though he wanted to gauge his opponent’s reaction all the same.

“... Maaaaaaaan what the fuck? Jaden said as he simply grabbed the CD when it got close and then pointed at it, “This is art in ‘ere!”

Sean’s eyebrows arched at Jaden’s reply, which didn’t exactly line up with anything he had been expecting. ”O-oh, sorry ‘bout that. But if that’s how you feel, then why are you goin’ around, throwin’ it like that?”

Jaden was dead quiet for a second.

“... Uhhhhhhh… shut up, nerd!” Jaden said as he teleported in Sean’s face and swung the CD at him, intending to pimp slap him with it.

Sean was ready for the teleport, this time. It took a moment for him to charge it up, during which he felt the CD make contact with his cheek, but just as he started to feel the pain, he held out his free hand. Violet energy once again erupted around his body, more intense this time around, as a powerful, inverted gravitational field formed around his body, launching Jaden backward.

“…AAAAAAAAH!” Jaden came to a roll… then rolled and hopped up to his feet. He saw his blunt on the floor, destroyed by the attack, and walked over to it… cradling it in his hands with a tear. “… You killed my baby.”

Sean lowered his still-sparking arm, a confused look on his face, not for the first time in this fight, he realized. The look on Jaden’s face was as if Sean had killed his baby, but the object in his hands was a broken blunt. Keeping his distance and a ready stance, unwilling to let himself be fooled by the sudden change in emotion, Sean still asked, ”You, uh…you alright, mate?”

“Y-yeah,” Jaden said as he stood up, grabbing some more CDs. “… That tells me I just got to ante up!” He threw three CDs at Sean and then teleported behind him.

Time seemed to slow for Sean as his mind raced to come up with a way to react. On the one hand, those CDs might do some pretty serious damage if they hit, but on the other, Jaden was right behind him. While Sean blocked the CDs, Jaden could hit him from behind. It would be easy if he could use his Radial Push, but as he was currently working on something else, charging that up was out of the question.

He made his decision. He pivoted on his foot as he spun around. One of the CDs flew past him, the second grazed his upper arm, but he felt the third dig into the back of his leg as he swung his shillelagh at Jaden, using the momentum of his spin and his powers to increase the weight and force of the strike. Jaden tried to block it with his swords but all that happened was that he pushed the flat ends of his swords against him, and he still got hit with the attack. He was sent flying, but he flipped mid-air, landed on his hand, and hopped back on his feet. He aimed one blade at Sean and he quickly reached for his microphone… then started rapping.

“Yo, Sean the wizard, you think you're so fly, with your wand and spells, reaching for the sky. You wave your staff, and you mumble some chants, but my words hit harder, like a lightning lance. You're a one-trick pony, I'm the whole damn show, so step aside, Sean, it's time for you to go!” As he rapped, he was surrounded by an aura of fire.

Sean lifted himself into the air, hovering a few inches off the ground to keep weight off of his injured leg. He thought about pulling it out, but he remembered being told by one of his teachers, Siobhán, that pulling something out of an injury was usually worse than keeping it in. He turned his attention from his injuries to Jaden as his opponent began to rap and, despite himself, he couldn’t help but chuckle. ” That’s not half-bad, actually,” he said, though the fact that Jaden now seemed enveloped in flames wasn’t lost on him. He let out a breath and added, ” But, I suppose if you’re gettin’ serious, then it’s only fair I do, too.”

His left arm began to spark again as he charged his attack, though he didn’t plan on using it, yet. Instead, he focused his power on the arena beneath him. The ground trembled and cracked around him as he pulled up three large stones, each about twice the size of his head (which was already huge) before he shot toward Jaden. He swung his shillelagh once he was within reach while one of the stones flew at him from the opposite side and a second came from above.

Jaden cracked a smirk as he looked at the absolute barrage heading his way, so he waited, and right before everything hit… he vanished into a cloud of smoke. It was absolutely quiet for a blessed few moments that probably felt far longer. Sean scanned the arena, his eyes darting left to right as he waited for Jaden to reappear.

…

…

…

“... HOUDINI, NINJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Then Jaden soared at Sean from above and behind, flying to give him a flying dive kick straight to his ass. The moment he heard Jaden’s voice, Sean spun around as the third stone moved between the two of them to stop Jaden. The other two flew around and came at his opponent from opposite sides, intending to catch Jaden in a pincer attack. ”Not a great idea, shoutin’ at me if you’re going for a sneak attack,” Sean responded.

They both hit Jaden, turning him into a… Jaden Sandwich. He yelped as both rocks crushed him in mid-air, however, he teleported out of it. Appearing on the ceiling of the arena, he held himself there for a few moments as he stared at Sean. He quickly launched himself off the wall at Sean at blinding speeds, with both blades cocked at his right side. Ready to slash Sean and finish this fight.

Sean locked eyes with Jaden as he stood on the ceiling. The fact that his usually chatty opponent wasn’t throwing any more barbs at him told Sean that he was aiming to finish this. As Jaden flew at him, he waited until the last moment, to make it as difficult as possible for Jaden to react and dodge, and held his hand out toward his opponent.

”Sliocht Dé!”

An invisible projectile of pure gravitational force, wreathed in crackling violet energy, shot from his palm toward Jaden. It was a gamble for Sean; if Jaden were able to dodge it, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to react fast enough to a counterattack.

“Ohshitwhatmuthafucka!” Jaden yelled as he was launched towards the ceiling by the fuck beam that was sent his way. He was launched directly into the ceiling which created cracks and pinned him… and when the energy faded, he fell and flopped to the ground.

”... AAAAAAAAAAAAAND JADE-”

“... Shut up.” Jaden said as he climbed to his feet, with a devious grin on his face. “You thought the song was over, muthafucka’, but…”

He grabbed onto the hilt of Murakumo, his hand was radiating with a ghostly green energy…

”... We just got to the chorus.”

In a quick motion, he swung Murakumo at Sean, creating a massive wave of green energy that destroyed all in its path. Sean’s eyes widened as the green wave hurtled toward him. He quickly ascended to dodge the wave, but one of the stones he had been using got caught in the wave. He watched as the stone was smashed to smoldering bits and said, ”Right, then. I shouldn’t touch that.”

He held his hand out toward the burning stone fragments, then sent them hurtling toward Jaden, the glowing shards like a swarm of angry, burning bees, before firing off several more low-power gravity projectiles from the tip of his shillelagh. While the low-power projectiles wouldn’t do much, since he barely charged them, he hoped they would at least keep Jaden preoccupied. Jaden grinned as he slashed each of them to little bits, spinning the swords at his sides as he deflected each rock.

Sean watched as Jaden deflected each fragment and an idea came to him. He clenched his fist, crushing one of his two remaining stones, and sent the shards flying at Jaden, this time without really aiming. While some fragments flew right at him, the rest flew past, where Sean would then stop them in mid-air, the idea being to surround Jaden. ”Saw this move in an old show I used to watch,” he said. He held his hand out toward Jaden and closed it, collapsing the loose hemisphere of the remaining shards he had created.

Jaden raised an eyebrow mid-slash… he felt the stone shards hit him from all directions and he hissed as he awkwardly teleported out of it. He landed on his back, staring at the ceiling, wondering just how he got in this mess. Before he teleported again, this time, he ended up back on his feet. He narrowed his eyes as he teleported again, this time directly in Sean’s face. He didn’t give him much time to react before he began slashing horizontally, left and right.

Sean tried to backstep, but he already knew he’d be too slow. He instinctively raised his shillelagh, reinforcing it with his ki to keep it from being sliced in two, but Jaden was much better at close combat. For every attack Sean was just barely able to block, he felt Jaden’s blades slice somewhere else. It was all he could do to prevent any of his opponent’s attacks from going too deep and he knew he had to get some distance. He waited for an opening, no matter how brief, and lashed out with a gravity-enhanced left hook toward Jaden’s cheek. Which sent him stumbling backward, but he quickly caught his footing and that grin crept back up on his face. With both katanas in hand, Jaden swung horizontally towards Sean.

Seeing the grin on Jaden’s face, Sean couldn’t help but feel one spread across his, as well. Even though he’s normally easy-going and laid-back, at the end of the day, he was still a Nomad. Now knowing that putting distance between himself and Jaden was easier said than done, he decided to fall back on what Siobhán taught him. He weakened the reinforcement on his shillelagh just enough to let the blades bite into the wood, then used his magic in an attempt to push Jaden’s swords back while he stepped closer. His right fist wreathed in violet energy, and he lashed out, scoring a body blow on Jaden. Detaching him from his swords, he was launched backward but he flipped mid-air and landed back on his feet.

He grinned and teleported back to Sean to catch him off guard and give him no room to think. He launched a kick directly at Sean’s face. Sean threw up his arms at the last second, barely blocking the kick, and let the force of the kick throw him backward, aided by decreasing his gravity. His shillelagh, Jaden’s swords still embedded, trailed after him as he tried to keep them out of his opponent’s hands.

Sean stopped himself in midair and pulled up several large stones, then shattered them. The fragments orbited at high speeds around him as he launched them at Jaden like a machine gun. Both arms began to spark with violet energy as he started to charge up his next big attack, which he hoped would end things. Jaden broke off into a sprint while the stones flew behind him. He eventually started running on the walls around the arena.

Sean continued to fire the stones at Jaden, careful to not hit the spectators, as the floor of the arena crumbled and cratered beneath his feet. He glanced over at his shillelagh, Jaden’s swords still embedded inside the wood, and pulled them free before sending them after his opponent, both swords spinning at high speeds as they flew toward him. The energy arcing off of his arms and between the fragments floating around him continued to intensify.

Jaden was running on the walls, dodging the rocks, he grinned when he saw his swords flying towards him. With a second to react, he hopped off the walls, and when the swords went flying towards him - he grabbed them in mid-air and flew towards Sean. He grinned as he shouted,

”... LET’S END THE SONG, BABY!! He flew towards Sean, intending to deliver the finishing blow.

”Couldn’t agree more.”

Sean closed his eyes and held out his hands. The energy arcing from his body intensified, reaching out farther away from him. Wherever the bolts struck the ground, stone fragments rose into the air. The air began to shimmer around him as he opened his eyes and lifted his hands above his head.

”Casúr Dé!

Sean’s eyes flashed violet as he poured every last bit of strength he had into this final attack. All around him, gravity increased several times over. The ground cratered and the arena rumbled under the sudden force as it spread outward, a wave of crushing destruction with Sean at its center.

”Casur-what - OH SHIT!” While soaring through the air, Jaden was hit with a sudden burst of downward gravity that slammed him into the ground as hard as possible. He was pinned as he tried to use all of his strength to get up, but he was at his limits… He looked up at Sean, and couldn’t help but grin… ”Hehe, not bad.” Then he plopped on the ground and went limp.

“Okay, now I can say it-

... AAAAAAAAAAAAAND JADEN RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALDO HAS BEEN BESTED BY SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN THE WIZARD!”

The moment Sean heard the announcement, he called his shillelagh over to him and finally set himself down on the ground, staggering slightly as he used his shillelagh for support.

The announcer shouted as the crowd went wild, and Jaden teleported next to Sean, leaning on him with a grin. ”Not bad, playa! You might have some skill but I wasn’t even using 10% of my power level! He chuckled. ”Maybe you should join me! You can be a rapping wizard. Possibilities are endless, my guy!”

Sean chuckled and replied, ”Not sure about rappin’, but I appreciate it all the same. For now, though, think I’ll settle for some rest…maybe a pint, too.”

”Heh,” Jaden threw Sean the peace sign, ”Hit me up, playa’! I’ll be around, peace!” That was when Jaden exploded into a cloud of smoke, disappearing, leaving Sean to enjoy his victory.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

-Deleted because I'm dumb-

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

-

Children of the Otherwold (An isekai rp with a twist!)

Throwing my interest in here, too!

Daxam's Awesome Interest Check of Epicosity (updated as ideas change/form; ignore post count)

Bump!

Also willing to open this up to small groups!

Daxam's Awesome Interest Check of Epicosity (updated as ideas change/form; ignore post count)

Sneezes

Good lord, this thing's dusty. Anyway, after seven-ish years, here's a new bump with some new edits to go with it!

Young Justice

&

---

It was late afternoon, passing into evening and Vincent was in his room. Iron masses and clouds of carbon hung in the air above him, combining and separating or forming complex patterns as he thought about what to make. Images of hot dogs, pizza, and baked potatoes, among other things, appeared and disappeared before an idea that he liked finally came to mind. ”I could go for some curry,” he mused as he sat up. The carbon and iron recombined and returned to his implant as he stood and left his room to walk to the kitchen.

There was already a pot of something bubbling away on the stove. There were bowls of pre-cut vegetables neatly set in rows next to it. A heap of shredded chicken sat lonely on a plate, clearly intended to be added to the boiling broth. It was starting to get dry at this point. If you would lift up the lid you would find that the broth had nearly reduced to half the original amount.

The sleep deprived chef of the well intended chicken soup was hauled up on the sofa in the lounge. Daphne fell asleep with the cook book folded open on the floor next to her. Judging from the state of the kitchen she’d been asleep for at least an hour.

Vincent’s brow furrowed at the state of the kitchen, his kitchen, and was about ready to find whoever left it in such a state to tear into them until he saw Daphne asleep on the couch with a cookbook next to her. He felt his anger fade, replaced by mild irritation, and let out a sigh. First thing he did was turn the stove off, then he walked over to his teammate. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he gently shook her as he said, ”Hey, Daph, wake up. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you were planning on serving dry chicken.”

Daphne startled awake bumping headfirst into Vincent’s forehead.

”Bah!” Vincent exclaimed at the sudden headbutt, more out of surprise than pain.

“Owh..”
She was pretty sure that was going to turn into a bump. Her finger touched the sore spot. Looking up to see Vincent she immediately went into apology mode.
“Sorry Vincent, I must have…..fallen asleep”
“Again….”

“Is your head okay?”
Her soup!

Without waiting for an answer she jumped off the couch and ran to the kitchen. When she took off the lid from the pot she was disappointed to see nearly half of her stock had evaporated.
“This is fixable right? I’ll just add more water.” Daphne mumbled to herself.

Rubbing his forehead, Vincent followed Daphne into the kitchen. ”Yeah, that should be fine,” he said. ”It doesn’t look like you left it alone for too long, so it should still be salvageable. That chicken, too, so long as it hasn’t been more than a couple hours.”

Crossing his arms, he leaned against the counter as he watched Daphne for a few moments, then asked, ”I never pegged you as the kinda girl to take a nap in the middle of meal prep. Everything okay?”

Daphne added water to the pot until it was back to being two thirds of the way full of soup. She added the veggies and chicken, stirring the ingredients gently so they could spread out. Vincent saying it would be fine gave her more confidence. He was a talented cook and could also bake pretty well.

She stopped stirring the pot to look at Vincent, letting the spoon rest across the top of the pan.
“Yes I’m okay. I’ve just been having trouble sleeping this past week or so.”

Eager to change the subject to something less uncomfortable Daphne retrieved the cookbook from the lounge. She showed it to Vincent.
“I’ve tried a bunch of things from in here, some of them came out really good, others not so much”

Vincent couldn’t help but get the feeling that Daphne was hiding something, but he decided not to pursue it. He was still relatively new to the team, so he knew better than to expect people to be willing to open up to him, at least not so soon. Even he wasn’t as much of an open book as some might think.

Daphne started to clean up the counter to make space for Vincent.

“Or maybe that’s more me than the book…” She said with a chuckle.

Vincent walked over to the counter and set the cookbook down on the space Daphne cleared. He flipped through a few pages, noting the various marks, dogears, and annotations Daphne had made throughout. ”Nah, I don’t think you’re the problem,” he said. ”Even cookbooks aren’t perfect. Some recipes might call for an extra pinch of salt here, an unneeded splash of soy sauce there. That’s why I don’t use them.”

Daphne let that bit of cooking wisdom sink in. She added the tiniest pinch of salt. The soup was starting to come back to a boil. She lowered the heat so it could simmer.
“So…how did you get into cooking?”

Vincent was quiet for a moment as he cast his eyes upward in thought. After a few moments, he said, ”It was after I got to Bludhaven. The guy who took me under his wing told me I couldn’t mug people for money, anymore, actually told me I wasn’t allowed to fight on the streets at all, unless I couldn’t avoid it. He found me some work in a restaurant as a busboy and I did well enough that the manager let me work in the kitchens. At first, it was just a way to make some money and keep the Old Man off my back, but after a while, I fell in love with cooking.”

With his happy go lucky attitude it was easy to forget that Vincent’s past was rough. Daphne thought back on their picnic a while ago. There was probably so much more she didn’t know. She contemplated on asking him more about his past, the fighting, the old man.

“Who’s the old man? I think I remember you mentioning him before. He sounds like an important person in your life.”

Vincent had been stirring the soup, only to falter for a moment when Daphne asked her question. For the first time since they started talking, he seemed to hesitate, but quickly gathered himself. He resumed stirring as he said, ”He was. I never learned his actual name. Every time I asked him about himself, he’d make me go train or flat out ignore me, but he was the guy who made me into what I am today. He taught me how to fight, gave me tips on controlling my power.” He pulled the spoon out of the soup, then chuckled as he tapped it on the rim of the pot. ”If not for him, I’d probably be dead a hundred times over.”

Daphne flinched inwardly when she noticed Vincent’s subtle reaction to her question. Her heart sank when Vincent told her the man wasn’t alive anymore. She gave him a hug, standing on her tippy toes.
”Sorry….I don’t actually know how to react.”

He really didn’t deserve any of the bad things that had happened to him. It made her sad to know that he had to go through all that.

Vincent looked down, surprised at the sudden hug. In all honesty, he couldn’t remember the last time he was hugged. Usually, any time he had any physical contact with someone, save for that time he flew with Pei, it was during a fight, so he wasn’t entirely sure how to react, either. After a moment, he smiled and gave Daphne’s back a couple of pats and said, ”There’s, uh…nothing to apologize for. I appreciate it, though.”

Clearing his throat, he turned back toward the soup. ”So, uh, anyway, I think this is coming along pretty nicely,” he said. ”Wanna give it a taste?”

”Yes let’s!