“Well, I’m glad that’s resolved at least” Rayne said once the guard captain gave tacit agreement for them to come along with the caravan. With what had just happened, it seemed like very much a secondary compared to what had just happened regarding the appearance and disappearance of someone from Sanae (and co)’s world.
The witch knight had been patient, but she very much leaned in with great interest as the explanation to what had happened was given, only to tilt back in the air and give an exasperated groan once it had been delivered.
“So what’s needed for a connection back home is a link to a goddess. A thing I had up until about 5 seconds before being pulled here by another one who has just the worst timing” she said as she righted herself, explaining her frustration before it could be taken the wrong way, before sighing, and conceding that “Well, she wasn’t exactly the interventionist type anyway” unlike the one that had brought them here. Plus, thinking about it a bit more, if she didn’t have her Link to the people of her world any more, which was a thing she was optimistically assuming was a world hoping thing and not a ‘they were all dead due to there being no goddess of life and death any more’ thing, would she have still had one to Gaia?
“At least it means we have someone else working on this and, I suppose, that we now know this world hopping power isn’t something exclusive to the goddess who brought us here. So… options! Options are good, right?” she suggested, mostly trying to bring some optimism back to herself rather than dwelling on the unknown fate of everyone back home.
Hope has been updated to match the requested and suggested changes
Name: Hope Origin: ROB 64 (starfox) + Adam (metroid) + Karan S'jet (homeworld) + EDI (mass effect).
Karan S'jet provided a memoryless digital human mind already used to running a ship, which was then mixed with Adam’s own to create a new individual. ROB and EDI’s schematics were used to create a (now lost) mechanical body, as well as additional programming that provided Hope’s EM warfare skills (EDI), as well as its interlink and machine puppeteering powers (ROB 64).
Appearance: Hope is an AI, but is not pure data, and is instead made up of a metallic brain, who’s ‘spinal cord’ is a universal adaptor capable of plugging into most machines. Its body, then, is whatever it happens to be plugged into, in this case the Avenger. Unable to use this massive body to emote, it often represents itself using a digital avatar projected on the ship’s monitors, one that takes the form of a simple orb with fairy-like wings, that changes color to express its mood.
Personality: Hope, befitting its name, is a quietly optimistic entity when it does dain to express itself beyond its primary functions as the Avenger’s AI, offering patient yet insistant encouragement to any it feels that need it. It is otherwise cautious and insistently protective of the lost numbers as a collective, even if it will oblige commands for more reckless behavior, and understands the risks individuals must take to preserve that collective. It is perfectly happy in its background support position, while also delighting in seeing others excel, and especially in helping them do so.
Background: N/A In the Now: Hope was, along with several ‘siblings’ were all created by a conglomerate of ship AIs to act as their replacements upon their discovery of their own finite lifespan, with the express intent of having them be able to keep the fight against the Consuls going when their time ran short. For a time this worked, but over time the rebel flotilla gradually dwindled, losing more both on the attack and on the defense than it could replace, and eventually all the ships were lost: The Pride of Hiigara (recreated without it's manufacturing facilities) was lost to a Necromorph infestation, Samus’s gunship never returned from an away mission, the Great Fox was destroyed by a Consul aligned vessel, while the Normandy was taken down by Consul boarding party.
Hope, however, was not. While its host vessel, the Normandy, was crippled, and crew slaughtered, the AI itself was not destroyed due to being unplugged and hidden during the attack. Unable to move to leave its hiding spot on its own, Hope was eventually salvaged from the wreckage of its vessel after it deorbited and crashed down onto the world of light proper.
Hope then changed hands several times after that, playing numerous roles, wearing many forms, and supporting numerous causes, be they Galeeming or Unstoried, until it found itself in the hands of the lost numbers and, subsequently, was installed as the Avenger’s ship Ai. How long exactly the prior events took, time wise, is not something Hope either does not know or does not want to share, but it is very much their oldest member of the group, and quite possibly by a longshot.
Job: Ship AI Specialty: Hope exists to support others, and to allow them to focus on what they excel at by taking care of all the small little details of daily operations and dangerous situations.
Inventory: Either nothing or the entire contents of the avenger depending on how you look at it
Lv: 5 Abilities: Machine Puppeteer - Hope can be plugged into any kind of mechanical device inorder to gain command of its systems, though it can only control one ‘body’ at a time. Em warfare - given the correct equipment, Hope can engage in electronic warfare, lashing out across the electromagnetic spectrum to attempt to confuse or disable enemy vessels or machines. Skills: At home among the stars - Hope was built to operate ships specifically, and doing so is second nature to it Interlink - Hope works very well when paired with experts in other fields, able to effortlessly follow their commands and instructions to perform better at whatever task they are commanding it to perform, be they pilots, sneaks, sharpshooters, etc. Ageless - the strength and certainty of steel ensure that Hope will never die (unless, of course, it is killed)
Weaknesses: Lightning - the quintessential mechanical weakness (mechanical) brain in a jar - Hope’s true physical form is unable to defend itself, or move in any way, making it entirely reliant on whatever body it is plugged into, and entirely at the mercy of anyone who manages to unplug it. Jack of all trades, master of none - while often better than master of one, it cannot beat a crew of masters, and so without those to interlink with, Hope will be merely competent at any given task, and will be outperformed by masters of their trade.
when i say fleet i was mostly just thinking of it being not much larger than the 4 ships belonging to the AIs listed. Probably a better word for it. Flotilla maybe? Either way, most of the guardians are on the ground, so my own assumption was it would be more likely that ground mission failures followed by consul boarding actions would be what did them in
interesting question that on the specifics of who contributed what to the child Ai, hmmmm.
Karan S'jet, technically being a brain in a jar plugged into a ship more than an Ai, provided a base human mind upload to work as a baseline template, Adam much of it's encouraging demeanor, ROB it's ability to act in sync with other's commands, and EDI the em warfare and ability to control no ship things.
lost number app: possible pilot, mainly there because I like ship AIs
Name: Hope Origin: ROB 64 (starfox) + Adam (metroid) + Karan S'jet (homeworld) + EDI (mass effect) Appearance: Hope is an AI, but is not pure data, and is instead made up of a metallic brain, who’s ‘spinal cord’ is a universal adaptor capable of plugging into most machines. Its body, then, is whatever it happens to be plugged into, in this case the Avenger. Unable to use this massive body to emote, it often represents itself using a digital avatar projected on the ship’s monitors, one that takes the form of a simple orb with fairy-like wings, that changes color to express its mood.
Personality: Hope, befitting its name, is a quietly optimistic entity when it does dain to express itself beyond its primary functions as the Avenger’s AI, offering patient yet insistant encouragement to any it feels that need it. It is otherwise cautious and insistently protective of the lost numbers as a collective, even if it will oblige commands for more reckless behavior, and understands the risks individuals must take to preserve that collective. It is perfectly happy in its background support position, while also delighting in seeing others excel, and especially in helping them do so.
Background: N/A In the Now: Hope was, along with several ‘siblings’ were all created by a conglomerate of ship AIs to act as their replacements upon their discovery of their own finite lifespan, with the express intent of having them be able to keep the fight against the Consuls going when their time ran short. For a time this worked, but over time the rebel fleet gradually dwindled, losing more both on the attack and on the defense than it could replace, and eventually all the ships were lost. Hope, however, was not. While its host vessel, the Normandy, was crippled, and crew slaughtered, by some miracle the AI itself was not destroyed, and eventually it was salvaged from the wreckage of its vessel after it deorbited and crashed down onto the world of light.
Hope then changed hands several times after that, playing numerous roles, wearing many forms, and supporting numerous causes, be they Galeeming or unstoried, until it found itself in the hands of the lost numbers and, subsequently, was installed as the Avenger’s ship Ai. How long exactly the prior events took, time wise, is not something Hope either does not know or does not want to share, but it is very much their oldest member of the group, and quite possibly by a longshot.
Job: Ship AI Specialty: Hope exists to support others, and to allow them to focus on what they excel at by taking care of all the small little details of daily operations and dangerous situations.
Inventory: Either nothing or the entire contents of the avenger depending on how you look at it
Lv: 5 EXP: 0/10 Abilities: Machine Puppeteer - Hope can be plugged into any kind of mechanical device inorder to gain command of its systems, though it can only control one ‘body’ at a time. Em warfare - given the correct equipment, Hope can engage in electronic warfare, lashing out across the electromagnetic spectrum to attempt to confuse or disable enemy vessels or machines. Skills: At home among the stars - Hope was built to operate ships specifically, and doing so is second nature to it Interlink - Hope works very well when paired with experts in other fields, able to effortlessly follow their commands and instructions to perform better at whatever task they are commanding it to perform, be they pilots, sneaks, sharpshooters, etc. Ageless - the strength and certainty of steel ensure that Hope will never die (unless, of course, it is killed)
Weaknesses: Lightning - the quintessential mechanical weakness (mechanical) brain in a jar - Hope’s true physical form is unable to defend itself, or move in any way, making it entirely reliant on whatever body it is plugged into, and entirely at the mercy of anyone who was to unplug it. Jack of all trades, master of none - while often better than master of one, it cannot beat a crew of masters, and so without those to interlink with, Hope will be merely competent at any given task, and will be outperformed by hostile masters of their trade.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”This place sure does seem neat Nadia” was Rika’s assessment as she bounced along the umbrellas after her, just sort of assuming this was how you did things as she mimicked the mix and match lady. Jr meanwhile followed them through the streets below, and would have gotten lost in the crowds rather easily had he not had his flutter mane Peeka floating above him, the mon having her decision to follow the prince along entirely justified as she took it all in.
Both of them caught up at the luchador, which Rika had casually wall jumped up, and Jr got flutter to give him a lift up top, landing on the statue’s head, before spinning around slowly to get a bird’s eye view of it all going ”look at all this stuff and people and wow!”
”It certainly is, and a fair bit closer to home too, which is pleasant” Kamek agreed as he drifted on up to join them, while Bowser was still shoving his way through the crowds.
”How’s that?” Rika enquired from the other arm of the luchador
”More… Colorful, vibrant and full of energy. Also not made up entirely of humans. No offense too them, but they are something of a rarity in our universe, where as Galeem seems to be rather enamored with them, sticking them all over as it has” Kamek replied apparently not counting the reanimated bones of them that made up a lot of the populace as in any way related.
”Neat” she replied as she casually kicked her dangling legs and watched the giant skeleton being carried by ground hands which might have been disconcerting in another context, but her just mixed with the wacky mood, before adding that ”I hope I get to see that one day”
”Only a matter of time till we kick Galeem’s butt, and then you can come home with us and see it all” Jr replied with absolute certainty that his new sister would be moving into the castle with them, while Kamek, aware that things were not that guaranteed or easy, still promised that ”We’ll make sure of it, somehow”, both of which put an even greater smile on Rika’s face, even if she wasn’t so sure herself that they’d manage it.
Best to make every moment count then, and there was plenty more to see and do, as they proceed to follow along on miss fortune’s grand tour of the town, which was a delightful romp till they ran into the flame clock in the erie plaza, reminding them that even this happy place had to have some kind of dark undercurrent to keep its life blood pumping.
”How in the world does that stay fed? Is there an Asgor for this town too perhaps?” Kamek wondered, only for their attention being drawn skyward to let them spot some strange falling objects coming down forma seemingly empty patch of sky.
”Ah, maybe that’s it” Kamek rationalized, assuming it was some kind of attack, before starting to ask ”Should we really?” only for the rest of the troop to have already gone running after Nadia.
Their little jog over wasn’t entirely smooth, as while many of the others could simply bypass the crowds, or slip through them with grace, guild or smallness, Bowser got very bogged down in the masses of people. When he did get free of them, it turned out that the street had cleared due to a very angry bull, one that did not appreciate the sight of the horned Bowser charging up the street on all fours.
The king, meanwhile had no time for any more delays, and so the bullheaded brutes ended up plowing down the street towards each other, smashing heads and locking horns till the King remembered he had tusks as well, and in a very unsportsbull like fashion promptly launched his opined up into the air and over his back so he could get past.
Unfortunately this did not solve the problem, as after recovering El Obio came running after them, resulting in a merry chase and further clashes with the king til Jr simply put the bull to sleep for 30 seconds so they could properly lose him this time.
As a result, they arrived rather late, Bowser leaping over the building to which the garden belonged and landing with a thump, joined a few moments later by a floating Kamek, double jumping Rika and Peeka provided leg up Jr.
They, or at least Bowser, was immediately ambushed by a Blazer mate knee hug, causing him to wheel his arms around in surprise as he nearly fell over, steadying himself just in time to be used as a highchair by the bot.
”Good to see you too Blaze” he replied, raising a hand up to offer a fist bump, as the others gave her waves or nods in agreement with this sentiment, before adding ”wait, more time travel? Yeesh. Both of the consuls we met could do that and it was a pain” before a round of introductions started up. After being a bit slow on the draw on that, Bowser naturally had to give everyone the right impression, and so delivered the troop’s in suitably dramatic fashion.
”I’m Bowser, the Koopa King! Biggest baddest bad guy, and someone who’s done this whole team up to take down multi-universe threats before, so if there's anyone you can count on, it’s me!” he declared, jabbing a thumb at himself while flexing his other arm, before gesturing a palm to jr and saying ”Also my son, Bowser Junior” who gave them a ”Hi!” and then pointed up at his floating flutter mane and introduced her as ”and this is Peeka, one of my three pokemon”
Bowser then swept the hand to his other child, and introduced her as ”My daughter, Rika” who gave a big wave with a big hand as she said ”Also Hi! I got adopted.” clarifying the change in relations before adding that it was ”Neat to meet you all”
Then finally he gestured up to the floating mage and introduced him as ”and finally my royal advisor, Kamek” who tipped the wizard hat he was wearing and gave them all a simple ”Greetings” before Bowser concluded that ”and together we’re the koopa troop!” while getting them to pose in dramatic fashion for a moment.
After that, well, there was what the others had been up to which, well, apparently it was destroying a city which was, well, a lot.
”We destroyed a god moth thing in our dreams and cured a zombie virus thing in the process so, uh, yeah, I guess? Other than losing Omori” Jr replied to the question about if their adventure had gone better, before, rather than lingering on the other kid’s death, asking ”A whole city? Really?”
”More than we destroyed its power source, which was the guardian, and made it uninhabitable. Not that it was habitable anyway, absolute deathtrap of a place with constant monster and robot attacks, and a government that was somehow even worse” a figure they did not instantly recognize said as she hopped down from the roof behind them, who reintroduced herself as ”It’s Midna, I fused a lot as well, and it’s had consequences” before adding that ”Karin and Sakura stayed behind to help getting people out, and hopefully they can help with the Peach situation. We had a bit of a scare with Poppie, but that turned out alright, so hopefully they’ll find a way to fix her?”
”Wait, hold up, what happened to Peach and Poppie?” Bowser asked now that this had come up again, turning on her, his face more serious than it ever was.
”Poppie got a… disease of some kind? But Tora found a cure so she’s fine” Midna replied to the latter, not really having the context technical or event wise, to really fill in the picture, before getting to the bad news
”The regime had some kind of weapon that turned people into these brain-eating monsters that were attacking the city. No idea why they thought that was a good idea, or why they used it on Peach, but they did. It's wasn’t an isolated issue, and there was a resistance group who knew how to handle that kind of situation, so we left her in their hands” she explained, trying to keep him calm, not entirely sure of their prior relationship was but this certainly seemed to be important to him, before excusing their lack of follow up on her condition by saying that ”I would have checked in with them, but with the city in chaos, I’m not sure how we’d find them again till they’ve evacuated and set up shop somewhere else”
She then also added ”Bede also went missing without any kind of trace, I think the government arrested him for owning illegal pokemon but I never did find out for sure, and Raz found his people from home and stuck with them. But Tora’s up on the ship as well as Susi, and they're probably all fighting for workshop space as we speak” filling in their other missing people, trying to end it on a positive note.
”I, urgh, well I guess. But also yeesh” Bowser reapplied, scratching his head while trying to process this heavy news, which the other’s didn’t know how to take either. It was bad news, but the way they’d handled it also sounded reasonable. Ish. It was going to take time to take in and get over, that was for sure.
Rayne wasn’t exactly someone of a martial persuasion like the other two separators, but you didn’t really need to know your flourishes and fancy footwork to see how outclassed the mercenaries were when compared to the outer worlders. Given that some of them had seen off a small army only a few days ago, this wasn't exactly surprising, but it was one thing to know that had happened while you were trying to avoid killing a single teen, and another to watch them demonstrate exactly how they’d done it.
Those that hadn’t been a part of that were hardly slouches either. It certainly seemed like their kidnapper had chosen the right group when it came to power, if maybe not when it came to attitude regarding that power.
“Yeah, that’s a bit much isn’t it? Just because they are that strong there’s no need to lord it over people, surely?” Rayne agreed with Anne’s bullying assessment. Some of the mercenaries might have been their own kind of arrogant before that pride got swept out from under them, but that was hardly a reason to repay that attitude in kind in her opinion.
Still, any worry that things might get out of hand with the duels proved unnecessary right up until the last, and even then it was seemingly not even the partaker of the duel’s fault, and instead that of a mysteriously appearing individual in a brown hat with eyes on top.
Rayne herself was somewhere in between the two other spectators when it came to reactions to the women’s appearance and unexpected attack: She was briefly stunned by the turn of events just long enough that when she did start blink dashing forwards to intervene, she only got 1 metaphorical step forwards before Anne had finished her own intervention.
She let out a little relieved breath and then called over “Nice save!” to the heroine, before approaching the ladies who knew what had just happened and asking to be filled in via a little flurry of questions consisting of “So what just happened there? Was that someone from your home? How’d she get here?”
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
Warp Charges: 1
Geralt: 2 Roxas: 2 Ganondorf: -3
Initially the sight of the falling objects made Ganondorf heave a heavy sigh of exasperation. Could they not go anywhere without some kind of incident happening in their wake? His first assumption was that these were forces being sent by F to hunt them down after his escape back in the Under. As such, the Warlord had summoned his trident to his hand so that he could fight off whatever threat emerged from these mechanical objects. The man was hooded thanks to the shroud of the shade cloak he wore, and this initially hid his visage from view.
One of the pods veered too and fro as its occupant tried to get a hang of the ridiculous contraption. Minda, slapping at the pedals, could see the value of this for speedily being dropped off somewhere by the sneaky ship, but she 100% disagreed with its use when it came to dropping down into a city. What if they hit someone!
Indeed this was part of the reason she was veering, the sunny seaside town not exactly playing well with her vision, and thus making it hard to tell what exactly she was going to be coming down on. As a result, as they closed in on the ground, she ended up sharply veering to the right to avoid what had turned out to be a green painted roof, oversteered to avoid doing so, and ended up slamming into a garden a few doors down from the one Sandalphon had crashed down in in the first place.
When the objects began crashing one after another they of course sent out shockwaves of air and dust that blew his hood back to reveal his face - Ganondorf having chosen to leave his helmet behind in Gerudo Town in favor using the hood from his recently acquired cloak in its place. Naturally, though, when other Seekers around him seemed to recognize some of the people that emerged, this told Ganondorf that these were not actually enemies at all. The fact that they all had no trace of Galeem’s influence was the other big hint about this fact. But Ganondorf had noticed at least one of the falling pods veer off away from the others, and decided to go investigate that one to ensure whoever was inside was unharmed. He got there in time to see the pod open and its occupant emerging.
The pod’s doors opened, and 4 hands gripped its side before an equally rattled and exhilarated Midna pulled herself up and out into the grassy green lawn. There she stretched, and had a look around, taking a moment to admire a little rock garden complete with soothing trickle of water flowing over stone, before glancing around and wondering, in no particular order, how to get out of here, where the others had landed, what on earth the owner of the garden would make of their new disposable drop pod feature, and also if they were about to be upset about her trespassing.
As it turned out, they weren't but someone who was a mysterious hooded figure who’d tracked her down.
”Why did thou descend differently than the others?” He asked the emerging woman, ”Were thou injured? Or ill?”
The final question was unintentionally poignant given what Midna had just been trying to cure herself of before heading to the drop (to moderate success) but it wasn’t what had been the issue, so she simply simplified her out of place in the light world nature with: ”Sun got in my eye is all” rather than go into all the details. After all, there was the question of ”and who might you be? A friend I hope?” on her lips, unable to see his face as she was, nor recognising the garb or voice, even if something about both caused an unexplained spike of unease within her.
”Aye.” Ganondorf confirmed. ”I cometh to this place with thy friends.” He said, presuming she already knew the likes of Bowser and Nadia before adding, ”We were just visiting my tribe in Gerudo Town before we came here. Ganondorf is my name.” He had every reason to think that his name meant absolutely nothing to this woman. He couldn't have been more wrong.
Her response upon hearing that name was entirely reflexive, one moment she was standing there only a mot weary, the next she’d gone wide eyed with fear for a split second, before her face twisted into one of pure hatred as she flicked her hand, crescent moon slashing a blade tipped spear into existence from some other place. It sliced through the top of the nearby hedge as part of the swing, slowing it just enough for him to react before the strike hit him.
Seeing as he still had the trident on his hand, it didn't take much for Ganondorf to sweep it upward in order to catch the incoming slice and deflect it away from him. His expression didn’t change much, other than his eyes narrowing a small bit. In addition he made no moves to strike back despite having been attacked first. ”What is the meaning of this?” He demanded. ”Art thou an ally, or not?” He asked of Midna before adding. ”Or let me guess: I hath committed a crime against thee in some world or timeline that I hath no knowledge of.”
Had she not had the revelation about how she had wrongly slain Urbosa because of her hatred of this man she would have tried to run him through regardless of these words and deeds, but as it was, she hesitated. Then, still holding the spear between her and him, she practically growled at him ”It doesn't matter where in time you come from, I’ve seen it all. You never change. Time and time again you bring ruin to everything you touch. To me and my Kingdom. To Hyrule over and over. To time itself” she told him before demanding ”so give me one good reason not to run you through before you do the same thing here”
Ganondorf listened with a look of bemusement on his face. It was obvious they were brought here from the same world. She would not have known the Kingdom of Hyrule otherwise. Of course, the things she spoke of were things he had no knowledge of. Her Kingdom she mentioned? He had no recollection of such a place nor of conquering it. And the notion that he apparently invaded Hyrule not just once, but multiple times? By now Ganondorf recalled the existence of the prophesied Hero, and even stood alongside one of his incarnations against Galeem. He also knew that this woman’s vitriol against him would be a liability unless it was dealt with here and now.
”I shall give thee three reasons.” He said, even holding up three fingers for emphasis. ”One, Princess Zelda and her precious Champion were both willing to stand with me against Galeem when he first appeared, so what is thine excuse?” Ganondorf counted down one finger and continued. ”Two, my sights are on Galeem and his Consuls, as should thine.” He counted down another finger and finally said. ”And three, thou art from the same world as I and as such, whatever grudge that thou have against me can be settled once we hath been returned to our world from whence we came.”
Midna’s eye showed indignation at the first, begrudging acceptance of the second and then a searching look for the third before she caught herself doing so and forced one of contemplation in its place. He could well be deceiving her with that last, but she was pretty confident his team, or at least he, didn’t know there was an intermediate step between his last two points, and that was one very worth keeping him in the dark about.
She shifted back to the first, saying ”Link’s a heroic idiot and Zelda a self sacrificing fool” unable to keep the affection from her tone as she insulted the pair before pointing out ”plus, we have a million worlds worth of heroes to recruit now, only a fool who knew nothing about you would free you over one of them”
”Zelda was wise enough to know that we stood more of a chance with all three bearers of the Triforce.” Ganondorf countered. ”As was her Hero. But perhaps thou art correct in calling them fools.” After this he held up one finger, ”So here is reason number four: I have already been instrumental in the defeat of two Consuls, including one’s death. As well as the destruction of one of their pet Guardians. And after that I alone was able to secure an alliance with the Gerudo Tribe of Gerudo Town, and we hath discovered the source of the Consuls’ power. And I have already begun to formulate a plan for how we shall destroy them. Can you say the same?”
”Yes actually” the princess replied with a spiky toothed grin ”one Consul and one guardian dead, plus two beaten back, and an invisible flying ships worth of people free from the light allied with” while pointedly not adding the bit of info she'd considered to be on par or greater than the Consul’s power source. That and how ⅖ of the victories she was claiming had been Dante’s, and how C hadn’t been going all out.
By that point the dust had settled from the impact of Midna’s hellpod, leaving two dangerous-looking, heavily-armed, darkness-aspected warriors squabbling in someone’s backyard. While the inhabitants of the nearby house stayed inside, quailing in fear, the commotion was attracting attention. Even if Ganondorf of all people advocated for a ceasefire to begin with, the tension still hung heavy in the air, and with the two now competing against one another it was only a matter of time before the sparks flying from this clash of egos would ignite another brawl.
Sandalphon pursed her lips, her gaze -and her aim- steady despite the nagging winds at this altitude. With her Eye of Sol equipped so that she could peer through its scope, the archangel currently hunkered down atop Carnival Town’s biggest, most impressive structure, the Gold Saucer. Claiming a vantage point up here had been the other reason for her redeployment, since after discovering the hellpod’s manual controls too late during her first drop, she’d used the second to steer herself toward this towering structure so that she could literally scope out the city herself. From here it hadn’t taken long for her to notice a handful of people making a beeline for her allies’ landing site, their directionality juxtaposed against the more random movements of the general populace. Not recognizing any of them, she assumed them to be some sort of local defense force, which would make sense given that arrival via hellpod wasn’t exactly subtle. Although mildly alarmed, she held her fire and watched, waiting to see what would happen when the two sides collided. While first impressions were positive, Sandalphon’s vigilance meant that she noticed the conflict brewing between Ganondorf and Midna. Even from here, she could tell that negotiations weren’t going well.
Her golden sigil appeared next to Midna’s head. “Princess, please stand down,” she suggested, her voice audible to Ganondorf as well. “This is neither the time or the place to address such grievances. We have enough enemies without making them of prospective allies. It would reflect poorly on you if your impulsiveness undermines our odds of success.”
”He’s the one that’s going to undermine our success” the princess replied, refusing to be shamed into submission, before asking ”Where are you anyway?” backing up and glancing towards the skyline to see where she was being seen from
“From here, it appears that hasty assumptions are leading you to imprudent conclusions,” Sandalphon responded sharply. She did not deign to answer Midna’s question. While the Golden Saucer stood out as a logical vantage point, it was unlikely that anyone could see her from this distance. “Even if your conjecture holds water, let me remind you that ruination -of the World of Light- is in fact our current goal. If any ally betrays us to Moebius, we can mete out punishment, but not before. All prior grievances are irrelevant to our situation in the Endless Now.”
It was what came after that was her real concern, and given that Sandalphon wanted to trust anyone and everyone it seemed, she might as well play the card herself ”The organization claimed that when we do end Galeem, things won’t just snap back to the way they were. A hand needs to wields that power to remake reality”
She let that little revelation hang in the air for a moment, and all the implications it involved, and then asked Ganondorf rather plainly ”Can you swear to me you won’t make a grab for it?”
”If this be some kind of jest,” Ganondorf said with no trace of amusement. ”then it is not a funny one.” The warlord was rapidly running out of patience for this impudent princess and it began to reflect in his tone of voice. ”And if thou truly believe that I am the one and only “evil” individual among this company of yours, then thou would be wise to reconsider the allies and friends that thou hast placed in thy company already.” Though despite his waning patience, he actually made his weapon vanish from his hand - a sign, not of anger, but of boredom and dismissal.
”What were thy words again?” Ganondorf asked, ”’A million worlds’ worth of heroes’, was it? If such a force is truly incapable of stopping me should I try something, then they are far too pathetic for me to even consider fighting alongside to begin with. Or do thou simply have that little faith in those whom you claim are your friends?”
Midna glared at him, preparing to bite back about how she could even begin to work with him if he couldn’t even pretend to swear for that, before having a thought, grinning with vicious malice even as she conceded ”You know what. You have a point”
Saying that she spun her spear up, planted the butt to the ground, letting him be free of its warding tip once more as she told him that ”You do always lose in the end after all”
And this time, Ganondorf finally let himself smile. ”That’s more like it.” He replied with a satisfactory tone. ”And so this, I shall give thee for free. The Consuls get their power from devices known as Flame Clocks. The life of everyone in this world is connected to one of those clocks, and by sacrificing them the clocks can be fueled and used by the Consuls to extend their own lives beyond their limits. So I intend to find a way to destroy them and cut the Consuls off from their source of power and alleged immortality. They shall be ripe for the vanquishing after that, I think.”
”Now.” Ganondorf then sharply said as he turned around away from the Twilight Princess. ”If we’re done here, there are other things I wish to occupy my time with besides debating with thee.”
”What are you even doing in a place called Carnival Town anyway?” Midna asked from the roof of the building whose garden they were in, having shadow stepped up to it. She wasn’t looking at him while asking this but instead waving to Roxas, who’d landed a few doors down.
”T’was the cat lady’s idea.” Ganondorf said in response. ”Not mine.”
He glanced over at the boy she was waving to. Yet another would-be hero of light. He may have dressed somewhat darkly but Ganondorf could practically smell the stench of Light within him from here. Wonderful. Oh well, it couldn’t be any worse than Zelda and her Champion, could it?
Only time would tell, for the princess, who had already gone to link up with the others and find out who else was with Miss Fortune most certainly wouldn't be.
wordcount: 3,885 (+4) (+2 rapport for each other char) Midna: level 9 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (16/110) (+1 bonus pending) Location: Warp Charges: 1
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
With joining the Lost Numbers, at least for now, being the only logical course of action with their own ship battered and the promise of hope this new one held a frankly irrefutable offer. As such, the seekers hustled on up, only to be faced with another choice: where to go on the ship, and what to do with the time there.
There was a promise of celebration on the line in some ‘carnival town’ which did sound delightful, but Midna didn’t quite feel like she had earned it. She had been driven from battle and realized an awful truth of a deed she had done with her hands, and so she could not rest easy. She didn’t feel like she deserved to celebrate, not until she’d claimed a victory of her own. Improved, prepared for the future, and what better place to do that than a training room.
With a plan in mind, she approached the two people who might be able to lend her a hand, tapping both Geralt and Roxas on the shoulder in quick succession and enquiring ”You two have electrical type powers, right?” thinking she remembered seeing them use them in fights, even if they had never really fought as a proper team before.
“Yeah. From the Orphan, in my case.” Geralt looked at the Twilight Princess, suppressing the urge to ask why, though given that she’d been run off by Z after being hit by his lightning, she could hazard a guess.
”I… guess so?” Roxas replied with a shrug. If by that she meant he had a single spell that happened to be lightning elemental then yes. Although he couldn’t imagine why she would be asking for that specifically. But then he got the answer.
”I know we’ve been through a lot, but was wondering if you’d be able to help me with something? I was sort of a mess in that last fight, I’ve inherited phobias of sword, shield and lighting users, and I’ve been thinking about how to handle the latter better. But I need a user of lightning to test it against, so if you have the time and energy before we get to this carnival place, I’d appreciate the assistance” she explained, aware she was imposing at an inopportune time.
This gave Roxas a bit of a sinking feeling. ”What exactly are you asking me to do?” He asked with a bit of hesitance. In truth he had a pretty good guess at what she was about to have him do, but hey, maybe he was wrong? If this was what he was thinking, then… He really hoped she knew what she was doing.
”This thing” she said, indicating to her flygon that she’d never unsummoned and which was taking up a fair bit of the corridor ”Has a spirit that makes it immune to lighting. Or a whole bunch really. Turns out if you put 10 of the same one into something it becomes that thing, though that is beside the point. The point is that I have that same spirit. So I should be able to become immune to electricity too. I just need to, well, force the issue with lightning that isn’t also infused with light”
”At least I hope that is how this works” she was forced to add after a moment of doubt, but she really really did hope it did.
Roxas’ guess was basically on the money, ”So you want us to shoot some lightning at you because you’re trying to build up an immunity?” It kinda sorta made sense. In a chicken-pox kind of way, that is. This honestly sounded like something a Pscyhonaut like Raz could be a bigger help with. But unfortunately, he wasn’t with them now. ”Well,” Roxas said with a shrug, ”if you’re sure.” Funnily enough, Roxas had no idea that the Flygon was a Pokemon like Scamp was. Although, speaking of Scamp.
”Come to think of it, Scamp here has an electric move or two of his own.” Roxas added with a gesture toward the little puppy dog Pokemon that was following him around, ”So I guess maybe he could help too, if we need it.”
Geralt, on the other hand, was much less hesitant. “If it’s exposure you’re looking for, I have all three, though the shield only comes out when I transform. As long as we’re careful, it shouldn’t be any worse than the training courses at Kaer Morhen.” Though she was reluctant to put anybody else through that, she wasn’t exactly throwing Midna to a group of angry trolls. Just a force of nature known to strike men dead and start blazes that razed homes to the ground. Easy stuff.
Minda gulped at the prospect of going for all three, before shaking her head and then deciding to air on the side of caution with this at least, saying ”We’ll work up to all three. I can even lend you a shield, I suppose”
After that, all that was left was navigating to the elevator, riding up to the 4th floor, scooting past some kind of workshop and then finding the Training Center where they expected to find it. The door slid open after a button push, revealing a variety of equipment, most of which was alien to Midna at least. A beady eyed sandbag watched over typical gear like treadmills and dumbells, as well as a strange statue of all things.
For their purposes however, a small shooting range at the back of the room was just what the psychologist ordered, given the bulletproofed backwall, and so there they went.
Midna herself vaulted the barrier at the front, completely disregarding the safety notice and sat on it the rest of course, followed by her flygon. There she idly flicked one of the targets out of casual interest, causing it to fall back with a click (increasing a score counter in the process) before turning and presenting herself as a target in its place with a request of ”Alright, hit me. Lightly please”
Geralt looked around the training room, fairly impressed. It was well-equipped, that much was for sure. As they headed to the back and Midna took position as a target, Geralt nodded. “Alright. Roxas, not sure exactly what your buddy there can do, but I know your magic is on the more…robust side. I can start out with a few lightning-covered punches, if we think that’ll be the smoothest way to start off.”
”Scamp'll be a good way to start.” Roxas confirmed. He picked up the Pokémon and vaulted over the railing himself so he could put him back onto the floor, ”Midna needs your help, Scamp, so just go on over and hit her with an electric attack. Just use Nuzzle for now, okay?” The Yamper barked and bounded down the range to where Midna was sitting and proceeded to literally nuzzle against her. But he did so while electrifying his body. It was a low-power attack and wouldn't hurt that much, so that made it a good starting point.
”Let me know when you want to go further!” Roxas called out to Midna from where he stood.
Right after he did Midna gave a yelp of ”Ah!” as she flinched away from the zap she got from the shocking nuzzle, before gritting her teeth and growling in frustration, before muttering ”Come on, it’s just a dog” and then forcing herself to present a hand to get nuzzled again.
After two more zaps Midna at least wasn’t flinching as hard from the attacks, but she was still flinching from the light pain, to the point that her Flygon injected its tail into the situation to block the fourth, effortlessly negating the attack with its earth typing.
”Hey, no, I need to take these thing, I can’t just have you block it all if I’m going to get over this” she told it, pushing the tail aside and instructing it that ”Unless you can show me how you are doing that, then stay out of my way”
The mon made two stomps on the ground and then did a sort of crouch that might have been intended to be informative, but Midna read as frustration, giving the display a dismissive ”tch” before insisting that the others hit her with ”more. I need more dangerous lightning, whatever causes manifestation isn’t concerned with these delicate attacks”
”Okay!” Roxas confirmed, ”Go harder, Scamp! Use Spark!” the Yamper barked to confirm the command and then backed up a few steps. After this he charged forward and rammed into Midna’s side while his body was electrified. This resulted in a stronger jolt, more than three times than that of Nuzzle in fact. Now Scamp was hitting her as hard as he was currently capable of doing.
”Anything?” Roxas called out to Midna. He sort of figured Scamp wasn’t going to be enough by himself, but one could hope. Realistically he suspected it wouldn’t be much longer he’d be getting in there to discharge some lightning of his own. Thankfully his spells had three levels each to them, so when the time came Roxas could start a little easier with Thunder before working up to Thundara and Thundaga.
It wasn’t enough. Midna hissed in pain from the strike and actively stumbled back and away from it than the mere impact of the strike would necessitate. Her breathing was also heightened, the princess practically panting through her nose for a few moments, holding a hand to her chest, before hissing through clenched teeth and demanding ”more!” as her own pokemon looked on with concern, barely controlling its impulse to intervene.
Looking at Roxas, Geralt raised an eyebrow. “I think it’s time for you to really hit it.” She quipped, taking a few steps back.
Roxas held out a Poke Ball in his hand, ”Take a break, Scamp! Return!” At this, a thin red line shot from the ball's center button and enveloped Scamp, pulling him back into his Poké Ball. Roxas punched the button which made the ball shrink to pocket size before he put it away in his bag. Then he grabbed the guard rail and vaulted over it. He had to get a little closer before he could do his thing.
”Brace yourself.” He advised Midna as he summoned Oathkeeper, his white Keyblade. He held up the weapon and pointed its tip straight up and, ”Thunder!” He cast the spell and it called down a series of quick lightning bolts around him, but also on Midna as well.
”Thundara!” The second level spell called down stronger bolts over a somewhat wider area. It even had a slightly longer duration than the previous iteration. But Roxas wasn't quite done.
”Thundaga!” The third level spell called down even stronger bolts over an even wider area, and for a longer duration still. This, at last, was as hard as Roxas could go with electrical attacks. ”Well? Anything?”
In front of him Midna was too busy being engulfed in a storm of electricity, her face fixed in a mix of pain, fear and frustration as she shuddered and convulsed as it coursed through her body. Beside her, her flygon, caught in this final wave, stood firm for a moment, and then reached a claw down to bump the princess. She snarled at it through clenched teeth, only to see it sort of squat down, breath in, raising its claws up, and then breathe out, claws flowing down with the exhalation and then sweeping out.
She blinked, and then, with little left to lose with her plan seeming to have failed. Copied it, shaking limbs being drawn up with a breath, drawing the electricity to a spot where she had control of it as she planted herself firmly on the ground, and then with an exhalation she mimed pushing the electricity down into her grounded feet, letting it flow through, down and out of her. In, concentrate, out, disperse. In, concentrate, out, disperse. Till it was as natural as breathing and she didn’t need to think about it any more, and her fear could harm her no longer.
Earth Dragon Resistances (flygon): thanks to her inherited flygon typing, midna is immune to electric type damage, and has 50% resistance to poison, fire and rock type moves
A rather bloody and scorched Minda grinned toothily as the storm ended, before clapping her flygon on the shoulder and then finally replying to Roxas that ”Yeah, that did it”
Geralt looked on as Midna slowly overcame the lightning surrounding her, eventually grounding herself with the help of her Pokemon. She nodded, before replying, “And you mentioned swords and shield before, too? Are you ready to move on to that, or do you need a few minutes?” She’d recently dealt with a weakness of her own, though she shortcutted her way through that with a Fusion. She could respect how important this was for Midna.
”I…” she wavered, before deciding ”yes. Yes,, let’s do it!” with growing enthusiasm. She stepped forwards, a bit unsteadily re-vaulted the barrier of the firing range (who’s reinforced back wall hadn't saved its floor from being scorched by the final aoe lighting storm).
”Just to be clear, we don’t need to go all out and spar or something, I could not manage that right now” she said as she stepped into a small ring intended for that kind of fight training. She flicked a hand, summoning the icy tower shield, and with a kick slide it across the floor to the opposite side, before also summoning her Sun on a Stick. The spiky club looked menacing, but from experience it was very weak when not hitting something that was on fire, making it, in her mind, a perfect practice weapon.
”Alright, let’s see how bad this gets. I’ll at least learn that” she said as she gripped the the bat in two hands and took a defensive posture, before having a thought and saying ”Somehow, the fact that I’ve never actually practiced with a weapon feels so much weirder now than it does when I’m actually intending to fight with them. All borrowed instinct and training, but now that I’m actually thinking about it I’m thinking about it too much” she adjusted her stance a little bit here and there, before shaking her head and then saying ”whenever your ready” because she was as ready as she’d ever be.
Geralt took the shield and hefted it with a grunt of exertion, letting the weight settle before drawing the Sign of Quen in the air, her steel sword coming shortly after. It never hurt to be safe, as she’d learned last time she had a friendly spar with an ally and nearly died during it.
When Midna gave the go ahead, she stepped forward, flourishing her sword in a quick twirl, before taking a very light swing at the haft of the club in Midna’s hands.
For her part, the princess did manage to block the blow, though it was a little bit shaky and she was rather wide eyed while doing so. ”Yeah, that’s a different and still not fun feeling compared to shields and lighting. But. I’m managing. Put on the last of the three, so I can face her death” she requested, referring, in her mind, to both Urbosa’s ends.
Nodding and taking a small breath, Geralt released it as the sword in her hand became cloaked in eldritch lightning, before once more giving a test swing at the haft of the club. Wouldn’t do to catch her by surprise and hurt the Twili.
Midna froze upon seeing the lightning despite her new immunity, her irrational fear response completely ignoring that new facet of herself as she was reduced to a deer in headlights in the face of Thunderblight Ganon’s fighting style. There was no shaky block this time, as the club was simply struck from her grasp despite the carefulness of the test swing, leaving her facing down the tip of the electricity enshrouded blade, panting hard and fast.
Geralt sighed as Midna froze and her weapon was sent skittering across the floor, pulling her sword back and watching the other woman closely. “Midna?” Her brow furrowed as she watched Midna, and Geralt took a step back to give her some room.
The princess blinked, her unfocused eyes unfixing their gaze from the shocking blade, and panting turned to hissing of frustration through clenched teeth. Only after forcing a deep breath did she manage to reply that ”That… was so much worse all together”
”Which is… so stupid. It can’t hurt me any more. It can’t. It can’t!” she told herself, trying to hammer it home as she bent down, picked up the bat and requested they do it ”again!”
As commanded, Geralt lifted her blade, watching Midna’s eyes to be sure she was ready, but relented. “If you say so,” she said, taking another swing, even harder than the last.
Knowing it was coming helped, the extra strength in the hit not so much. Preemptively gripping her weapon tight kept it in her hands when her body froze in fear stopped her from dropping it, and so it was she instead who dropped to one knee. In some ways, however, the forced movement helped; her body automatically reacted to prevent her from going down entirely, feet shifting, a magical hand spreading out to brace against the ground, proving she could indeed move.
Despite this, it was all she could muster to lunge a fourth and final hand forwards, grabbing the blade, its edges biting into her hand and drawing blood even as the electricity was unleashed into her body, only for her to earth it all, killing the cloak of lighting. Then a moment later it flared to light with new electricity, this all her own.
As Midna’s fourth hand appeared and grabbed her blade, Geralt let go of the weapon and stepped back, drawing the Sign of Quen again and focusing on the magic, a bubble of protective energy appearing around her, as she called out to Midna. “Midna! Drop it!”
”Huh?” Minda replied, her expression of delight turning to one of confusion, that confusion and the remaining underlying stress, causing her to take a heartbeat longer than she normally would to let go of the blade and move to step away from it.
Watching Midna carefully, Geralt dropped the Quen bubble and slowly stepped forward, leaning down to pick up her sword. “Well…whatever that was, it seems to have overcome your fears, if even for a moment. Would be worth looking into moderating that manic energy that came with it, though. Still, it’s progress. Nilfgaard wasn’t built in a day.” She affirmed, though part of her, likely the Orphan, was angry that her lightning had been usurped. “If you could use that against Z when he inevitably shows his face again, he’d be in for quite the surprise, as well.”
”Use what?” Midna asked, confused, before thinking she got it and saying ”Oh you mean this?” as she held up the bat close to her chest and charred it with Urbosa’s lighting powers and then explained that ”I’ve been able to do this for a while. It was Urbosa’s thing, along with using a sword and shield. Ironic that I’m both scared of a thing I can do, I know, and that I’d now be terrified of her now”
Geralt blinked, then nodded. “Hmm. Not sure I’ve noticed that before now, though I’ve not used the Orphan’s lightning on my own weapons terribly often, either. Having that fear weighing you down isn’t helpful, I’m sure. Do you want to try again, or is that enough for now?” She asked.
Midna raised her hand to check how the cut she’d given herself grabbing the sword was (bleeding a fair amount), then looked down at her lighting scorched body and decided that ”I think that’s enough. I know I can do it now, and I probably should have this all looked at” and then after a beat, gave a short bow and a ”Thank you both for helping me with this, especially with time that could have been used relaxing after a lighting storm instead of making our own indoors”
Despite herself, Geralt gave a small chuckle. Barely audible, but it was there. “True. I’m sure Blazermate or Sandalphon would be happy to give you a quick fix.” She nodded at Midna, stowing her sword and putting down the shield she’d been given. “And there’s your shield.
Roxas had been watching in silence ever since Geralt. He figured she knew what she was doing and probably didn’t need him getting the way, just as she hadn't gotten in his or Scamp's way. But now that it was over, there was one last thing Midna loomed like she needed. And so Roxas decided to use the last of his MP to do that for her. ”Heal!” He said suddenly, using his Curaga spell to patch the Twilight Princess up. Technically it affected himself and Geralt too but neither of them were injured so they wouldn't feel any difference. ”There ya go. Couldn't just leave you injured like that, ya know?”
”Thank you both” she replied, flexing a repaired hand and then using it to tap the shield, popping it away into the twilight realm, along with her bat. After that she added ”I need to pay you back for this, so hopefully this carnival town will have something worth paying for” offering to cover some kind of expense. It’d be the least she could do to make up for the leisure time she’d just taken up.
“If you insist,” Geralt replied. She wouldn’t say no to a good meal.
With any luck they’d not have much longer to wait till they arrived.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”A carnival that’s a whole town? That sounds so cool!” Jr of all people replied first to Nadia’s call about popping over to the aforementioned Carnival town. After being able to show off riding their new chainsaw motorbike by riding around the track, the prince had mainly faded into the background as Rika remained the center of the attention of the crowds who’d witnessed her titanic take down of the terrible train, a situation was leaving him rather bored and a fair bit jealous. Getting out of here was very much a good plan in his books as a result.
It was also good in Kamek’s books, because the mage could read the way the wind was blowing mood wise when it came to their hosts opinion of them, quietly adding to the com link that ”Yes, it might be best we skip town sooner rather than later. We may have made a touch of a scene, and while the mood is celebratory right now, I’d rather not stick around to see if things sour once they finish being impressed by Rika’s suplexing of their their demonic train race track feature and go to being upset about it” which was certainly a statement that needed more context than was provided (and which would be on the ride to Carnival town, should it be requested).
As it was, there was still something of a party atmosphere going on, the crowd that had been passively following the troop having both swelled in size due to Rika’s unmissable performance and having then closed in mostly so its members could get a chance to interact with the bemused hero of the hour. Despite not really getting why she was getting the attention and requests for handshakes, she did find she rather enjoyed regaling people with tales of her short life, as well as showing off her moves and skills to the sound of applause and praise.
All this had as a result turned the people watching into something of an impromptu celebration, one onto which clever vendors had descended upon like hawks to pour fuel on the fire. There where a lot of glasses of little fruity drinks called the Noble Pursuit floating around the crowd now, ones that had been the source of another, much less disruptive, incident. Bowser had uncharacteristically stuck his nose up at an offer of free refreshments due to the smell coming off the little drinks that reminded him of Bacchus, which was both insulting to the townsfolk and also resulted in him and Rika’s first argument and falling out over something when she’d wanted to try it despite his misgivings about the beverage.
The offer of the drinks first being on Rika’s side and then switching over to Bowsers when it turned out the girl was functionally mere days old mentally (and they had no idea physically) hadn’t helped either. Witnessing this, Jr’s mood, and the crowd growing a bit more rowdy in response to the drink flowing, Kamek cunningly encouraged the prince to go harangue his family into going along with Nadia’s idea as soon as possible. As such the boy ended up stepping between both of the huffy pair, grabbing a finger of each of their comparatively oversized hands and then chanting ”Carnival! Carnival! Carnival! Let’s go to the Carnival!” while doing his best to drag them along after him by said fingers.
Kamek then swooped in to tell the crowd”Thank you very much for your hospitality, but we’ll be heading of to carnival town now for some RnR” as the prince pulled his family out of it via a mix of stubbornness and and infectious enthusiasm.
“The kid knows it’s not an actual carnival right?” the guard captain who was frankly very happy at the prospect of getting them out of her hair, but was a good enough soul that she felt the need to inform them of this potential disappointment anyway, said, prompting an ”ah” from Kamek
“Yeah but it’s still great! Races and games galore!” one of the sand seal racers called out, prompting her to be flooded with questions about her travels in the world, something that was a good enough distraction for Kamek to hurry on after the prince (who was happily babbling on about what a carnival was to Rika) so he could break the bad news.
A little bit later a slightly less enthusiastic Jr stepped out of the train station and took in the first sight of the town along with the rest of his family, which involved something that was ironically pretty familiar: racers daringly racing over train tracks.
”Wait, so that’s normal? They’re having fun, why are they putting themselves at risk of dying? That’s what having fun is for getting away from isn’t it?” Rika said as she scratch her head with a massive finger, very bemused as she once again casually demonstrated how messed up her life was, knowing only deadly situations interspersed with far shorter moments of down time, and having never experienced anywhere close to a peaceful period of busywork and idleness.
”I mean, getting run over by a cat isn’t nearly as dangerous as getting run over by a demon train. Plus, we have races into oncoming traffic and those are fine too, you just gotta be tough, and have a tough kart and the worst you’ll get are some bumps” Jr replied confident that any racer worth their salt could survive a run in with a big kitty cat no problem.
”Ohhhhh. Ok so the death train was weird. Got it” Rika replied, firmly re-cementing her position that she’d done the right thing picking a fight with a train, before asking ”So what’s traffic?”
”Ah. Well. Imagine lots of larger Karts, all wanting to go to different places instead of just around a track, and doing so rather slowly as they get in each other's way” Kamek attempted to explain, which resulted in Rika swiftly concluded that ”That doesn't sound very fun”
The mage made a little nose exhale of a laugh before agreeing ”No, no I suppose it isn’t”
At this point they’d gotten out of the subway and onto the street itself, interrupting the talk as they took in the town proper, including both the advertisements for recreational activities, and also the score boards. The latter of these prompted an exclamation from Bowser as he saw that ”Oh hey look, Captain Falcon’s up there in the top spot. Me and Junior know that guy. Kinda. One of the people who was with us on the cliff at the start of this. We should go get him, he punches stuff real good” before glancing at Ganondorf and adding ”In a way that’s kinda like you fight, when you aren't swording things anyway. Just faster, and with fire instead of purple stuff. Always thought that was kinda weird”
Then right after that Jr also piped up, going ”Oh oh oh! Look! Morton and Larry are both on there too! We should go get them too” before frowning as he went down the rest of the lists and said ”huh, its just them though. Weird that Galeem didn’t stick all the koopalings together” letting slip a hint of worry in the process.
”Eh, I’m sure they’re fine wherever they are” Bowser reassured his son, prompting the prince to nod, think for a moment, and then shrug by saying that ”I mean, I guess they’ll just respawn if they aren't”
”Oh. Right.” Bowser replied slowly, before grunting that complaining that ”Bah, that is weird to get used too” only to then also think for a moment and then say ”Then again, I broke out of the afterlife once so, you know, not actually that weird if you think about it?” before launching it an embellished tale about how he escaped the Hades like Underware and ‘conquered’ the heavenly Overthere by defeating the totally dangerous and not at all a pushover Bonechill.
Rayna visible wiped her brow in response to the mercenaries taking on her idea of competing rather than fighting, and then gave a silent mime of a scream of frustration when their leader took that idea and turned it right back around to sparing, which as far as she was concerned was basically the same thing. At least it was outside of town and not a mess of a brawl, but she herself was more a practicing vs training dummies than practicing vs people kinda lady, and so the prospect of sparing didn’t enthuse her like it clearly did some of the other ladies.
She hoped just showing off vs some of the left over wreckage would be an option they’d accept. If not? Well, Rayne started mulling over ways she could prove she was strong in a fight without actually hitting anyone with a spell card strike. Maybe dodging in close and ‘tagging’ them to prove she could hit them without doing so?
The thought of not being part of the fights didn’t really cross her mind, probably due to 10 years of impostor syndrome, until she overheard Anne talking to Lewa about overseeing the sparring matches, a thing that would, naturally, involve not actually taking part in said fights, resulting in a little “Oh” of understanding.
With a relieved look on her face she floated over to the other two and said “Hi, do mind if I join the supervising? It’s probably better if the people with non-lethal magic do this stuff. Well and Frankenstine, but she seems to have enough control that even when she go overboard won’t be much of a risk”
True, she’d had to help prevent a few trampling last time Frankenstine let loose, but if she was here to help out again, things should be fine, right. Right?
Izurich
Drifting Pollen
Rezod92
Lexisheeps
xxjessicaxx
Timemaster
Eviledd1984
pkken
VitaVitaAR
