2 Guests viewing this page
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by MULTI_MEDIA_MAN
Raw
Avatar of MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

MULTI_MEDIA_MAN

Member Seen 14 hrs ago

Geralt of Rivia

Devil's Casino

Lvl 4 (16/40) -> Lvl 4 (17/40)

Word Count: 328 words


The trio's victory was just a bit anticlimactic, to be honest. The best fights were, though. A long, drawn out epic battle was more often than not two people slugging out a grudge and not fighting to kill, but to make the other person suffer. Geralt, the Courier, and his Gaige-thing were fighting to kill. Or, well, to maim. Wound? Knock out? Win.

They were fighting to win, and win they did, handily. As the oversized liquor bottle fell, the Courier exploded at Geralt, yelling about how he "had that hombre", but he was quick to reign himself in. At first, Geralt only offered a raise eyebrow as a response before understanding reached him as the Courier mentioned that this "Inferno" made him too aggressive. Along with balancing some ingredients? He wasn't sure what "serotonin" or that other thing were. "Huh, would've said you'd drank some Thunderbolt if I didn't know better. That'll really drive you mad." He commented, heading out of the portal. For once, Geralt didn't hate going through a portal. It was...less disorienting than portals usually were. Small miracle, he figured.

Geralt didn't object to the Courier taking the lead and hitting the die without even offering to let Geralt. There was no way the other man had worse luck. Such a thing was simply not possible. Whatever the result was, Geralt could see that they were in the final stretch. A few fights were still going, and the count was already at 6 out of 13 before the Courier smacked the die.

They were winning. Geralt looked up at their massive adversary and crossed his arms, an unimpressed look on his face. "There's gotta be a catch here." He spoke out loud, as much to Gneidxick as to his allies. "Just haven't quite figured it out yet. That, or he just really underestimated us that much, but I'm not the type to assume things will go well if there's a chance they won't."
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by thedman
Raw
Avatar of thedman

thedman Fanatical Purifier

Member Seen 4 yrs ago

Michael and Franklin

Level 5- (9/50) EXP / Level 4- (13/40) EXP (+1 EXP)
Location: Devil's Casino
Wordcount: 258



As the two walked into the room, the two were once again taken aback by the bizarre atmosphere. It looked like they were in the middle of outer space, but with pool balls floating around. They soon noticed one in particular, the eight ball, that was floating before them. Before either of them could say anything, a pair of eyes and rows of teeth suddenly appeared on it, staring at them in a disturbing manner. Michael blinked as the thing spoke to him, looking at his rifle. "Uhhh...what?"

Their confusion, not helped by the fact that they just woke up, got the better of them. Before they could react, the projectile burst at their feet, knocking them down. As they hit the floor, reality quickly set back in, and adrenaline pumped through their veins. Despite how bizarre their opponent was, there was no time for gawking- they needed to fight. Rolling to avoid the bouncing chalks, the two managed to get up quickly enough, Michael reaching down to grab his rifle and Franklin taking out his pistol. "We gotta keep moving! Frank, you distract him while I line up a shot."

Franklin nodded, running forward while dodging the chalks. He ran to the left, firing several pistol shots at Mangosteen in an attempt to draw his attention. At the same time, Michael ran towards the right, rifle in hand. As Franklin fired his pistol, he aimed his rifle, taking a few moments to steady his aim before firing his rifle, aiming for the big '8' in its' center.

Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Archmage MC
Raw
Avatar of Archmage MC

Archmage MC

Member Seen 7 hrs ago

Blazermate and Queen Sectonia

Level 6 - (10/60) +3
Level 1 - (6/10) +3
Location: The tower
Word Count: 1384


Blazermate and Sectonia were caught in the confusion blast of the strange jellyfish. Sectonia dropped her sword as she buzzed around a bit haphazardly and Blazermate toppled a bit herself, her suffering arm having its tongue thrash about before she fell on said arm. The pair recovered when Jak killed the strange creature, Sectonia recovering first and regaining her composure while Blazermate had to get herself to her feet before she could regain hers. All in all, it looked like that blast just disoriented everyone and did no damage, so no healing was needed. None of the other civilians or those guiding them out were caught in the blast. Speaking of which, Blazermate turned her head to watch them all funnel through the teleporter.

Blazermate watched as her engineering buddy despawned in a flash of light as the more hesitant civilians had made their way throgh the teleporter after getting all cured up. Sectonia also watched in curiosity, having never really seen technology of this magnitude from where she was from. What she thought was even more interesting was that odd almost shimmering texan man disappearing in a poof of sparkles. Curiosity getting the better of her, Sectonia asked pointing at the disappearing Dell "What was that?". Blazermate hearing her, replied. "Oh, thats what these spirit things can do. Thats what is called a 'striker', although you gotta actually 'bond' with the spirit itself. So you gotta be friends with them." Sectonia thought on this for a second, but didn't think too much about it. She was sure with a bit of magic she could bend a spirit to her will.

As Jak and Ratchet freed the other two creatures, Daxter spent this time to rebuke Sectonia. She didn't pay the grotesque furry tree thing much thought as she was more interested in these 'spirits' than whatever he had to say, although when she got the jist of what Daxter was saying, she was pretty mad. Blazermate could see the scowl on Sectonia's face at what Daxter had said, and fearing another fight, she tugged on one of the flowery frills on Sectonia's lower body to get her attention. Gesturing for Sectonia to get closer, Blazermate whispered in her ear. "Don't hurt him too bad." Sectonia laughed at this notion though, flying above Daxter and pointing at him, backhanded laughing at him "Oh, I'm sure that wont make a difference. It sounds like you fell into a vat of rotting parasites, and that was before you became a tree." Saying that, Sectonia flew over to the saurian, pulling out one of her staffs. "Welp, I can't heal that kind of burn." Blazermate said, laughing.

Sectonia, interested in trying one of these spirits out for herself, attempted to strike the saurian in front of her with a blast of magic. But instead of a beam of pure magic blasting the thing, nothing happened. She tried a few more times, but nothing happened. And as she tried blasting the thing, the saurian awoke, leaping at Sectonia and biting her on her lower body, poison seeping into her. Angry that this thing would date strike her, Sectonia stabbed the beast with a sword she conjured in her other hand, finishing it off. Sectonia could feel the poison doing some serious work, although Blazermate, ever the attentive medic, noticed Sectonia's injury and got to work, first cleansing the poison that was eating at her from the inside, then healing up her wounds. Blazermate did notice that said poison looked like it'd be a nasty, nasty thing if it ran its course, as it was doing some serious damage to Sectonia for the brief period she was affected by it.

The long tailed creature, meanwhile, awoke and fled in fear as Sectonia was dealing with the poisonous creature. Seeing as this one was just running in terror at the sight of everything and being let out of its tube, Blazermate said. "Its up to you guys what we do with this one. Its just scared so..." As Blazermate was talking to Jak and Ratchet, the creature felled by Sectonia turned into a spirit soon afterwords. Picking up the orb of light from the ground, Sectonia Looked at Blazermate and said. "Now what?", flying to be a bit lower to the ground than she was previously, but still towering over Blazermate.

"Well, you can put it into yourself to get parts like mine, talk to it and become friends to summon it, or crush it and get an item. There was something else but I don't remember what it was." Blazermate said, turning to Sectonia. Sectonia looked at the spirit for a moment before crushing it, not interested at all in taking it into her beautiful self. Storing the item she got from crushing Acrid, Sectonia waited to see what the others would do with the long tailed creature flailing around.

With everything cleared out, and only the last few of them here, Blazermate said. "Well, I don't need to sleep, but I'd rather do maintenance on myself in the NOT zombie filled land of horror. Everyone through the teleporter." Blazermate said, waiting for everyone to teleport to the Land of Adventure before she finally went through, being the last one to teleport away. Sectonia was a bit worried her large size would cause issues with the teleporter, but it didn't care at all and whisked her away like everyone else.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Sectonia and Blazermate found themselves in the Land of Adventure with everyone else. Sectonia didn't see the outside of the tower she was trapped in so she didn't know the hellscape everyone had escaped from. She did notice the few survivors she had seen go through the teleporter overjoyed and almost weeping being in this place, as if this place was the most beautiful thing they had seen. Sectonia didn't share the same sentiment, there was a huge lack of flowers here and the castle looked more gloomy than pretty. "Considering all the zombies and demons and stuff, thats probably the right reaction for most of them." Blazermate said, walking by Sectonia. Blazermate was looking around for Bowser and everyone else that were adventuring here. She looked around, and couldn't find Bowser, or anyone for that matter. It was only later that she found out they were fighting the region boss themselves. Since she was a bit bored, Blazermate found a fairly safe spot and sat down and started to do some maintenance, pulling off her parts to clean and fix any slight damage they might have.

Sectonia meanwhile flew around the castle, getting a look at everything. She soon figured that this wouldn't be a great place to start her kingdom, but getting something started here and these people worshiping her wouldn't be a bad idea. She pulled out one of her staffs, and tried casting some magic, but noticed that it still wasn't working for some reason. Seeing as that mismatched 'medabot' knew stuff about this world, Sectonia flew around a bit until she spotted the robot girl. Blazermate was maintaining one of her legs at this moment, her leg in her hand with her tinpet showing where the leg part was. Seeing Sectonia, Blazermate reattached her leg and got up from her sitting position. "I'm waiting for Bowser to get back, Need something?" Blazermate said.

"Blazermate, my magic isn't working. Do you know why?" Sectonia said in a demanding tone. Blazermate scratched her head before saying. "Well... From what I can tell, Galeem did something to everyone. You'll get your powers back in time. It took me days before I could use the Medaforce again, so just give it time." Sectonia wasn't happy with this answer, but considering the medabot hadn't lied to her yet, so she took what Blazermate said at face value. "Very well." Sectonia said, before flying off to woo the citizens of this kingdom to worship her beauty the old fashioned way. Blazermate meanwhile went back to preform maintenance on herself, cleaning herself up before going into a lower power state herself.
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Genon
Raw
Avatar of Genon

Genon

Member Seen 1 yr ago

Donnie

Word Count: 1,063
Location: Adventurer’s Guild → Sisters of the Anvil → Adventurer’s Guild → Hole → Devil’s Casino
EXP: Level 5 --> (10/50) + 2 = 12/50


The general flow of people carried Donnie along with it toward the Adventurers’ Guild. At first, given the mad scramble outside, it seemed like the whole place might be a madhouse, but a gathering of people with nothing but the best intentions proved highly amenable to reason. Trusty as ever, the Houndmaster had established some organization inside the guild castle itself, preventing anyone from wantonly diving into the cartoonish black hole the guildmaster supposedly left behind. With unknown and unpredictable powers on hand, he argued a strong case for proper procedure. Preparations had begun for a large-scale interdiction, with the various adventurers backing off to fully supply and equip themselves, while the sheriff directed a quick reconnaissance effort with the help of a few choice veterans and sturdy rope.

That left Donnie in the same boat as everyone else who wanted to help: possessed of a couple minutes to get ready while the heroes’ rescue was planned out.

So there Donnie was, saved by the Houndmaster injecting some sanity into the operation. He had a precious few minutes to prepare, and he was not going to waste it. Quickly thanking him, he ran out into the town streets, looking for a good blacksmith.

He came across what looked like a town hall with an oversized furnace attached to the side. It radiated heat for upwards of a dozen yards even before he entered, and when he did enter the building marked “Sisters of the Anvil,” that heat became downright sweltering.

It was clear that this was a well-used smithy staffed by experts from the moment he stepped in. Countless blacksmithing tools of every size, shape, and description hung on the walls. Several anvils dotted the place, along with numerous cooling pools and workbenches, clearly meant to put out weapons and tools at a rate approaching, if not quite meeting, mass production.

It wasn’t long before he came across the nearest of the three sisters, a pink-haired woman performing what was clearly some kind of mana-injection process on an otherwise-finished sword. “Hi!” she said, “I’m Rena, what can I do for you?”

Donnie responded with, “You heard about the operation at the Guild Hall?”

“Yep. You’re not even the first adventurer to come in here in the last few minutes. Everyone’s gearing up for the rescue operation, and I’ve been fixing up anything they bring in.”

Donnie smiled. “You work fast, I see. Think you can fix up mine?”

“Probably.”

A few moments later…

“Are you sure that armor wasn’t ceremonial?”

“...No?”

“That armor had world-record gems in the gauntlets and a helmet shaped like a tiger head! And you call that not ceremonial?!” the yellow-haired girl yelled incredulously from further into the shop.

“I don’t know, I think it was kinda cute!” said the blue-haired girl.

Donnie sighed as he finished putting on his gauntlets. “Look, Rena, you handle enchanting, right? You can tell how strong the enchantments on this set of armor are. It’s not ceremonial, trust me.”

“Whatever you say, tiger-boy,” Rena said mischievously.

“Now that I won’t argue.” Donnie said with a laugh. “Now, I really have to go. I think the operation’s starting.”

And with that, Donnie walked out of the shop and booked it over to the Adventurer’s Guild. As he entered, he said, “Hey, Houndmaster, I’m all readied up, let me know when we’re going to start!”

From the looks of it, just about everyone had been assembled into ranks taking the shape of concentric circles around the hole in the guild hall’s floor. At the Houndmaster’s direction, Donnie joined the innermost loop, poised to be one of the first leaping into the unknown. A tense few moments passed by as the final checks were made, and after the Houndmaster gave the all-clear, the operation officially began.

Donnie quickly looked over his equipment, checking his armor (now in pristine condition, unsurprisingly--even the leather parts!) and the Fists (they’d been used to kill a lot of things lately, they could have probably done with a touch-up and a sharpening too, but the strength of the enchantments within more than made up for it), and then readied himself by getting on his trusty Disc of the Red Flying Cloud. He wouldn’t let this thing be a liability this time. He was just going to use it to descend safely without relying on the ropes everyone else was going to use. He took a deep breath, got into a cross-legged position on the disc to keep his stability, and when the signal was given, he made to move to the center of the hole and rapidly descend.

As he descended down the hole, he first noticed how freakishly deep it was, and the pure blackness on all sides other than directly up and down. It was obvious it was some kind of magical hole to begin with, but he expected it to be closer to a portal, not an extradimensional tunnel. It reminded him of the magical properties of the Luggage, and other Azerothian bags, more than anything else. It was as if the hole was a magical space layered on top of reality. The ground underneath the Adventurer’s Guild still existed, but this space coexisted with the foundation, soil, and rock. If an earthworm burrowed through the soil this tunnel filled, it probably wouldn’t notice anything different from the usual soil it was eating. But if you entered through the hole, you’d end up in this sub-universe instead.

He was descending at maximum speed, so he was faster than the other heroes, who were descending via simple gravity. Can they really survive the fall? Donnie asked himself. Well, now that I think about it, they are from other worlds so maybe? I couldn’t manage that without Zen Flight. Come to think of it, I hope I remember that ability soon….

Soon, Donnie emerged into the light below, slowing to a stop as he looked around. Getting off the Disc and holding it under his arm, he saw that he was in...a giant casino? A bunch of hazy-looking portals stood in front of him, with a giant dice-headed man looming over him. Skeletons monsters, and demons in fancy suits and expensive dresses played their money games around the table, and in the colossal casino grounds beyond.

What the hell have I gotten myself into? Donnie thought to himself as he facepalmed.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by DracoLunaris
Raw
Avatar of DracoLunaris

DracoLunaris Multiverse tourist

Member Seen 19 hrs ago


The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1354(+3) (jr is napping, no xp for him)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (30/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (18/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(23/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino


”Not looking like a conveyor belt so far” Bowser noted with relief after he took in their surroundings, which appeared to be some kind of magician's lair.

There was no time for additional commentary however, as Gneidxick clearly wanted to get the show on the road. His hand plunged down into a top hat that was about as large as the Koopa King and pulled their opponent out of it.

”Giant animal. Classic” Bowser commented when confronted by the oversized bunny rabbit magician, while Kamek merely grumbled about that being his gimmick as he quickly mounted his broom and took off into the void filled with cards and roses surrounding the table. Unlike Bowser’s previous foe the oversized rabbit did not introduce themselves. Instead they let out a bout of manic laughter as they unleashed their fist spell, beginning the summoning of several rabbit skull shaped skulls around Bowser. These began to rapidly rotate around the king as they formed, phasing through the floor as they did so and in so doing making it abundantly clear that they were also forming below him even if he could not see them.

”Hey no fair, you can't just surround someone with projectiles like that!” Bowser yelled at the rabbit but the bunny seems to have little interest in fair play. Instead with another wave of its wand it completed the conjuration, causing the skulls to cease spinning and instead begin to closed in on the king.

The bunny cackled evilly as the ring closed in on the rapidly panicking Bowser until a call of ”Sire. Over here!” caught both of their attention. The rabbit scowled at the other magician, only for shock to suddenly grip its features as Bowser leaped sideways(!) into the void, laughing as he soared towards one of the other floating cards.

”Welcome to the third dimension cheater!”

As the ring of skulls crashed harmlessly together the rabbit ground its teeth together angrily before shouting wordlessly at the Koopa as he crashed into a floating card and barely managed to hold on as his momentum caused it to drift out further into the void. Then it formed another ring, not around either of the Koopas but instead around the card floating on the table, after which it gesture wildly to the gap at the bottom of the circle it had formed through which Bowser could have escaped. Then it crossed its arms and stared at Bowser angrily because in the rabbit’s opinion it was he who has cheated by going out of the bounds of the stage.

”Oh come on how was I supposed to see that!” Bowser yelled back as he continued to float away into the void. ”Don’t put the gap under ground next time!”

Several more bouts of yelling and gesturing resolved nothing as Bowser insisted that the rapid spinning made it impossible to see the gap and asking how was he supposed to know he had to stand on the card in-order to dodge the first cheap shot. This all gave Kamek plenty of time to sample one of the giant flowers. They tasted rather good in the wizened turtle’s opinion. His second breakfast was rudely interrupted however when the rabbit decided they were done with words, or rather frustrated about their inability to speak them in order to argue with Bowser, and went back on the offensive.

With a slash of their wand they formed a row of card suit symbols just ahead of them and then sent them hurtling out into the void after the now rather distant Bowser. One of these symbols was pink, but seeing as neither of the koopas were familiar with the mechanics of Gneidxick’s universe this meant absolutely nothing to them. Instead Bowser did as he had done before, launching himself from his card to another one before the line of symbols scythe through his former position, causing the two haves of the card to plummet down into the void.

”ALRIGHT IT’S ON,” Bowser roared before returning fire from his new perch by taking a deep breath and spitting out a massive fireball at the bunny. The weightless projectile rolled through the sky towards the rabbit who, after a short moment of sweat inducing panic, grabbed the sides of the hat he was in and hooped it to one side like they were in a sack race. After they came to a rest the two glared at one-another for an intense moment, which ended as Kamek’s own contribution, a swirling mass of 3 colored shapes, slapped into the rabbit.

Hostilities immediately erupted for a third time, with the rabbit sending wave after wave of projectiles at Bowser as he leapt from card to card, while simultaneously forcing Kamek to fly around avoiding rings of skulls. Meanwhile Bower and Kamek returned fire when they could, fire and magic bombarding the tabletop as the Rabbit bounced too and fro to avoid them. This went on until Bowser started running out of cards.

”Uh. Um. CHARGE!” he yelled, before launching himself back towards the table top, leaping from card to card as rings and waves tried to blast him to bits. Then with one final leap he hurled himself at the rabbit. Instead of dodging the rabbit saw their chance to end this and instead forming a wall of projectiles in front of the incoming turtle. In response Bowser retracted into his limbs into his shell and then, at the last second, Kamek cast enlarge upon him mid flight. The flying spiky shell increased in size for just a moment and then plowed thought he shots causing the spell to lose its potency. Bowser instantly shrunk back down immediately but thanks to the spel they made it through with only a few scratches to his name rather than suffering grievous bodily harm.

Bowser smashed into the stunned rabbit, rendering it literally stunned as the collision sent the bunny reeling while Bowser fell back down to the table cloth with a thud. The bunny shook its head to clear the stars floating around it’s skull, and then, once its sense quickly returned to it, grinned evilly. The turtle was out of cards to jump between, it thought to itself, and now he was trapped on the table where it belonged. Victory would now it’s to claim! This thought lasted right up until the point where a second not quite as massive hat was plonked down on top of it’s own, trapping it between both of the hat’s velvet interiors. Then it felt both hats were being lifted and before it could do anything the shaking began. The horrible horrible shaking.

Outside Bowser, enlarged by both his and the now static Kamek’s channel enlargement spell, gabbed the top of each hat and lifted them up while keeping their bottoms pushed together so that the rabbit could not escape. Then he began shaking both of them like a cocktail mixer.

After a minute of vigorous mixing the rabbit could take no more. A minute after that it finally managed to jab it’s wand out of a crack between the hats. Bowser immediately gabbed for it but discovered that it had not been poked out to blindly attack but instead to wave around a white neckerchief tied to the end in surrender.

In response revived and Thoroughly scrambled rabbit was unceremoniously deposited on the back onto the table by Bowser. With the thread dealt with Bowser immediately began to shrink back down as Kamek ended his spell and flew down to join his master, though not before he retirved one of the floating roses for a post brawl snack.

”Another spectacular victory over Gneidxick‘s minions your majesty” the wizard congratulated his king.

”Yep. That's what happens when you mess with the best!” Bowser replied smugly before tossing the rabbit magician’s wand, which had shrunk with him, to Kamek ”Here. Least we might get something useful out of this.”

Kamek thanked him and then, after a tap with his own wand to adjust and fix the size of the wand, popped it into a pocket in his robes. While the two had been congratulating themselves and mugging their foe the portal had opened leading back to the center. The two turned to go, but not before Bowser laid out some more criticism.

”So yeah, make the ring gap more obvious. Also no idea how you were supposed to deal with the walls in a flat plain. You need to put some work in if you wanna measure up to the best!” he told the bunny before hopping through the portal after Kamek, ready to spin the dice once more.

They missed the conversation between peach and Gneidxick by a long shot, but arrived just in time to watch as the green Kamek clone put the last touches to its very helpful creation.
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Majoraa
Raw
Avatar of Majoraa

Majoraa Oyasumi~

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago



Level: 2
EXP 3/20
Word Count: 2,219
Current Location: Dead Zone >> Land of Adventure (Lumbridge)
Collab between @Majoras End and @Lugubrious



"Excellent. Then we`ll go straightaway," said the stranger. He half-turned away to start the trip, evidently in no mood to dilly-dally, but stopped himself and faced Joker once more. "Oh, where are my manners? We can hardly act as teammates without even knowing one another`s names."

He reached up and just a hint of slowness removed his hood. Joker found himself looking at a man in his thirties, with broad lips and an angular nose, with bluish-gray eyes and thin brows beneath a head of rich black hair styled to swoop down over his right eye. His sophisticated features bore an easy smile, as if he was eternally privy to some revelation lost to everyone else. Something vaguely familiar hung about his person, but his was a face Joker had never seen before.

"I am Santofex," the black-coated savant declared.

Though he tried to think of where he could have met Santofex before, the thief decided to just asked later. "Call me Joker."




With just two stealth-minded humans versus a whole crowd of panicky civilians and heavy-footed heroes, traversing the dangerous and infested streets of the Dead Zone was a whole lot easier. The black-coated savant led his new acquaintance through streets, alleyways, and the husks of once-bustling buildings, navigating around zombie mobs and wandering demons on the way. To avoid detection they moved through the perennial night in silence, communicating through gestures, and in so doing managed to evade ambush. It also allowed them a good look at the general population, and the crowds they found exhibited a worrying preponderance of Flood.

They arrived at the hotel Santofex spoke of. Clean, neat, and upscale, it provided a facade as elegant as it was austere, and once the two breezed through the locked door, they found its interior just as posh.

Santofex gently closed the door. The shambling undead outside couldn"t disturb them now, barring some cacophony drawing them in. "This place has no basement, so the captives are most likely higher-up," he said. "A central room, perhaps. Let us proceed carefully; there`s no telling what our friend has in store."

The lobby was expansive, reaching up to the second floor. It was ringed on the second story by an overlooking corridor that ran around the edges. To the right was the main reception desk, and most of the floorspace was occupied by a maze of couches, tables, ferns, and even two fountains. A massive, stunning chandelier hung above. On the opposite side of the lobby from the entrance a great staircase extended upward and split left and right. To the left there appeared to be a few elevator.

Not everything was top-dollary luxury, however. A few zombies occupied this place, too, and in front of the staircase lay a few piled corpses and a number of scattered chunks. Santofex looked over the whole place. "So, where will we go?" he asked.

"Nowhere else to go but up, right?" As far as Joker knew, a hotel as out-of-place as such was bound to be somewhat of a deathtrap, if his experience in the Metaverse was something to go by. He walked over to the corpse pile, keeping an eye on the few zombies that resided in the lobby. "Huh. Think our guy tried to barricade the stairs?" The thief looked back to Santofex, with a brow raised.

"I wouldn`t bet on it." The man pointed toward the stairs. As if in response to the pair`s arrival, the body parts had begun to coalesce. They were drawn in toward the pile, sticking and packing together. In the center of it all, the pale head of a woman with long, black hair, was looking at them. Her mouth moved in silent laughter, but as the pile started to rise, her voice grew louder and louder. Excess began to fall away, and from the heap stepped a horrific monster of wired-together flesh and hair, its right forearm a huge sawblade. Laughing from its many mouths, the Guardian walked toward the intruders. A zombie in its path became mincemeat, decimated by its spinning saw, as it stomped closer.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding..." The thief quickly started to back away from the monster, thinking of a way to get rid of it, or atleast distract it long enough for them to go around. He noticed that the arm the Guardian's sawblade was rather thin, so he summoned his persona to cleave through it.

Arsene lashed out at the Guardian with his bladed limbs, but the monstrosity`s saw was made of sterner stuff than Joker`s split-second evaluation made it out to be. The persona dealt a little damage, mostly to the arm housing the blade, but its blow barely slowed the Guardian down as it lunged forward with a vicious swing. Joker got out of range swiftly, and Santofex ducked to the side. He didn`t seem to be armed, so it was up to the thief to try another attack.

Joker clicked his tongue in annoyance. He didn't even lay a dent to the monster, so he was forced to switch back to his weapons. "Might wanna take cover!" The thief said to his ally, noticing that Santofex had nothing to fend the Guardian off with, before firing his gun at it's center head.

The bullets hit with a wet crunching noise and sent a spatter of blood into the air. Scowling, the Guardian snarled and reoriented itself toward Joker. It laughed as it approached, spinning up its blade.

"This creature is hardy. It`ll probably outlast us if we fight or run," Santofex observed. Around his feet blossomed a swirling darkness that rose up to engulf him, and he disappeared. A moment later the man dropped from above, landing on the Guardian`s back. "Go!" he shouted, as the abomination flailed around in an effort to knock him off. Its blade could not reach him. "One of us must keep it busy!"

The thief hesitated for a second, then hurried up the steps and to the elevator.

Nothing else leaped out at Joker as he departed the grand foyer. Sticking to the shadows, he made his way through the corridors of the second floor, searching for some central area. It didn`t take him long to find it.

The Gallery. Once Joker pushed through his doors he found himself in a spacious room with walls occupied floor-to-ceiling with pictures. Four minor exhibits occupied the four corners, and one special display stood in the room`s center. It was a breathtaking exhibition, not out of wonderment, but out of horror.

For the subject matter in every painting and sculpture was nightmarish. Bodies carved up into pieces and run through like figurines with metal supports in a macabre facsimile of their former shapes, spurts of blood suspended in time, portraits of eyes and laughing mouths. At the center of it all, a dozen feet above the ground, an angel of crimson-streaked arms puppetting dissected cadavers with rose bushels for heads, all held still in a blue prism of frozen time.

Laying against the pile beneath the angel were Joker`s friends, Ryuji and Ann. There were a few others as well, all women. one had long red hair and glasses, a somber-looking priest in black, and a far more ordinary woman in a red coat.

A creaking sound interrupted the stunned silence. Something was being lowered from the ceiling. There was just enough time for Joker to hide before it dropped from its wires and hit the ground, landing on three sets of tip-toes. A camera swung hideously about on a long neck, searching for the intruder. After a few moments it moved, its feet tap-tap-tapping, moaning while it did. Obscura hunted for its target.

The thief could feel his heart pounding at the sight of Obscura. That thing, it couldn't be the culprit, could it? It was too much of a risk to attack outright with the captives lives on the line, considering his current lucky streak being the only reason he was still alive. So Joker stuck to the shadows, slowly and quietly making his way to the weird angel statue(?), and those underneath it. One by one, he carefully pulled the captives out of the time-stop zone they were trapped in. Though he did have to retreat back into hiding every time Obscura was approaching.

Each captive, once removed from the frozen field, `awoke` with a start, but Joker was ready. For all five he clamped a hand over their mouths, urgently whispering to them to sneak to safety lest Obscura find them out. It took meticulous movement and patience, but the thief saved them one by one. Ryuji and Ann recognized their friend on sight and caught on straightaway, leaving the rest of the rescue to their stealthy companion as they got out of dodge. On his way out Ryuji got spotted, but he managed to escape through the gallery doors before the freakish monster could get too close. The first two strangers Joker retrieved started to struggle once awoken, but the sight of Obscura and the murmured instructions of their rescuer convinced them to listen. They too got away, leaving just one woman left.

When Joker got her out, however, she instantly screamed. Her eyes stared straight ahead without focusing on anything as she thrashed around in Joker`grasp--the woman was blind, so the sensation of being held captive was all she knew. She cried out in Japanese, calling for help, but it wasn`t help that was forthcoming.

Obscura reacted instantly. With an ecstatic noise it rushed over from the corner of the room where it`d been searching and trained the gaze of its glassy lens on Joker and the civilian. It then lunged forward, lashing out with the spikes protruding from its elbows to cut them up.

The gallery doors burst open. In the threshold stood the mage and the priest, and alongside them not Ryuji and Ann, but Skull and Panther. Now that all hell had broken loose, they were ready to lend a hand, but first Joker needed to save himself and the terrified woman from Obscura.

The thief quickly held onto the blind woman, dodging the Obscura's ambush to sprint over to the exit, guiding her and reassuring her that he was there to help. "Someone hold it off, now!!" He yelled to the others, in the case that the monster would pursue them.

Already tense and alert, the four needed no further prompting. As Obscura hurtled after its prey the former captives all leaped to action. Skull and Panther called upon Captain Kidd and Carmen to unleash electric and fire attacks, respectively. Once they hit home the teenagers charged forward to make it personal. Skull slammed Obscura`s camera with a metal pipe, while Panther ensnared one of its three legs with her whip to trip it up. The priest came next with a mighty overhead mace swing, and after she got out of the way, the mage used a sword as a catalyst to send a volley of magic into the monster.

Obscura crumpled under the weight of the combined offensie. The four stepped back, watching warily. After a moment Obscura started to move again, but instead of giving up it just lolled its head the humans` way and flashed.

A blinding light engulfed them, and when it faded they were trapped in another time-stop field, though this one seemed less stable than the other one. As if reveling in its victory, Obscura got to its feet slowly, then tapped into the field to start picking them off.

At that point, Joker was starting to get pissed. The thief was so close to rescuing everyone, and he refused to let Obscura win. "Stay here. Wait on me, okay?" He said to the blind girl, pulling his handgun out, and running back into the room. Taking advantage of the monster letting it's guard down, he summoned Arsene and rushed up to it. In unison, the thief fired his gun, and his persona fired it's curse attack, both aiming for the Obscura's lens.

The well-aimed projectiles hit the camera lens dead-on, and Obscura recoiled with a shriek. Its head flailed around like a dealership air dancer, and the zone in front of it faded out of existance. Time resumed for the captives, allowing them to take a few parting shots at the monster before fleeing. Together the six left the gallery behind, and after Ryuji stepped up to help carrying the blind woman, Joker led the way to the stairs.

A few moments later the group reached the lobby. The Guardian was nowhere in sight, but a large amount of small chunks lay scattered around, and at the center of the mess stood Santofex. He hurriedly stashed something in his coat before waving the others over. "Let`s go! Who knows what else is here?" As if perfectly timed, a tremor shook the building. The group wasted no time leaving the hotel behind.

Joker lead the group back to Argent Tower, navigating around the undead as he and Santofex had done before. He explained to Ryuji and Ann what all had happened during his search for them, catching up with them after they were all separated. Once they had arrived, he bid farewell to the savant, and stepped onto the teleporter after everyone else.
1x Like Like
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Dawnrider
Raw
Avatar of Dawnrider

Dawnrider

Member Seen 1 yr ago



feat.

GM

@Lugubrious

Level: 5 (3 -> 6/50)
Location: Hell’s Devil’s Gneidxick’s Casino, Inkwell Isle; Vs Mr. Chimes
Word Count (Player/Total): 1360/1774 (+3 EXP)


Foregoing all ceremony or introduction, the raucous chimp went hostile in a hurry, wasting no time making its first move. Hat Kid released her hookshot on her upswing to sail over an incoming note, dropping gracefully between the top two into an offensive bullet dive onto the exposed back of her suddenly inactive foe, only to bounce off of the toy monkey ineffectually (complete with rubber squeak). Distracted by the attack and prompted to act, her focus had been drawn away from the wall of cards long enough to prevent her from memorizing their faces, their backs now facing her. The good news was that she had a wide open window to try her first round of guesswork on card flips while Chimes was ‘busy’ doing his best impression of an old screensaver graphic. She started with the top corner card on the far end of the machine, flipping it over with a roundhouse kick on her turnaround as she hooked and swung back the way she came. To follow, she passed underneath Chimes to hit the bottom card on the second column, quickly detaching and reattaching her hook to gain air and reorient herself. Should she fail on her guesses, she would be sure to keep a mental note of what each one revealed.

The first card flipped by the child span around to reveal two cups with faces, their straws and noses red, one facing up and the other down. Unfortunately, her second attempt turned up a mismatched card, this one having a quartered shield with a letter in each section. A moment after the second card came up, they both flipped back around, and Mr Chimes ceased his movement a moment to shake worryingly. After that he accelerated, continuing on the same aimless path but a bit faster.

With the dormant primate’s fifty percent increase in speed, it became that much harder to stay out of his way. Kid still managed to pass over him unharmed, but only narrowly this time, slipping between the joints of the claw that held the boss aloft. Falling in a calculated arc, she tumbled and struck two diagonally adjacent cards--the middle third and bottom corner forth--in quick succession. These two revealed the rose-bedded likeness of their captor and a lettered logo of a game piece; yet another mismatch that further stirred on the idle toy chimp, his tether violently rattling from the disturbance, but the child dwelled not on the setback. She hooked on to the claw’s railing to zip to the other side, realizing too late that she was on a collision course with Chimes, who was moving twice his original speed at this point. The best she could do was brace for the hit, directing her momentum upward to roll over him the same way one would if hit by a speeding car, and while it didn’t exactly mitigate any of the damage, it did put her within reach of the top first column card. She flipped it to reveal a familiar image from earlier--one of two red-accented cups--and recalled where to go from there. She pushed off the card, latched onto the ceiling, swung to wrap around the claw cable and slingshot into the top corner opposite, bonking the card to show a matching pair.

For the first time since the start of the encounter, Mr. Chimes woke in uproarious fashion to resume clapping his cymbals, returning to his base movement speed. The manageable frequency at which he sent out musical projectiles made dodging them a fairly trivial issue for the prodigally acrobatic child, maneuvering her way around the toy simian’s attacks in an impeccable display of evasive trapeze artistry to close the gap between them. She met Chimes at the bottom of her swing, driving into him with both feet forward, and with her power Cap still on, she followed through with a quick back tuck to Burn Knuckle. The attack, while evidently damaging, did little to stall the chimp’s movement or break his sustained pattern of slapping out harmful musical notes, but it did carry her forward into the window and out of their range. With her feet planted against the glass as well as friction would allow for she turned to fire a first-level umbrella beam at Chimes to get one more hit in before he went limp once more and the cards laid out again.

The child rolled her eyes and let out a grumbling sigh of frustration at the delay before taking to the air. Whether the fight was padding itself out, or just wanted to remain consistent with its gimmick, Hat Kid saw it as an inefficient and unsustainable exercise in protraction, one she hadn’t the patience to entertain. Rather than striking a single card at a time and gradually narrowing down her task one round at a time, she saw fit to run along the wall of cards systematically flipping over each and every one in brazen defiance of the stage’s rules. She didn’t care if they reset themselves and agitated her foe. If he wasn’t actually chasing her, she could make room for herself to keep up her shenanigan until one (or both) of them got tired of it.

Impetuous as ever, Hat Kid tested the design of the game she found herself in and found it wanting. She could move faster than the cards could flip, and since each mismatch could only be undone after Mr. Chimes finished shaking and sped up, she quickly started flipping the other halves of mismatched cards before the originals turned away again. The process took a moment to get going, but once it did Hat Kid’s progress spiraled out of control until the entire array was revealed.

Score one for ingenuity! The game had been won, but the battle wasn’t quite over. Having all the matches made in quick succession sparked something unusual inside Mr. Chimes. After clashing his symbols he began to scream incessantly, sending out wave after wave of musical notes. In mere moments the air inside the game machine became crowded. With his head up the mechanical monkey seemed fully vulnerable, but surviving the torrent of projectiles long enough to take him down was the aim of the game now.

A familiar angry aura, one Kid had come to recognize as the start of a new phase in the fight, emanated from Chimes, or at least it appeared that way to the child. From the first round to the next, the attack complexity went from baby’s first rail shooter halfway to diet bullet hell as the aggravated chimp clapped and rattled his cymbals at a rate that produced a veritable Saturnian ring cluster of notes for Hat Kid to figure out how to get around. She managed… with variable success. She managed to bounce and footstool off of a few of them, but the congestion of harmful energy proved too much for her to navigate unscathed as she soon collided into one, then another, then one more. She recovered from the hitstun by spending her second jump and Power Dunking at the chimp only for her hit to fall short, placing her directly between the open cymbals. She might not have narrowly avoided being smashed if not for her descending angular momentum, which she used to gainer tuck beneath them and onto Chimes’ foot.

The already frantic toy monkey went into a fit of disruptive bucking, thrashing, and continued clapping in an attempt to fling the child away. For a moment, she held on for as long as she was able before letting go in time with a hard swing of Chimes' leg to get her airborne, where she then hooked onto the claw's main joint for use as a pivot point to swing laps around the chimp while his agitated attacks missed in a trail behind her. Once just above eye level with him, Kid whipped her hook line like a rein, sending a Power Wave to run down through the line, into the claw, and at Chimes. She then took full advantage of the momentary opening she bought herself, winding her Homing Attack up for half a second longer than usual to imbue it with added power before zipping headlong into Chimes. ('Power Bonk!')

The superpowered tyke smacked Chimes right between the eyes. He shrieked, but dully, and after a moment his eyes rolled back in his head and he drooped down to hang limply from his hook once more. A second later he slipped from its grasp and plummeted down to the pile of toys below, where he lay sprawled out.

But the defeated monkey was hardly the most interesting item down there. Among all the various objects heaped up at the bottom of the giant crane game, Hat Kid recognized one instantly: an hourglass. She’d been drawn to it unknowingly, maybe even pulled in the direction of this fight in particular by it, and now it lay firmly within her reach.

That said, the hourglass was huge. If she were her normal size there would be nothing wrong, but whatever jinx Gneidxick worked to make his challengers tabletop-sized meant Hat Kid’s treasure was bigger than her at the moment.

Somehow, she hadn’t noticed the gigantified Time Piece amidst the toys during the battle, but it was nothing short of appropriate that she discovered her unforseen reward following her victory. She rappelled down and grabbed hold of the hourglass by one of its columns in a knowingly vain attempt to haul it back up to the portal with her. Alas, the surprising strength to carry an elder walrus to safety in one hand wouldn’t suffice this time, for her coveted reward was large enough to provide her with a platform in a pit of playthings. This was evidenced by the fact that she was now standing on it visibly pondering what to do next as far as getting it out of there.

After glancing around the ‘room’ and back at the portal above, memory of her circumstance returned to her with a realization of what she might try next. She zipped back up through the opening, flying through it at ramming speed to hit the pink die and bouncing off in a forward layout, landing atop the rim of the table to meet the casino’s dealer face-to-face. Beckoning Gneidxick over, she spoke to him in hush (covered mouth whisper), quietly, but civilly voicing her demand to him under the rationale of having rightfully won it. She added that the fight took place inside of a prize machine, so it only made sense she had her pick of the prizes within it.
1x Like Like
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Lugubrious
Raw
GM
Avatar of Lugubrious

Lugubrious Makes the big edits

Member Seen 15 min ago

Franklin and Michael

Location: Devil's Casino
@thedman


Once on his feet, Frankling could dodge the chalks with no problem, and he made use of his opening by lighting Mangosteen up with his pistol. The bullets struck his smooth surface and left dents, chips, and cracks where they hit. “Ooh, ow!” Mangosteen rumbled, opening wide to take another shot. A multicolored orb zipped Franklin's way, but with his attention on one man, Mangosteen was completely exposed to the other. The next moment Michael's high-caliber round blasted him squarely in the eight.

“Gaaaaaaaoooooooow!” he bellowed, wheeling around in the air. Black liquid leaked from the web of cracks in his body, and his facial features floated sporadically. Still, he remained alive and aloft—a feat not many victims of Michael's rifle could boast of. Pulling himself together, he growled, “That...smarts!” and span to face the clearly-greater threat. He opened his prismatic maw, charged for a moment, then unleashed a dazzling beam of color at Michael's position. Keeping the beam going, Mangosteen swept around at random, sending the energy in wild and unpredictable paths around the arena. When he finished, however, he coughed up a large amount of black liquid. “Guh...I'm...outta gas...”

A few more attacks from his challengers later he went down, coming to a stop face-first in a pool of his own black bile.

At the Teleporter

Location: Lumbridge
@Majoras End@Archmage MC


After taking the teleporter Joker found himself in an old-fasioned town awash in fresh air and morning sun, the first light and clarity he'd been able to enjoy in who-knows-how-long. He also found a whole bunch of people waiting for him, including the police captain from earlier. Howard, who'd been keeping a watch on the teleporter, looked relieved to see Joker in one piece and practically joyful to see another batch of survivors safe and sound. “You're back! Thank goodness,” he said, but he stopped himself from approaching the new arrivals. “I'm guessing you didn't get decontaminated. Sorry to do this to you all right after you finally got out of the Dead Zone, but could you six not go anywhere or touch anything? We need to make sure you're free of any contagions before you go free.” He shrugged apologetically, but the look on his face suggested that cooperation was not optional in this regard, which he was counting on to make sense to the survivors given the infectious horror they'd just left behind.

Still, the new arrivals could sit and relax somewhat, taking in the clear air and feeling the warmth of the sunlight. They could also watch Sectonia buzzing around trying to persuade people to hail her as their queen. She encountered little mixed reactions and little in the way of success, although nobody took a particularly strong stance against her given that she was, after all, a giant bug with fancy-looking weaponry.



Organization XIII Gneidxick

Location: Devil's Casino


It wasn't long before more challengers returned, which by now didn't phase Gneidxick at all. Still, he was glad to see Courier and Geralt looking a little worse for wear, the gunslinger especially. “Heheh,” the highroller snickered. “What'd ya do, swim in it? I ain't one bit surprised.” He went for the die, to which Gneidxick replied with a sweeping 'go ahead' gesture. “If ya can, mista wino.”

Unfortunately for him, the Courier was not only to hit the die despite his drunken and drugged-up stupor, but also lucky enough to roll a three. Gneidxick watched the token on the game board move up from six to nine, just four spots away from the end, and sighed. That pretty much settled it; the game would soon be over. Geralt seemed to think something was up, to which the highroller did not respond. Whatever could have given him that impression?

Next out of their fight were Bowser and Kamek. Gneidxick ran through his mental list of remaining minions and came up less-than-enthused. “You mugs chilled off ol' Hopus Pocus, huh? And here I thought that crummy hare woulda had the bulge.” With a curt wave he offered the die for Bowser to try his luck on, and the King Koopa produced a two, placing his crew's token that many spots away from victory, as well.

However, Gneidxick kept a narrowed eye on spot number twelve. Inscribed in white on that particular green tile were the words 'START OVER', and if a token ended up there, the heroes might just end up extended their stay in the Devil's Casino. Of course, his minions had not been performing admirably, but while they would be restored for additional fights, the heroes would not. Sooner or later they would run out of steam, luck, or both.

Deep in thought, he barely noticed a small shape zipping out of the portal leading to Mr. Chimes and bonking right into his die, and when the pink cube stopped a-rolling it had a three facing the ceiling. Gneidxick stared at it, a sour look on his face, while Hat Kid climbed up atop the board to start asking him about something she found in the toy machine. He listened for a moment, thinking while he did, and at the end of the child's plea he reached a hand to rummage inside his suit jacket for something. “Sure, kid,” he said. His fingers closed on something as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and smiled. “You can...have it.

A blur dropped from the ceiling and crashed into the center of the table. There wasn't much dust to settle, but when it did the heroes found none other than Chef Kawasaki, holding his label with as much menace as he could muster. The ceiling had opened up; from it dropped adventurer after adventurer after adventurer. There was Donovan Lee atop a flying disc, the Four Swords, Eleven, Veronica, Shulk and Fiora, Euden, Mina, Hilda with an axe, Curly Brace, Menat, Ryu, Gran, Athena, Donnel, the Houndmaster, Tressa, the Centurion, and Din wielding her keyblade. There came a few nobody in the Land of Adventure had seen before: Nero, Kai, Jill, Fox, Caesar, Death, and Ghalt. In a matter of moments a huge crowd stood on the tabletop, all facing Gneidxick with determination (and for many a little confusion) in their eyes.

Gneidxick knew to be surprised. Hands planted on the table, he stared at the assembly with wide eyes and brows raised. All around, the giant demons and skeletons watched with piqued interest; the demon lady Megaera couldn't possibly snooze any longer. One spectator in particular, clothed head-to-toe in a black robe, was shouldering through the crowd nearer to the table.

Gneidxick started to say something but the Houndmaster took a step forward and yelled up at him. “Guildmaster! For your deception and your crimes against our own, against our friends and heroes, you are under arrest!”

A couple tense seconds passed before Gneidxick shrugged. “Well, if that's how ya want it. Come!”

He threw his hands up, and from his sleeves burst two fountains of cards. From the chaos emerged a great many strange, hollow things to land around the perimeter of the table shoulder-to-shoulder, surrounding the assembled heroes. Gneidxick leered, crossing his arms and holding a suite of cards in each hand. “Alright, 'heroes'. You want to play around? Let's pla--!”

All of a sudden everything went whacky. The world became a nonsensical blur of movement and color, as if everyone was flying through the air in a circle at a hundred miles per hour. Then a second later, everything was back to normal.

Everyone was still in the casino, but something had changed. They weren't tiny anymore; each and every hero and adventurer were back to full size. Of course, the place was a mess. People lay sprawled out across the furniture and one another all over the place. The casino floor was in total disarray. Nobody seemed hurt, but all were extremely disoriented.

At the center of it all, Gneidxick lay flat on his back by the table where he'd played his game, his die-head spinning. Dazed, he took a few seconds to he reach up to stop it, although he didn't get any less dizzy. In front of him, the black-coated newcomer climbed atop the now-vacant game table. Female judging by her silhouette, the stranger held some kind of chaotic energy in her hand.

“You...” the die-headed man mumbled.

“Sorry to steal the show,” the woman crooned in a rich accent that gave her r's a slight thrill. “Ah, just kidding. I'm not sorry. And you, ay...” she shook her head, clicking her tongue. “Idiota. Pathetic, sad, sorry piece of trash.” Her angry tone then softened, but not out of sympathy. “Buuut you don't mind me saying stuff like that, huh? It's futile. Just like this ridiculous display. And you know that.”

She jumped down. Gneidxick scooted backward and got to hit feet, balling his fists. “Go sell that to someone who's buyin'. This is what I do. I'm the devil's right hand ma--!”

The woman had held up her other hand, made a grabbing motion with it, and for the second time Gneidxick got cut off, this time with a choking sound. “No, idiot,” she told him. “You are nobody. You are nothing. That other man? He is dead and gone. You are empty, and pretending won't fill you up.”

She released one hand and squeezed the other. Gneidxick gasped, fighting for breath. The woman walked forward and threw something at him while passing, which slapped against his chest before he grabbed it. He looked down at the black robe in his hands and closed his eyes for a moment. Then, without so much as a sigh, he turned to follow her toward a portal of darkness. By the time he reached it he'd donned the coat, and the next moment he and the woman disappeared.

That left a casino floor full of confused heroes, all trying to pull themselves together while wondering just what happened. It was at that time that a pair of doors burst open and a pair of cheery-looking cups waltzed right in. “Aaaand here we are, Muggy!” the red one was telling the blue. “Just remember not to deal with the devil and we can have just as much fun as we did back whaaaaaaaat?” Cuphead looked around in bewilderment at the vast assortment of strange people scattered around the floor. He and Mugman glanced this way and that, just trying to make sense of it all. “Man, things've sure taken a turn around here!” he exclaimed.
1x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Yankee
Raw
Avatar of Yankee

Yankee God of Typos

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago


Word Count: 577 (+1 exp)
Level: 4 - Total EXP: 7/40
Location: Devil's Casino, Land of Adventure?

Since seeing Linkle off into the next battle, the circumstances of Gneidxick's devilish game seemed to get more and more confusing. Now, Ace Cadet wasn't very adept at seeing through charades, and much less so the ins-and-outs of Galeem's influence and how it manifested, but it seemed to him that what the others were saying was true. The Guildmaster - Gneidxick - wasn't being mind controlled or coerced or anything, the giant dice-headed man just seemed to believe he had to go through the motions for his own sake. That was kind of sad.

There was still some piece to this puzzle missing, and as the white robed koopas flew around letting their healing magic work on everyone, Cadet acted as little more than a wall for the princess to bounce her theories off of. Not many stuck, but to be honest it was kind of nice regardless. The hunter tapped his foot and smiled as he watched over the rest of their crew and awaited the ones still in portals to come out and spin the die. He was itching to get into some more action, but with the numbers on the board so close to the end, he'd hate to jump into a portal only to miss the big showdown when they won! That and, even with Peach, the koopa army and kamek clones flitting around, maybe they needed some extra man-power out here in case Gneidxick decided to cut his losses and run. After all, he'd proven himself untrustworthy, what with masquerading as the Guildmaster when he was actually a giant cartoon with a emotional problem.

It wasn't long after that most of the squad came back - one of them shooting out like a star even - and then Cadet raised his arms over his head in celebration.

"Woohoo! Now we -"

He was cut off by the avalanche of adventurer's from the ceiling. People in all shapes, sizes and colors descending to help them. It was a splendid sight.

"Heck yeah, calvary's here!" The Cadet excitedly drew his sword as the casino master's minions rained down around them. With so many people, it was likely to turn into a free-for-all. Not really the red head's style, but hey - he had energy to spare and was looking forward to using it.

...however, his excitement quickly turned to giddiness, and then just plain nausea. The area whirled around as if caught in a tornado, Cadet and all of the others flung about until it was over only a moment later.

Disoriented, Ace Cadet laid where he was for a few seconds before he shook his head and attempted to get up. There was something soft below him, and something fluffy on top. With a wiggle and a shove, Cadet pushed the person atop him off, sitting up and looking over. It was Fox, and he shook the pilot's shoulder to make sure he was okay. And below him was... oof, the pretty winged lady, Meg. Between a Fury and a furry, huh? The hunter quickly helped her up, and after a few apologies he approached the area that Gneidxick and the mystery woman vanished.

"Wh... that's it? That pair of kecha-wackos just up and leave?" They even took those little pink minions of Gneidxick with them. With a frustrated sigh and a dejected kick at the floor, Cadet turned back to the absolute mess of the casino's interior where everyone was picking themselves up off the ground. "Now what?"
1x Laugh Laugh
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Gentlemanvaultboy
Raw
Avatar of Gentlemanvaultboy

Gentlemanvaultboy

Member Seen 2 yrs ago


Linkle


Level 7 - (11/70) + 3

Location: The Devil's Casino
Word Count: 1847


Pirouletta began to dance across the table across the table at Linkle once again but this time Linkle didn't run away. Instead Linkle charged forward to meet her, crossbows raised. As she approached Pirouletta lashed out with a kick, but at was what Linkle had been watching for. Quick as a rabbid she ducked under the kick and jumped forward under her opponent, twirling under and shooting with reckless abandon. Just as many bolts went into the tabletop as went into Pirouletta's backside, but she was still sent jumping in pain as Linkle rolled with her landing and came back up behind her another herself for another run.

Pirouletta swung around, suppressing fury and pain as she assumed her stance in turn. The two charged one another again, but instead of attacking with a kick she did something Linkle couldn't have expected. She crouched, bending her legs and sending the noodly appendage sweeping across the table at her. This kneeless knee strike caught Linkle both completely off guard and right across the face, sending her sprawling across the table and skidding over a nearby pile of fallen chips.

Linkle hopped up, shaking her head. In front of her, in the pile, she saw a little white head pop out for just a moment before looking at her and slipping back between the fallen chips. Had the cucoo been biding its time in there ever since the dancer had kicked it into the pile? Smart little birdie, that one.

The dancer beyond was raising her hands above her head again, preparing to make the most of the distance she'd put between them to rain balls down on Linkle. Linkle considered grabbing one of those big poker chips herself, using that as an umbrella to whether the storm, when suddenly a tremor shot through. It threw Linkle only a little, but the dancer nearly tumbled to the floor and it was only with great effort that she was able to get her rubber hose limbs under her again.

For the moment both of them forgot that they were in a fight, looking around in confusion at what could have caused that. The audience of spectral hands that Linkle had before found so ominous seemed just as shocked as they did, and in a moment some even reached down to the table to scoop up a pile of chips before vanishing into the haze with the sound of pounding footfalls, and she could just barely make out voices that seemed to be coming from far away.

Linkle was only brought back to the situation when she heard a distinct rattling sound. She looked back down at Pirouletta, who didn't seem to think such things were any reason to stop her assault. Soon the balls were raining down all around them. Linkle dodged to the side as one crashed down right where she'd been standing, spinning to avoid another that bounced off the table and rolled away. She heard about this sort of thing happening on Death Mountain, the hero bravely moving forward amidst the anger of the Volcano itself. She supposed this was good training for if she ever had to go there, but right now she didn't have that kind of time. Something had clearly happened and she needed to end this.

Luckily the dancers flailing earlier gave Linkle an idea as to how. She rushed forward, over the chip pile, dodging between the falling balls to get just a little bit closer. Jumping forward her hair flashed blue as she landed in a kneeling position and willed the ground to freeze. A thin layer of ice began to spread across the surface of the table toward where the dancer spun.

She never stood a chance. The ice crept right under her shoe and quickly speed outward in a circle around her like a spotlight. Pirouletta foot swept right out from under her as she found herself dancing on a frozen stage. Her limbs flailed in wild ways, almost tying themselves in knots as she desperately tried to keep herself upright.

Linkle wasn't going to chance her succeeding. She jumped backwards, onto the chip pile, and stomped her foot. With a surprised "bawk!" the cucoo hiding in there jumped up, pushing the chip Linkle was on upward. She jumped with it, sending herself flying into the air toward Pirouletta with her for foot extended. She screamed as she shot down, her leg connecting right about the dancers big gold nose and leaving a chilly imprint as she kicked off. That was too much for the dancer. She was knocked completely off her feet and sent thundering to the table.

Linkle flew above her, pointing her crossbows down to deliver the final blow. The tips flashed a bright light, but instead of the red she had been expecting the tips flashed blue. She pulled the triggers and instead of bombs the bolts she fired were also tiled blue. They slammed into Pirouletta, letting out a wave of cold instead of heat and causing ice to encase the dancer's body and most of her left arm.

Linkle landed nearby as her opponent tried to get up, pushing against the surface of the table with her legs and remaining arm, but it was clear that she was frozen to the surface of the table. Frustrated, she let her limbs flop to the tabletop and sighed.

Linkle took a moment to marvel at her crossbows before holstering them. "Yes!" She shouted, jumping into the air in celebration. The one remaining pair of hands still watching the battle began to give a polite golf clap, which prompted Linkle to give a short bow as her Cucoos ran up to her. "Thank you!" She yelled up to it, before she reached up to her head and ran two fingers affectionately down one of her rabbit ears and through her hair. "And thank you." She said quietly, not just to the Cucoos.

Job done she eagerly looked around for the portal out of this place, but couldn't find it. She looked all around, tapping her foot, but it didn't seem to be showing up. Maybe it had something to do with that tremor earlier. Or maybe this fight would result in the Winny roll, and the guild master was pulling a fast one by pretending she hadn't won yet. Maybe he was even pulling more monsters out to fight her friends as she was just standing here.

She turned to the spectral hands. "Do you guys know what's taking so long?" That hands were gone though, having pulled away into the haze. She stamped her foot. "Hey, come back!" She yelled. "That better not have been you you big blockhead! We don't have time for you to cheat."

Linkle spent the next minute or so wandering around the edge of the table, wondering if maybe she could ride a cucoo over the edge and try to find her way around. There wasn't any fire here at least. As she focused on trying to make out any sort of floor she could reach she felt something tugging at her hair. "Girls, not now. I'm thin-"

She was suddenly jerked back though the air, letting out a yelp of pain before being slammed on the table top like a sack of grain. From where she was managed to open one eye and spot the long, thin arm of Pirouletta and the cheeky grin on the half frozen dancers face. While Linkle had been trying to find a way out Pirouletta had stretched out her arm like a snake and caught her. Her mind boggled! that was...this...what, had she never given up?

Oh. Ohhhhhhh.

Of all the no good dirty low down stall tactics in the history of the universe!

"Gyaahhh." Linkle said as she was lifted into the air again and slammed for a second time. "I want you to know something." Linkle said coldly, lifting her head from the table. The icy stare she gave the dancer seems to drop the temperature in the room for twenty degrees. "This is the worst decision you've ever made."

She was lifted up into the air again, but this time there was a lurching feeling as though she were flying up, up, up, into the air. When she came down she felt herself smash into the edge of something, then three fluffy things landed on and rolled clucking off onto the floor.

There was a floor now, Linkle realized as she got her breath back. She could feel solid ground under her feet as she pushed herself up off what she'd landed on. Below her she was surprised to see the green table that had just been her battleground, the still frozen and now considerably smaller dancer staring up at her with a few stands of Linkle's sparkling blue hair still clutched in her grip. Linkle leaned in, looming over her. "Well?"

The dancer released her. "When." She said.

Linkle nodded, then took Pirouletta around the midsection and wretched her off the table no real care of whether it was comfortable for her. "You're coming with me for now. Try to get away and I'll let Nayru and Farore eat you." She turned the dancer toward the two cucoo she had thrown and kicked around, and they puffed up their feathers in anticipation. It was more her tone that made Pirouletta give her new captor a nervous nod than anything. Linkle didn't even sound angry, just like she was stating a fact.

Only after these ground rules did Linkle start to look around and take stock of the situation. She was in a big flashy room full of tables and colorful machines, surrounded by a great many confused monsters and a bunch of people that were struggling to their feet. She recognized some of them, but there were a lot more here than when she'd left. She hopped up on the table to get a better look around. The Sheriff had shown up in force!, along with her companions she could see Din, Ryu, Agoston, Euden, that nice girl with the gun that had been rolling out to help them with the fish people, was that Four. Legendary. Heroes!?!

Linkle could feel her bad mood slipping away, her hair slowly fading back into its natural color as she looked over them. Rick had really come through. She jumped up and down a little on her table. "You all came to rescue us!" She shouted happily. "Oh man, Death? Is that you? Where have you been?" She suddenly gasped. "Mr. Lee!" She dove off the table, making sure to clutch Pirouletta tight to her chest as she picked her was through the crowd to reach Donovon. "You guys had me so worried. I was trying to come rescue you. Is everybody okay?"
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by ProPro
Raw
Avatar of ProPro

ProPro Pierce the Heavens with your spoon!

Member Seen 1 yr ago

Courier 6 and Ratchet and Jak & Daxter and introducing Cuphead!

Level 6 - (54/60) EXP (+3),Level 6 - (27/60) (+3), Level 4 - (19/40) (+3)
Location: Hell’s Casino
Dead Zone - Ominous Tower
Word Count:2151
Jak item get, new morph gun mod: Funny Ray - a sustained stream of psychic energy that confuses a susceptible target as long as its continually applied. Uses red eco


Jak stood back as the alien creature, clearly frightened for its life, ran off in a scurry. It wasn’t violent so he wasn’t going to attack it, and it didn’t appear to be sentient so he wasn’t going to try recruiting it. Ratchet jumped to the side to let it by, commenting, ”Yup, thought so. Skittish little guy.”

The saurian proved to be much more volatile, but it wasn’t anything that Blazermate and that bee alien couldn’t handle. Jak just let them do their thing and used it as an opportunity to see what Sectonia was made of. As it turned out, she was quite the magician as evidenced by summoning a sword out of nowhere, and she knew how to use it, so that was good to know. Daxter was still irritated with her, but he knew better than to poke the bear (er, bee) a second time after witnessing how she stabbed that dinosaur with impunity. He wouldn’t want to get on the wrong end of that stinger.

Joker returned around this time and used the teleporter, something that only Ratchet really took notice of. What was that kid doing back out there? Eh, it wasn’t any of his business, really. But to be frank, he had his own mission to take care of out in the Dead Zone. Man, he wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

Jak approached Ratchet first, Daxter by his side. Blazermate and Sectonia took off, leaving only the two duos of heroes alone in the Argent Tower. ”So what’s the total score?” Jak asked.

”Hm, what now?” Ratchet responded, still dwelling on his promise to Jones.

”The contest? Got killing the zombies and demons? Hellooooo anybody in there?” Daxter punctuated by knocking on Ratchet’s forehead like a door, and the lombax irritatedly shrugged Daxter off. ”Pay attention!”

Clank appeared to provide an answer. “Since first arriving to the Dead Zone, Ratchet and I have cleared out a total of 343 individual opponents.”

”Booyah!” Ratchet fist pumped. ”And what are your numbers?”

Jak’s eyes darted off to the side as he tried to recount how many had been felled by his morph gun. There were so many zombies and demons, it was impossible to keep track in all the chaos.Luckily Daxter was able to step in for his friend. ”Oh, you know, no big deal or anything. We only took care of five thousand of them, but that’s just what you get with a pair of top tier heroes like us, right Jak?”

Ratchet and Jak both shook their heads, while Clank interjected. “As I observed everything during the entire encounter, minus the small amount of time we were separated in the police station I can account for a total individual kill count of 379, the majority of which took place during the time we fled to this tower. The piercing power and velocity of Jak’s vulcan fury is what really drove the nail into the coffin, as prior to that engagement your numbers were a more humble… 12.”

Jak smirked and nodded his head in superiority, while Ratchet shrugged and kicked the floor. ”I thought you were on my side, Clank? Aw well. I’m sure that I’ll be getting a lot more than you real shortly, since Clank and me will be heading back in.”

”What now?” Jak said, taken aback. Daxter’s reaction was, per usual, a bit more… Expressive.

”You’re telling me that the two of you are gonna go BACK out there with the blood and guts practically RAINING FROM THE SKY, just to prove you can get more kills than us? You’re crazy!”

Ratchet shook his head, but it was Clank that explained the situation. “Your theory is incorrect, Daxter. While we were exploring the police station, Ratchet and I located a special room with lockboxes where individuals stored personal items. A man there by the name of Jones explained their purpose to us. What we had initially mistaken for useful supplies to be obtained were actually placed there by the residents of the police station for safekeeping. Considering the expedience required in our retreat from the siege of the police station, no doubt a number of personal possessions were left behind.”

Jak shrugged. ”So?”

”Yeah, so? How’s that your problem?” Daxter crossed his arms.

”It’s my problem because I made a promise to Jones, Daxter,” Ratchet cut in. ”I’m a Galactic Ranger. It’s my duty to inspire the people just as much as it is to whack and blow up the bad guys. I swore that I’d return those items to their rightful owners, dead or alive.”

”You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Daxter cried out, throwing his arms forward. ”At some point ya gotta just drop it and go! That police station has got to be craaaaaaawling with nasty disgusting monsters by now! It’s not like the key to offing Galeem is hidden there, it’s just some people’s crap!”

As much of a point as Daxter had, he seemed to be the only one dwelling on it. Jak reached out and put a hand on Ratchet’s shoulder. The two looked one another dead in the eyes. ”You’re a good hero, furball.”

”Back at ya, Tantrum Boy.” Ratchet grinned.

”We’ll be waiting for you up ahead on the road. Don’t forget the end goal here.” Jak gave Ratchet a playful punch to the shoulder, which the lombax reciprocated.

”Don’t worry, I won’t lose my way again. Galeem has got to go down. I’ll join up with you guys before the final fight, and you won’t be able to hope to keep up with my kill count.”

Daxter interrupted by mocking the sound of vomiting. ”Can we wrap this up already? The readers are getting bored of all this sappy crap and I really want to get this damn tree spirit outta me! I itch… In strange places!”

“I agree that we should not prolong our goodbyes,” Clank added. “Perhaps this is the best opportunity to strike, as that green armored fellow has the entire hordes’ attention placed upon him?”

Ratchet nodded. ”Right as usual, little buddy. Well, it’s been real, Jak. Daxter. Take care until we kick ass together again.”

Jak and Ratchet shared a wordless fist bump, then the eco warriors observed as the Galactic Ranger and his robot pal headed out of the tower. Then, without another word, the pair hopped into the teleporter and reappeared back in Lumbridge…




The Courier didn’t give the die headed man the dignity of a response when called a “wino,” though he didn’t necessarily consider it an insult either. The words of the foe washed over him like the liquor of the foes he had just taken on, only with far less sting. Bowser and Kamek returned from another fight and Kamek had some clones performing some healing, which the Courier was only too happy to take if it meant that he wouldn’t have to use up one of his precious stimpacks. The Hat Kid also came out and seemed to be talking to the die man quietly, something she wanted to keep a secret… Now what could that have been about? The Courier would have to address it later… If he bothered to remember, that is.

That’s when the situation changed quite dramatically. The cavalry had arrived, so to speak, in the form of several of the residents of Lumbridge falling down the hole to provide reinforcements, as well as a couple of the Courier’s own associates (or former associates at any rate, but a welcome sight all the same). Their presence emboldened him, and so he pulled out his revolver and kept it trained on the die man, ready to fire at the slightest provocation, and he was just wishing for a reason to twitch that finger. The sheriff declared the guildmaster to be placed under arrest, something the casino manager quite clearly resented. He was going to put up a fight, and that simply delighted Courier 6.

However things did not go as anticipated. A number of minions appeared, something the Courier expected and would handily deal with, but before he got off his first shot, before he even thought to activate the GRX implant, another asshole in a black hood showed up. Everyone was thrown for a loop and the room lurched. The Courier was tossed up in the air and collapsed on top of Bowser Jr. At first he wondered if this was a side effect of Inferno, but once his eyes cleared he knew that not to be the case. Better, the die man’s power had failed and everyone was back to full size!

He struggled to stand up from his position and pointed his gun at the die man, who was having his own troubles with the woman in black apparently choking him with telekinesis, and just as he fired off a shot… They vanished. A portal opened up which devoured them both, sending his bullet off into the distance where it harmlessly planted itself into a wall. ”Tch,” he spat, now standing up off of Bowser Jr.

Gaige-tron was nearby, collapsed onto a poker table. The robot righted itself up and rolled on over to its master. “That was exciting. I hope we see more of that on our adventures!” Just then the door bust open and two child-like figures with drinking implements for heads walked in.

”Just remember not to deal with the devil and we can have just as much fun as we did back whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?” the red one exclaimed. His expression of shock overtook his whole body in a cartoonish way. His limbs detached, including his cup-like head, and that spun around while the straw sticking out from it turned into a big exclamation point. His body quickly became normal again however. He and his blue brother looked all over the room, trying to make sense of things. ”Man, things’ve sure taken a turn around here!”

The Courier holstered his revolver and approached the two cartoons. He could tell from their designs that they were the “same” as that die headed guy. ”If you’re here to gamble, then I’m afraid the casino’s been closed and management is… Out.” he said, looking over to where their attacker had been until just a moment ago. ”That die headed hombre broke a deal with us, but one of his posse took off with ‘im.”

”Golly, sounds like King Dice is up to his old tricks again!” the red cup said.

“I guess he’ll never learn,” the blue one added.

”King Dice?” the Courier asked. ”Tain’t what he said his name was. He said it was uh… Some sort of… Needzkick? More like Needs his ass kicked.”

“Gneidxick,” corrected Gaige-tron, rolling up beside the Courier. “But he definitely needs a good ass kicking!”

The two cups looked between one another, then around the casino again. ”Gee willikers, that sounds awful peculiar! But don’t worry, I’ve walloped that mean ol’ no good King Dice before, so I can help!” To punctuate his point, the red cup blew air into his right hand, inflating it like a balloon to absolutely ridiculous proportions, which then “popped” and deflated comically. He held his now rubber-thin hand for the Courier to shake. ”The name’s Cuphead! This here is my brother, Mugman!”

Mugman waved hello. “Are you sure getting involved is such a good idea, Cuppy?”

”Absolutely!” Cuphead exclaimed. ”When have I ever steered you wrong?”

“Well, there was that whole Devil incident…” Mugman pushed his two pointer fingers together sheepishly.

”And that turned out great! But if you think it’s not such a great idea, then why don’t you run back to the Elder Kettle, while I hold the fort down?”

“Gee Cuppy, and leave you alone?”

”Aw shucks, it’ll be fine Muggy! I reckon it’s nothin’ we can’t handle!”

“Ok Cuppy, if you’re sure.” Mugman turned tail and left out the front door, presumably to chase down this “Elder Kettle” they mentioned, while Cuphead turned to the rest of the group.

”Alright folks, so… How can I help?”

And so…


Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by DracoLunaris
Raw
Avatar of DracoLunaris

DracoLunaris Multiverse tourist

Member Seen 19 hrs ago


The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 883 (+2) (jr still asleep)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (32/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (18/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(25/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino


”You made a scarecrow?” Kamek asked his green clone as it showed off its creation while nodding vigorously in response to the mage’s question. The arms of the scarecrow were made of two hoes, while it’s torso and foot were made out of the pitchfork stabbed into the ground. All 3 farm implements were tied together by the spotted whip and had then been covered by the shirt. Finally its head was the scarecrow head, of course, which had been topped by the summer straw hat.

”Why?” Kamek asked with bemused exasperation. The clone began to launch into a series of hand gestures in which it attempted to covey the fact that it had been presented with the bits to build one, and thus how could it not do so. As it failed to get this concept through to its creator Bowser joined in with the dice rolling. Together the team were getting close to maxing out the board but as fate would have it the game was over before anyone could be declared the winner.

First they received an onslaught of reinforcements. Linkle’s informing the townsfolk of what was going on had paid off massively in the end, with the onslaught of faces familiar and new culminating with the Houndmaster attempting to arrest the so called Guildmaster. Gneidxick retaliated by summoning legions of chess/card combo themed monsters and Bowser got himself hyped up for seeing what the dice headed head honcho’s final phase was when someone else decided they did not like the game being played and decided to flip the table instead of let it continue.

As the horde of heroes and token evil teammates were busy picking themselves off of the floor the table flipper showed herself to be one of Gneidxick’s associates Kamek had theorized existed, though she did not seem like the gambling type. Infact she seemed incredibly displeased by Gneidxick’s actions, berating him for acting like a person he was not. With actions and words she rapidly broke their adversaries’ will and herded him off into a portal of darkness before any of them could do much of anything about it.

”He’s nobody? Nobody nobody nobody. Now why does that strike a cord?” Kamek muttered to himself half remembering something the master of master had said the day before as he finally found his feet. After he did he quickly glanced around and located his masters and his minions.

Fortunately, they were all to be found in the same place, Bowser having moved to his dozing son’s side when the final brawl had threatened to loom, putting him in and among the dry bones and Kamek’s clones. The mage dismissed his undead minions before they could cause a panic or draw the ire of any of the adventurers and pointedly ignored the Green clone’s waving its scarecrow around in such a way that conveyed that it was convinced had scared off the Gneidxick. As the white mages picked their way through the crowd and silently patched up any light injuries people had received during the kerfuffle Kamek joined Bowsers side. The king was cradling the the sleeping jr (and by extension Mimikyu who was standing guard atop jr’s shell still) in one arm and carefully scooped their treasure into one of his pockets using his free hand.

”Who just up and leaves right before the final fight!” Bowser asked after the two had exchanged simple greetings to confirm that they were both in one piece.

”Someone is just going through the motions, or so it seems.” Kamek replied before looking at the dozing form of jr with a touch of concern ”Is the young master still asleep even after all that?”

”Yeah. Pretty lame that the first propper bad guy we meet is just a fake.” Bowser replied before completing his treasure collecting and waving a single wave of acknowledgment to the small number of individuals with naturally colored eyes who’d arrived with the friendly army of influenced heroes. Kamek nodded and then scratched his chin thoughtfully before theorizing that jr was under the spell of ”Some kind of enchanted sleep perhaps?” as a result of his complete lack of understanding what drugs were or how dangerous they could be.

He did not get much further than that before the arrival of two individuals with drinking vessels for heads arrived through the doors of the now regular sized casino. Their brief conversation with the courier added additional details to the Gneidxick situation, because apparently they knew who he was. Or, Kamek theorized, who he had been. Or who he was based off. The mage was left deeply in thought as he mulled all this information over while Bowser focused on the much more immediate question Cuphead’s arrival.

”IF YOU WANNA HELP THEN YOU CAN TELL US WHERE IN THE WORLD THIS CASINO IS? BECAUSE I DON’T REMEMBER TOWN WHAT’S ITS NAME-” ”Lumbridge” Kamek absentmindedly injected, still pondering away ”-LUMBRIDGE HAVING A GIANT MINI-GAMING HALL IN IT. OR UNDER IT.” Bowser asked the new arrival in his usual booming volume.
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Lugubrious
Raw
GM
Avatar of Lugubrious

Lugubrious Makes the big edits

Member Seen 15 min ago

Tora and Poppi

Level 6 Tora - (28/60) EXP and Level 5 Poppi - (36/50) EXP
Location: Devil's Casino, Inkwell Isle
Word Count: 1005


Nero squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them and blinked twice in quick succession. As a devil hunter he'd been through the wringer, tossed around by giant monsters, caught up in whirlwinds of fire and ice, and obliged to fight headache-inducing Blitzes and Chaoses, but still he'd never experienced anything quite like that. The smells of smoke and booze, rare and unpleasant to his senses, helped revive him. He was lying on his stomach halfway beneath a craps table, a stool across one arm and his back, and there was something large and heavy on his head. Grunting, he pushed it off to his right, at which point it began to wiggle.

“Meh meh meh?” the fuzzy, egg-shaped thing said, rolling onto the ground beside Nero. He stared at his new acquaintance as he came to his own senses. “Why everything go funny?”

On Nero's left, a girl with periwinkle-colored pigtails and a maid hat crawled out from beneath a wine-stained tablecloth. She seemed relatively nonplussed. “At this point, Poppi not ask questions.”

To be honest, Nero agreed. “You know,” he said, speaking as if nothing about the situation was wrong. “The fact that this isn't anywhere near the weirdest thing that happened today says a lot.” He pursed his lips at Tora. “You some kind of ball hamster, pal?”

The Nopon shook his head, for all that accomplished on someone with no neck. “Nope. Am Tora!”

With that question answered in a very helpful manner Nero extracted himself from the mess and stood up, giving the odd pair a hand in the process. Poppi gave a polite smile. “Thank you.”

“Don't mention it.” The devil hunter looked around. The casino floor was in a state of remarkable disarray, but the heroes were picking themselves up. Some were even starting to help tidy up. It wasn't long before Nero tracked down the ringleader: the solemn-looking sheriff with the great hound at his side. Also on hand were the Ace Cadet and Linkle, who he'd never seen, as well as Donnie and Death, two companions of his on the harrowing trip through the Dead Zone. And, of course, Bowser. He and the oversized, suspiciously demonic-looking turtle had never met, but he couldn't have missed glimpsing Bowser while at Hammerhead. Bowser wanted to know where in the world he'd ended up at the moment, which represented a fairly common line of inquiry at the moment.

Having recovered from the sudden shift as well as a momentary entrapment beneath the Ace Cadet, the demoness known as Megaera decided to answer it, although not without a strain of irritation in her voice. “Devil's Casino, in the Inkwell Isles. Sitting right in the middle of the western bay. Wasteland to the south, Lominscuttle Town to the north. How did you get here?”

The Houndmaster looked upward, nodding his head. “That inexplicable hole. Some spacial devilry on the part of that charlatan. Despite his departure, it remains agape...we should be able to return from whence we came.” He produced a whistle and gave it a blow. Movement stirred above, and after a moment a number of ropes dropped down into the casino.

Tora, meanwhile, had been thinking. He remembered the enormous map laid out the other day across the dinner table in Peach's Castle—memories made during mealtime, after all, tended to stick with him. “If friends in east bay, but Land of Adventure on west...” Eyebrows raised, he looked up at the others, landing ultimately on Bowser. “That means we on other side of whole map! If hole stay around, that mean we have way to travel huge distance aside from Blazermate teleporter!”

"Masterpon got it backwards," Poppi told him.

It was at that point that the attention casino patrons, who'd all more or less recovered and been muttering in low tones, became keenly felt by the Houndmaster. His whistle had drawn their gaze, and a statement needed to be made. Clearing his throat, he climbed on top of a nearby table and began putting the facts together. Then he started to speak. “People of Inkwell Isle,” he said in a loud voice, “As a keeper of the law I hereby condemn the manager of this establishment, known as Gneidxick, for impersonation, kidnapping, and attempted murder. Furthermore, this space is now juxtaposed to the Land of Adventure by way of this rift. As such the casino will be temporarily shuttered, until such time that the wrongs perpetuated here are put to right. You should return to your various domiciles.”

Slowly, the patrons started to move. None seemed very happy, but nobody planned to challenge the Houndmaster with such an impressive army at his back. Some disappeared or morphed away, but most left through the front door. When it became clear that the lawman's declaration was being respected, he addressed the various heroes and adventurers around him. “As should we. Let us ascend, recuperate, and lay this nonsense to rest.”

The statement sent the whole assembly into motion. Tora and Poppi didn't plan to wait in any lines for their chance to climb up, so the artificial blade simply picked her masterpon up and boosted back into the Land of Adventure. They touched down amid a crowd of onlooking townspeople gathered to watch the situation unfold, and for the first time got a good look at the hole Gneidxick left. While pretty large, it sat squarely in the middle of the guild hall, and there seemed to be plenty of space to go about business as usual. “Wonder how Bowser will get up,” Tora mused aloud, peering doubtfully at the anchored ropes that most would be using to make the ascent.

“Since hole seems permanent, maybe people work together to make some sort of lift,” Poppi suggested.

“Ooh, that sound like fun.” Predictably, Tora's mind already raced to come up with ideas to make the notion a reality. “If we get wheels, cranks, chains, and plenty of wood, Tora could probably make with help of pretty smith sisters.” A moment passed before he caught Poppi's sternly disapproving expression. “...What?”

Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by thedman
Raw
Avatar of thedman

thedman Fanatical Purifier

Member Seen 4 yrs ago

Michael and Franklin

Level 5- (23/50) EXP / Level 4- (27/40) EXP (+1 EXP)
Location: Devil's Casino
Wordcount: 529



It didn't take long for Mangosteen to go down. Unlike their last enemy, the floating eight ball wasn't able to withstand a .50 caliber round to the face, and after a few more shots from Franklin's pistol, he was done. Michael stared for a few moments, surprised that the fight was already over. "Well...shit, that was easy. Why can't they all be like that?" Shrugging, he and Franklin headed out of the room, back onto the gambling table from before.

When they emerged, they were greeted by a welcome sight. A large number of the town's adventurers had jumped down the pit, and they, along with a number of the group, were in the middle of confronting the dice-man. The two were quick to join them, pointing their weapons at Gneidxick. As the Houndmaster declared that he was under arrest, suddenly everything went blurry. A sense of vertigo overcame them, and before they could react the two felt something hard hit them.

Michael groaned as he fell on his face, placing a hand on his sore head, still recovering from being kicked in the face by a giant zombie horse. "Owww...what the hell..." He brought himself up to his knees, blinking a few times as his vision cleared. He blinked several more times, as it seemed that his surroundings had been shrunk significantly. Wait...wait a minute... Shaking his head, he soon realized it wasn't his surroundings that had been shrunk, but rather, he and the rest of the party had been brought back to their normal size. The casino looked a lot more normal, now that they weren't shrunken down.

Letting out another groan, he reached down to pick up his rifle, but paused before aiming it at the now normal-sized dice man. A newcomer had appeared, and was currently in the middle of berating the former Guildmaster. His dizziness caused him to drift off from the specifics of their conversation, and once it was over, she opened a portal and the two walked off, without a trace. He blinked, looking back to Franklin. "...uhh. What just happened?"

"...yeah, I got nothing. Who was that lady?" Michael shrugged, leaning on the gambling table and rubbing his head. The fall wasn't too bad, but his head really wasn't in the shape for him to be slamming into the floor willy-nilly. He wasn't paying too much attention to the conversations going on, but he picked up a few interesting things. They seemed to have been transported quite a ways away, but the hole was still open, giving them a means of getting from one end of the world to another. It would probably be useful for their quest, but Michael wasn't thinking about that now. His head still hurt, and he still hadn't gotten to eat his breakfast. Slinging his rifle onto his back, he nodded to Franklin to follow him, and the two to walk towards the hole...and then stared up at it. A few ropes had been slung down, and Michael stared at them uneasily. "Ehh...I'm not sure I want to try that climb." He turned around to face the rest of the group. "Anyone got another way up?"
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by Gentlemanvaultboy
Raw
Avatar of Gentlemanvaultboy

Gentlemanvaultboy

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

Ignore me.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Yankee
Raw
Avatar of Yankee

Yankee God of Typos

Member Seen 0-24 hrs ago


Mission EXP: +13
Word Count: 826 (+2 exp)
Level: 4 - Total EXP: 22/40
Location: Devil's Casino -> Land of Adventure

With the Houndmaster's decree, it seemed the excitement really was over. Cadet scratched at the back of his neck and made his way closer to the group at large, peering out of the casino's doorway whenever it's patrons decided to leave through it. The whole other side of the world, huh? He realized he didn't actually know what the current state of the "multiverse" looked like, but he figured it was a significant distance. For such a sleaze, Gneidxick sure did leave something cool behind for them.

"So the robed guys got away, but there's a bright side," the hunter thought aloud, "besides a nifty portal, I mean. Now that Gneidxick's game is over with, we can go on the final quest!"

Indeed, for an energetic young man like the Ace Cadet, that was the most fun thing he could think of doing! There was a smile on his face, his earlier frustrations already fading. He wasn't one to stay upset for long. Although, after a moment he chuckled and added, "once everyone's ready of course!"

He should get himself ready too. He'd stayed up making some supplies, but there was no harm in making double sure. Usually the red head loved to shoved as many healing options as possible into his bag, but Kamek was pretty good at it - so maybe some more fire power? Getting his hands on some demondrugs would be great, though he hadn't had much luck sorting through the hundreds of berry types around, pulled from multiple different universes. Maybe some experimenting was order! He was far from an expert though, maybe he should find a second opinion. Not that the rest of them looked like fruit experts either, if he was being honest. As far as the rest of them though... there were so many more people around now, people he didn't recognize from his time in Lumbridge. From the quirky cartoon cup to the man in some seriously wicked armor, they were all people Cadet was looking forward to getting to know. First they should get back to the Land of Adventure though. Speaking of -

"Here!" Ace Cadet approached Michael and Franklin, pulling a contraption from his arm as he did so and presenting it to the pair. It was his Slinger, the thing that looked like a cross between a slingshot and a grappling hook - and for all intents and purposes, was exactly that. Maybe a more dubious option than just climbing the rope, but he looked pretty pleased to be able to help. "A slinger is real easy to use, just put it on your arm and point it where you wanna go, then press this trigger here and bam! The hook attaches then it'll reel you in like presto, alakazamtrios! The cable is strong so it won't break or anything, and it'll get you up there quick. In fact the whole thing's pretty durable, you can toss it down to the next person without worrying."

Cadet himself was content to climb. He tugged on one of the ropes and found it firmly secured, though he looked back at the group with some final words. "I don't mind anyone borrowing the slinger if they need it, but I'm gonna go on ahead while you guys figure things out. I wanna check on the 'marm, make sure she's alright. Maybe get some info about the G-rank quest too!"

Plans made (or half-made anyway), the Cadet climbed up through the portal and back into Lumbridge. Once at the top, he inspected the hole and looked through it back into the casino. Now that they weren't tiny, the distance wasn't quite as much. To be expected, probably, but interesting nonetheless. Gneidxick had some shrink-powers, then, it wasn't the casino itself or anything. He'd had to keep that in mind - not that scaling huge enemies was something foreign to the hunter.

Straightening up, looked around the Guild Hall. It looked much better than the current state of the casino, which was also to be expected, but the mess they'd left when Gneidxick first dropped them in combined with the number of people milling about curious to see what exactly had happened and if people were alright, made the Hall look less than pristine. Cadet squinted his eyes, looking through the crowd until his gaze landed on the familiar form of the Guildmarm. Seemed like the poor woman was being asked question after question by concerned onlookers, but man if she didn't look good doing it. A few of the people around also made mention of the "Dead Zone" again - what the heck's that about I wonder?

"Hey," Ace Cadet said after he'd pushed his way through the gathering toward the Guildmarm, "So the Guildmaster was a bad dude, threw us into a portal to a casino on the other side of the continent then left with a suspicious lady - but we're all good! You doing okay?"

She gave him a spent look. It wasn't even noon yet.
(direct mention @thedman)
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by DracoLunaris
Raw
Avatar of DracoLunaris

DracoLunaris Multiverse tourist

Member Seen 19 hrs ago


The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 3181(+3) (+15 encounter exp)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (50/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////// (36/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////(43/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino
Blazermate and Queen Sectonia
Level 6 - (13/60) +3
Level 1 - (9/10) +3
Location: Guild Hall/Casino

Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Gentlemanvaultboy
Raw
Avatar of Gentlemanvaultboy

Gentlemanvaultboy

Member Seen 2 yrs ago

Linkle


Level 7 - (14/70) + 1

Location: The Devil's Casino
Word Count: 242
@Lugubrious@ProPro


As Linkle threw her cloak back on and refastened it with one hand she reflected on how relived she was to see that Blazermate was okay too. So long as she was still around it was super unlikely that anyone else had gone down in the dead zone. In fact she'd overheard a lot of stuff that answered a few of her lingering questions, such as where their mysterious guild master had gone off too and that there was somebody in the room that had battled him before. So, seemingly free of the obligation she'd put on herself to go save the people in the Dead Zone she focused entirely on the current problem and that meant staying down here for a little while longer.

"Hey." she said, approach where the Courier was having his little pow-wow with the cup headed guy, stopping momentarily to gawk at the big tv faced robot. She tilted her head curiously. "Have we met?" she asked it.

"Wait, I shouldn't get distracted." she said, shaking her head and turning back to the cup head. He certainly looked like he belonged to whatever weird noodle like species the guild-master belonged too. "You know that dice headed guy? I"M asking because, look." Linkle proudly held Pirouletta up to the Courier, Gaige-Tron, and Cuphead. "I captured one of his friends, so I was hoping you'd be able to tell us if she's lying when we ask her some questions."
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by ProPro
Raw
Avatar of ProPro

ProPro Pierce the Heavens with your spoon!

Member Seen 1 yr ago

Courier 6 and Jak & Daxter and Cuphead!

Level7 - (10/70) EXP (+3), Level 4 - (22/40) (+3), Level 1 - (3/10) (+3)
Location: Hell’s Casino
Word Count:1267


The Courier snorted as the local sheriff of Lumbridge took charge, telling everyone in the casino that the place was closed down. Sure, that die-headed asshole wasn’t around to run the place anymore, but where was the harm in letting the patrons stick around? Just because some magic hole opened in the ground to portal the places closer together didn’t make the casino his jurisdiction. That really rubbed the Courier the wrong way. ”And I’ll bet yer planning on taxin’ their bets too,” he chided, more to himself than for anybody to hear.

Still, things had to move forward and there was so much to do. Some talked of getting a pully system setup to get back into Lumbridge, and the Courier figured that was something he could help with… Had he the patience. Unfortunately he was still steaming and burning from inferno, so patience was a resource of which he had very little.

“Man, this situation kinda sucks,” said Gaige-tron. “But there’s no way my body will be getting back up that hole without an elevator of some kind, so… I guess until that happens, FIGHT THE POWER!” Gaige-tron started wheeling about the casino like a crazed lunatic, having fun by overturning tables and tossing dice around.

”Gather useful things fer me,” the Courier spoke into his Pip-Boy, the words transmitting directly to his robot. ”Gonna need ta build more stuff and cook more chems before we head out.” He then looked up to see that Bowser had left the company of him and Cuphead, while Linkle had appeared to take his place. She was holding one of the die guy’s minions, a living roulette wheel.

Meanwhile Cuphead was watching everyone do their own thing and bouncing his head to a rhythm only he seemed to hear. When Linkle spoke to him, it got his attention. ”Why hello there!” he said cheerfully, plucking his head right off his body and tipping it as one would with their hat before putting it back into place. ”Nice to meet ya! Like I said before, I’m Cuphead! Looks like you’ve got Pirouletta right there, haha! Hey gal, remember last time we met and me an’ Muggy clobbered ya good? Boy howdy those were some fun times!”

He straightened up to speak more to Linkle. ”I’m no lie detector or nuthin’, an’ I don’t know her very well. Not like that mean ol’ King Dice! But I think that as long as I’m around, she’ll behave. Won’t you?” Cuphead gave Pirouletta a big ol’ wink. His iris turned into a silhouette of a roulette wheel, which shattered into a thousand pieces by the crushing of his eyelid to emphasize his point. Of course, his eye put itself back together lickity split, no problem!

The Courier merely watched this exchange with a raised eyebrow. ”Yeah, just like the old pre-war holovids… Weird. Welp, this hombre is shufflin’ outta town fer the moment. Gonna find Blazermate and git her t’heal me. Made some rather… Dumbass decisions.” He traced his finger along the silver glint of metal beneath some burned skin. After contemplating for a moment he turned around and headed for the hole. His trusted robot continued to flit around the casino, grabbing up chips, dice, paper money, cloth, liquor, and all manner of other things for his eventual crafting.





Jak and Daxter emerged from the teleporter much later than everyone else. Folks were all in a hustle as a bunch of people they didn’t recognize swarmed around folks they did recognize: locals interviewing the survivors they had helped rescue. That wasn’t what caught the duo’s attention first however. This place, it was so… Green. Friendly looking. The people around largely seemed to be primitive considering the place the duo came from, yet it all felt so familiar.

”Wow…” Jak took in Lumbridge, the surrounding Land of Adventure on the horizon.

”Wow is right, this place looks a heck of a lot like Sandover Village!” Daxter gesticulated wildly. ”Jak! This is the first time we’ve seen some place that wasn’t a hellish nightmare apocalypse since you screwed everything up and opened that portal that let the metalheads invade home!”

Jak gave Daxter a glare, leading to him correcting himself. ”I mean, since we let the metalheads in. Oh man, I can’t wait to find a nice padded chair, lie back, and get a good tan while some busty babes fan me gently…” Daxter started swaying side to side with his eyes closed.

”We don’t belong here, Dax. Sandover Village wasn’t home either. Not really…” Jak began to remember things… Terrible things. The oppressive propaganda of Baron Praxis. People dying to metalheads in droves. King Damas… His father…

”Yeesh, you really know how to bring the mood down, don’t ya Jak? Come on, heroes deserve a vacation every now and then, don’t we? Stop being such a bring-down and cut loose a little! I’ll bet there’s some buxom barmaids around here that’ll help you forget about Keira… Or were you with Ashelin? Eh, whatever. All I know is that once I’ve been ‘pruned’ I’m gonna head to the bar and drain their taps dry!” Daxter began walking into town authoritatively, only for Jak to facepalm and stop him with a simple question.

”How do you even know where you’re going?” Daxter stopped mid stride, like he had just been slapped.

”Oh yeah. Good question. Where do ya think Princess Peach would be hanging out in a joint like this?”

Jak shook his head, walking past his little friend. ”Let’s ask the locals.”




A few minutes later Jak and Daxter had been informed of the goings-on while they were in the Dead Zone, and what had happened even while they hung back to say goodbye to Ratchet. Apparently the others in the group had been deceived by the guildmaster, who was a crazed man with a die for a head, and now there was a magic hole in the adventure guild that connected two points of the continent across space and everyone was still figuring out what to do with that. Well, good thing that wasn’t the craziest thing they ever had to deal with.

A moment later and the duo entered the guild hall where some of the team had gathered around, most notably Bowser who was yelling at the guildmarm to get their rewards. Jak ignored the proceedings and instead went straight for the hole. Brilliant white light enveloped him and his wings sprouted. Grabbing Daxter by the hand, the two flew down the hole and landed amidst the casino in disarray. Jak’s wings, and light form, poofed away as the two approached Princess Peach.

”Hey toots, recognize me? I wouldn’t be offended if you said no on account of how I’M A FREAKING TREE NOW! So if you would be so kind, please GET THIS TREE OUT OF ME!” Manners aside, Peach, of course, obliged. With the ent removed and Daxter back to normal, Jak decided that the best course of action now was to crush it into his morph gun. Maybe he’d get a green eco weapon for once? Or maybe the dark spirit would lead to a dark eco weapon? He was excited to try it and find out.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Lugubrious
Raw
GM
Avatar of Lugubrious

Lugubrious Makes the big edits

Member Seen 15 min ago

Tora and Poppi

Level 6 Tora - (33/60) EXP and Level 5 Poppi - (35/50) EXP
Location: Guild Hall, Lumbridge, Land of Adventure
Word Count: 1486


A second glance at the situation made it apparent that the construction of a lift would have to wait. People wanted to get up now. After a brief exchange Poppi left Tora to start helping people up. With her prodigious mechanical strength she could pull up ropes with multiple adventurers holding on at once, and when she saw that Michael and Franklin seemed less-than-confident in the ropes, she flew down to help them herself. She needed to dodge Bowser on the way, whose own extraction looked to be encountering a few difficulties on account of his size. Provided neither of the men felt inclined to try out the Ace Cadet's slinger instead, or let their pride get in the way of being carried by a short machine girl they'd be back in the guild hall in no time. A pink-haired girl with an axe requested that she be carried up as well, and Poppi saw no reason to refuse.

Meanwhile, Tora just watched, peering over the edge. Croagunk crouched down beside him. He waved to Nero after the devil hunter hauled himself up, evidently haven taken their brief meeting amid the chaos down in the casino as the beginning of a lasting friendship. When Louis pulled himself up, looking haggard and panting, Tora waddled over with a concerned look on his face. “Edgypon not look so good. Is friend okay?”

“Fine.” Louis said before he instantly collapsed on the Nopon, who grabbed hold of him and pulled him away from the hole. It took a little doing but he managed to prop Louis up in one of the chairs. Croagunk followed, hopping up onto the nearby table to sit.

Tora stepped back and fixed the young man with a stern expression. “That not fine, meh. Spill beans.”

After a moment of raspy breathing Louis relented. “Fine. Truth is...I need blood. Human blood. It's been too long since I drank...much longer, and things could get...very bad.”

Tora looked alarmed, but after a moment of thinking he realized that in the greater scheme of things it wasn't that weird. “Meh meh! Edgypon some kind of vampire?”

Louis shook his head. “No, I'm a revenant. When...a BOR parasite reanimates a corpse, it regains...” he trailed off after noticing Tora's blank expression. “Er, actually, yes. Pretty much.”

Nodding knowingly, Tora told him, “Well, Tora would love to help, but am actually not human.”

The revenant stared at him. “No kidding?”

A few footsteps, nearer that the rest, made Louis look up. From behind Tora approached Nero, who'd heard the whole thing. “I thought you looked a little pale. Well, more pale.” He snickered. “So, you need some blood, huh? Why didn't you ask?”

Louis looked at the floor. “I...didn't want anyone to think of me as a monster.”

Nero gave a dry chuckle. “You know, that angsty teen stuff won't do you any good. You fought like crazy to make sure a bunch of strangers made it. You're pretty much a hero.” He grabbed an empty flagon, reached up, and cut his palm on the blade of the Red Queen. Some blood dripped in, but the wound healed itself almost instantly. It took another few passes to get enough, after which his presented it to Louis. “There. You don't have to suck it, right? 'Cause I'm not doing that.”

Shaking his head, Louis took the flagon. “No, this is fine. Thank you, Nero. I'm beyond grateful.” He drained the cup, and blinked twice. “Hmm. A little...spicy. It should be fine, but are you sure you're human?”

“Mostly,” Nero said. “You're welcome, kid.” With that, the devil hunter was off in search of the Mysterious One.

Not long afterward, the fairly entertaining elevation of Bowser came to an end. It took the combined effort of Kamek, Blazermate, and the newly-arrived Sectonia to do it, but at last he stood on Lumbridge ground once more. He wasted no time stomping over to the Guildmarm to join the Ace Cadet, who'd made the climb on his own a little before.

His shout made the poor woman jump, and she landed on her feet. “It-it-it-it's around here somewhere, I'm sure!” Clearly she didn't remember the rewards offered by the quest, but she more than made up for it with the renewed vigor she used to sort through all the quest cards piled up on her desk. After a few moments she seized one, holding it up in triumph. “Got it! Right here! Your rewards were...” She brought it closer, peering through her glasses. “One thousand rupees, the spirit of the monster, a free visit to all the facilities in the town, and celebratory status.” She looked between Bowser and the Cadet. “I...don't have the monster's spirit. Did you...collect it when you hunted it?” A lightbulb went off in her head. “Oh! By the way, since you completed an H-rank hunt, you're officially qualified for G-rank. There's only the one, which the Guildmaster kept in that box,” she pointed to a very small, locked safe sitting on the desk. “But if he went crazy, no reason to keep it secret. Quest's yours. If...if you can open it, of course.” She gave a nervous laugh, looking at Bowser's claws and teeth. She had no doubt they could open many things.

Too far away to hear Bowser's 'conversation', Tora and Poppi instead paid attention to a red-haired individual heading out the guild door. “Wait, meh!” Tora took off after her, and Poppi followed behind. They caught Din with her Gogoat outside the guild hall, headed toward the inn. She looked embarrassed. “Hello, friend!”

Din did not meet either of their gazes, her red eyes lingering on the door instead. “...Hi.”

Tora beamed at her, too bright for her to miss. “Din-Din came to save us! Tora saw it! You drop from sky with keyblade, ready to fight and protect us! Din-Din really is hero! Can come back with friends, join quest to save world!”

“No!” Din said, firmly. “I can't. I'm not fit to be a hero.”

Just like that, Tora's fire went out. Crestfallen, he asked, “Then...why did...?”

Din's voice wavered. “I don't know. I heard everyone was in danger. You two, Bowser, Linkle...” She looked sad. “Then all the adventurers rushed to help. I got...swept up in it all.” Shaking her head, she crossed her arms. “But I can't rejoin you. I'd just keep getting in the way. I can't fight, I can't protect anyone...” Downcast, she stroked her Gogoat. The memory of fallen allies plagued her.

“Din-Din too hard on self.” The Nopon insisted. “Tora not real fighter, either. Just inventor who want to help, meh. It Tora job in party to protect, but also couldn't stop others getting hurt. But still we keep going.” He beat his wings emphatically. “As long as Din-Din want to help, that enough! Everyone like Din-Din, think very useful, want to stay with us!”

The dancer shook her head again. “You're just being nice, but it's useless. I'm useless. There's no point in trying. So I'm leaving, okay?”

Tora frowned. “Din-Din need to snap out of it!” He reached up and, without any warning, slapped her.

“Ow!” Din's eyes burned. “What was that for?!”

She found Poppi glaring at her pointedly. “You not act like Din I know at all.”

Croagunk hopped up to slap her too. Though small, he dealt a meaty smack, one that made Din stagger and Gogoat snort dangerously. “Ouch! That's...that's the last straw. You guys just won't listen. I can't be a hero. I'm just a dancer!”

Poppi stepped forward, raising her arm. Her actuators shook and her pistons steamed; she balled her metal fingers into a fist. “Now is not time for excuses!”

Tora's eyebrows shot up in alarm. “Poppi!?”

Din flinched, but Poppi's fist came in slowly, touching her head in a barely-perceptible tap. She opened her eyes to find Poppi looking mournful. Her tense nerves went slack.

“Poppi is hurt to see Din like this. It okay to have doubts, and to feel like giving up, but it not okay that Galeem stop you changing mind again. That why drastic action must be taken.”

The tension came right back. “What?”

A pink heart blossomed to life above Poppi's hand. For a moment the artificial blade looked elated, but then her face became determined. She grabbed the heart, closed her hand into a fist, and slugged Din square in the jaw.

“Guh!” Din sputtered, flying back as she blacked out. As she fell, the redness blinked out in her eyes, and the light around her seemed to shatter. Croagunk caught her before she hit the ground, and Tora hurried to ease its burden. A few moments later Din started to stir, slowly opening her eyes. “Oooh...what...happened? Tora...Poppi?”

Tora smiled. “Friend Din-Din take wrong turn. C'mon, meh, let's get to Blaze-Blaze.” Working together, the three carried her back toward the guild hall.
↑ Top
2 Guests viewing this page
© 2007-2024
BBCode Cheatsheet