[center][h3]Tora & Poppi[/h3]
[b]Level 8[/b] Tora (76/80) and [b]Level 8[/b] Poppi (55/80)
[b]Location:[/b] Sandswept Sky - Sweet Canyon - Parnasse
Primrose's [@Yankee], Fox's [@Dawnrider], Sectonia's [@Archmage MC] Midna's [@DracoLunaris], Yoshitsune's [@Rockin Strings], Red’s [@TheDemonHound], Laharl’s [@Dark Cloud]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1249[/center]

Quite unlike their compatriots in the Blue Team across the continent, the heroes situated in Sweet Canyon got the chance to awaken and prepare at their own pace. Their mission, of course, remained the same--as did its vital level of importance. A harsher or perhaps just more professional leader might have rounded them all up and marched them all out already, Joker knew, but even with such a heavy burden on their shoulders the team couldn’t afford to be all business all the time. That spelled out a one-way ticket to burnout, and if anything was to be slackened in this world, it couldn’t be one’s resolve.

So it was a little into the morning, about seven o’ clock, when the travelers finally massed in the center of Parnasse. Affected to various degrees by their sugary abodes, they went about their business alone or in small groups. Tora arrived alongside Sectonia, an odd pair if ever there was one, but neither looked ill at ease. Sporting a rather cheery disposition on display, Poppi stood by as Midna had her fill of the leftovers before the Thieves put them away. Questing eyes found a couple newcomers, including the genial Sly Cooper and the less-than-obliging Laharl. As neither obviously belonged here, Joker offered them the chance to join the merry bad for a while, at least until they got back on their feet. When Red arrived she preceded an eyebrow-raising procession. Fat Princess introduced herself with all the necessary pomp and circumstance, at her palanquin-bearers’ expense. For all the self-importance on display, however, the weighty woman brought with her not so much of a crumb of information or reward that the heroes didn’t already have. 

While Tora didn’t anticipate that a land of cakes and candies might harbor a monarch, he found himself not in the least bit surprised by what she was like. The impression that this lady did nothing all day but eat and boss her poor subjects around seemed like a very real possibility. Her arrival did, at least, help get Yellow Team on its way. Tora and Poppi waved the chocolatey townsfolk goodbye as the heroes set off, guided two of the townsfolk. [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/guilds/images/4/4f/Chocolate_Ruki.png]Ruki[/url] and [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/guilds/images/6/65/Chocolate_Gnorbu.png]Gnorbu[/url] evidently represented the sum total of Parnasse’s envoys to the outside world, with the former running the train between Sweet Canyon and the city that formed the heroes’ next destination: Al Mamoon. After a few rapid-fire questions at his fellow engineer meant to find out what a train actually was, Tora started looking forward to traveling on one a great deal. After all that running last night he sure wasn’t eager to repeat the feat in the heat of day!

Although according to the Princess it would be at least a day’s worth of gathering before the first shipment could be sent to Al Mamoon, and it was Gnorbu’s job to sell the sweets, he insisted on accompanying the group anyway as a guide. At a merry trot he led the saviors of Parnasse back the way they came the night before, toward the gingerbread railyard. “Over here!” he called, bringing the visitors over to the graham cracker door of a large shed. “We pulled the train in here so the machines wouldn’t smash it!” With a little muscle from Braum and Heavy Gnorbu revealed an altogether [url=https://www.clipartmax.com/png/middle/61-613682_a-pixel-sprite-of-the-dessert-train-from-the-legend-zelda-spirit.png]incredibly fitting locomotive.[/url] Proudly Gnorbu teased it from its housing and into the open, where everyone could marvel at its sweet splendor--and the fact that they’d be smelling desserts a while longer. “Hop on! We’ve got a long ride ahead of us!”

Tora took a moment to look back across Sweet Canyon. Never in his dreams could he have pictured such a fantastical place, but in the end, it fell far short of paradise. Killer machines, amber that could trap a hapless traveler forever, living treats that could turn you into food...and worse, that ever present cloying stickiness. The Nopon shuddered. “Don’t have tell Tora twice!” 

Divided among the three different train cars, the heroes climbed aboard, and last-second arrangements were made. Necronomicon accepted Mona as a rider, as his black coat promised to catch another load of sweltering desert sun, and the other Phantom Thieves chose to forego their costumes or their everyday attire. Given the growth come about by her fusion, including her snake tail, Panther didn’t fit her unmodified clothes quite as well, but neither she nor Ryuji seemed to mind. Tora and Poppi opted to sit on top of the honeypot that formed part of the second train car, where they could leap into action at a moment’s notice. Blue Poison, thankful that this honey was fake for a change, cooped up inside, but there was still room for a few more in there. After a short time the whistle sounded. It was time to begin.

The train lurched to life, the heroes got underway, and Tora and Poppi quickly realized they needed to pull off some expert maneuvers to avoid the obstacles dangling in their path. Candy-cane branches, bulbous sugarplums, and clusters of bright red cherries all conspired to knock them from their high horse, but the duo held firm, and Tora even plucked himself a fruity souvenir. Before long the train chugged down a valley between two scrumptious pancake-stack hills and into the desert once more, which left Tora and Poppi with nothing to contend with but the desert wind whipping at their hair. And, of course, the heat. Neither of the dynamic duo missed it, but the one unable to utilize an onboard ice core to regulate his temperature enjoyed the hot surge decidedly less. “Eugh!” he groaned, disgusted. “Hopefully it not far to this Almoo place.”

Regardless, getting back out into the open was a nice change of pace, and being on a train was a blast. Traveling in the sheltered comfort of Vah Naboris was one thing, but here he could really feel the rush of the air For the first time he could really breathe deeply, although he had to turn against the wind to make sure he wasn’t huffing sand. Seeing nothing but syrup and sand for miles and miles did wonders to bring back that feeling of insignificance from before. Tora looked down to see stone supports beneath the tracks, which explained how the rails stayed up when the going got mucky. As the toothache-inducing archipelago fell further into the backdrop, the sand got more and more normal, until Tora realized that the group had reached a perfectly ordinary desert once more.

Still, the region wasn’t exactly featureless, as Poppi’s enhanced optics could attest. Off in one direction, she spotted [url=https://giantbomb1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/original/0/815/468727-ssae0001.jpg]strange lamp-shaped mountains[/url]. The couple of structures that surrounded them seemed man-made, but when she zoomed in on the distant figures running around them, ‘man-made’ no longer struck her as appropriate. Farther still the desert rose and turned grayish, becoming a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/darksiders/images/6/63/The_Ashlands.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120127202436]sagging sprawl[/url] of buildings long since claimed by the scraping sands. In the other direction, toward the mountains that separated the Sandswept Sky from the Dead Zone, the terrain turned into an expanse of great, [url=https://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/893803-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-20-year-celebration-playstation-4.jpg]stony canyons[/url].

Unfortunately for Tora, where the Yellow Team was right now was pretty boring. It wasn’t flat, and the train did cruise between great dunes, around valleys, and over chasms, but there was nothing really going on. After the first hour the thrill of riding a train had run its course, and he crawled over the honeypot’s front to look inside. “Hiya, meh! Everyone having good time in there?”

[center][h3]Edge of the Blue - Luma Pools[/h3]
[@Potemking][/center]

With his rather paranoid setup for determining Wiggler lethality laid down, Mirage soon found his attention captured by the sandy lakeside beach. His imagination propelled him to its surface, where its many piles hinted at the presence of unknown goodies just waiting to be uncovered. As his first attempt proved, not every gritty accumulation masked an object beneath, but the intrepid vacationer was not dissuaded. In short order he made his first lucky break, as in one fortuitous swipe uncovered the gleaming brazen circumference of a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/guilds/images/a/a1/Dubloon2.gif]pirate doubloon[/url]! Though chipped it still shone with a fine luster, one that beckoned an eager mind to conjure up exhilarating stories of buried hoards and greedy buccaneers. Of course, his next attempt turned up a [url=https://assets.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2020/08/calappa-from-fight-crab.jpg]crab[/url] the size of a dinner plate. Less mean than it looked, the creature sidestepped for cover without even trying for a painful pinch, unless Mirage’s questing hand were to draw too near. Subsequent excavations revealed a smattering of loot; from the sand the hologrameer pulled a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/sonic/images/0/06/Normal_Egg.png]spotted egg[/url], a bunch of [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/animalcrossing/images/b/b0/Scallop_nh.png]shells[/url], a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fortnite/images/0/01/Coconut_Icon.png]fallen coconut[/url], and even a [url=https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/1/1f/Dream_Skull_Fossil_Sprite.png]fossilized skull[/url] of indisputable hardness.

His loot secured, could also take a look over at his experiment in progress to see the Wigglers back at it again, having gingerly wormed their snoots through the leaf litter to bask in the morning sun once again. Whether or not the trepidatious things would shove through a living being remained to be soon, but there were lots of other places to sunbathe.

Now that he could get a good look, the area west of the waterfall-fed lake appeared quite inviting, even if its sunbathing opportunities were limited. The lush forest continued in that direction, not so thick as to be overwhelming, but filled nonetheless with increasingly aquatic-looking life on land, from coral shrubs to the rare tall anemone among the pink-red fronds.