[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Carcass Isle
Level 7 Nadia (22/70)
Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Blazermate’s [@ArchmageMC], Hat Kid’s [@Dawnrider], Geralt’s [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN], Ace Cadet’s [@Yankee], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey],  Link’s [@Gentlemanvaultboy], Mirage’s [@Potemking], Delsin’s [@Rockin Strings]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2031[/center]

As Nadia checked up on her allies, both who fought alongside her and who waged their wars elsewhere, she couldn’t help but acknowledge how great a toll the mysterious Master Hand’s trial had taken. The three-way miniboss extravaganza, as well as the sheer dramatic tension of the heroes’ much too close for comfort photo finish, left them all wounded, tired, cold, stressed, and more than a little miserable. They’d lost an invaluable ally, albeit not forever–that caveat being of rather critical importance to the mental wellbeing of certain individuals among their number. This harrowing episode wasn’t one that Nadia’s cohort could collectively shrug off and then just keep on trucking. Foreknowledge that only one ultimate trial awaited them in this place came as a rare comfort, even if it also assured them that it would be their most difficult challenge to date. A situation like that made it hard for even someone like Nadia, a jokester so desensitized by pain and bloodshed that she could pun and quip her way through even the most stomach-churning injuries, to put on a brave face. Yet she and the others managed, from the oldest and most grizzled among them to the youngest and most vulnerable. Before they could tackle the Deep Blue Seaside’s final boss, the bedraggled Seekers needed a break.

Unfortunately, this grotto could provide only so much respite to them. They could lay down on the stone, the kelp, or sponges, but they could not get comfortable. They could try to slacken their tensed muscles, but they could not relax. They could close their eyes, but stubborn aches and chills meant that they could not rest. They could steady their breathing, but the briny putrescence of the Parasite Farm wouldn’t let them breathe easy. And they could conjure up imagined comforts, be they the welcome faces of friends and family or more worldly delights like food, beauty, and sleep, but it proved nigh-impossible to blot out the unwholesome visages of marine aberrations, stamped as they were into the heroes’ minds.

A few separate conversions drifted about the grotto, each of which Nadia tried to pay some heed. When Bowser opted to shed some light on the giant evil glove’s whole deal, she made sure to swivel her ears his way. Evidently he and a few other apparent acquaintances whose names the feral didn’t recognize ran into this Master Hand before, and in what sounded like quite a sensational series of events, too. She couldn’t ignore the part where Bowser let slip his previous plan to take over various worlds, but she chalked that up to his exaggerated harmless villain shtick. More relevant to her was the fact that Master Hand showed up to beleaguer the heroes with enemies twice before, which included Link of all people. By her count, that made three times that its machinations came to naught. “I guess we’ll keep seein’ him, then,” she remarked, using the pronoun that the others did despite the entity’s total lack of identifiable characteristics. Kamek’s comment about the trial being a boon got her thinking. “Well, if he really is an enemy, I gotta ‘hand’ it to him. He shows up, fails to actually kill anyone, then leaves us with a whole buncha strong new allies and spirits. If you ask me, I’d say he’s alright..” She let slip a mischievous grin. “Get it? ‘All right’? Because he’s a right…ah, nevermind.”

Blazermate spoke briefly of more recent developments, namely the trial she’d faced alongside Peach, Bowser, his son, and Link. As hard as her own fight had been, Nadia did not relish her tale of an enemy who could brainwash the opposition to fight for the other team. The Medabot treated the situation pretty off-handedly, but Nadia came away from the story more uneasy rather than less. Nothing, it seemed, was off the table.

When Ace mentioned Mirage for the other’s sake, Nadia put her hand to her head and breathed a heavy sigh. She hadn’t forgotten about him or anything, but after seeing his rescue by Ace’s mysterious felynes she’d written the Legend off as ‘okay’ and moved right along, wanting to get the image of him being crushed under a watery leviathan out of her head. The heroes were lucky to escape the consequences of their actions this time, but would those kitties keep bailing them out forever? That sounded too good to be true to Nadia. It was just bad luck that her team ended up without a healer; that was a mistake that wouldn’t happen again.

Denied anything beyond a superficial and short-term wellness, the group needed a distraction in order to keep their heads in the game, and nothing served the purpose better than their looted spirits. It struck Nadia as a little funny how quickly they accepted and incorporated the little motes of prismatic essence into their daily activities, despite how incredible the things were. The power to essentially rewrite reality in the palm of one’s hand, to change appearance and personality and bestow new abilities, all made possible through death. Honestly, it sort of freaked her out a little, making her wonder if she and the others shouldn’t be a little more worried about the phenomenon. Just what kinds of dark secrets might it hold? But Nadia wasn’t even really the type to ask the right questions, let alone find the answers. If she didn’t get stronger, she could very well get the others killed, or find her undying body subjected to a fate worse than death. Spirits would make her stronger. That was that.

So it was that when nobody objected to her claim on the Oceanid spirit, she took a deep breath, and placed its essence into her chest. Then, like the others around her who accepted the exchange of one’s very self for power, she dissolved into a flare of radiant light, and transformed.

[center][hider=For Nadia]Rare Spirit Devoured:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/9llORq7.png]Rhodeia of Loch[/url][/b]
Nadia’s blood has become a mildly luminescent blue, similar in composition to the Oceanid’s body. This also makes her scar tissue a dark blue. Faint swirl patterns are visible on her skin, like old tattoos. The cotton fluff coming from her pant legs has turned white and similar fluff appears from the top of her collar. Her hair has lost its blonde tint, becoming white as well as a little longer and more flowy, like her hair is always slightly underwater. Her left eye has inverted, with blue sclera and a bright white iris/pupil. Her crop top also now has silky fin-shaped extensions on both front and back that reach her waist. In terms of personality, she’s fonder of swimming and water in general, finding beauty and joy in pure water but revulsion and anger in contaminated water. This spirit confers the Power [b]Water Purr-essure[/b], giving her greater quantities of and control over her own vital fluid. She can better pressurize herself for much stronger blasts, both for mobility and offense, as well as swim very quickly. It also confers the Weakness [b]Watery[/b], which gives her a permanent Hydro status. This means that she can be briefly flash-frozen if struck by ice magic, electro-charged by electricity, and vaporized (dealt extra damage) by fire

[b]New Power:[/b] Copycat - Nadia’s appropriation of the Oceanid’s ability to create hydro mimics allows her to copy herself, either in whole or in part. She can create mimics of herself very quickly by expending her finite vital fluid, which means damage dealt to her mimics will result in less health back for her when absorbed. Status ailments on her mimics will only synchronize if absorbed before expiry. Her mimics cannot speak and have no minds of their own, but exhibit her personality and obey her will. Otherwise, they can do whatever she can and have no damage penalty[/hider]

[hider=For Kamek]Notable Spirit Consumed:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/WipWqam.png]B’giotahmo  Bravha[/url][/b]
The addition of a second female spirit has tipped the balance. Kamek has gotten younger and more humanoid once more, now resembling a lizard-person around four feet tall, with some breakouts of tan skin among the scales, including on the more human face. Two doses of hair have wound up giving Kamek a blue-tinted white mop of hair with little miqo’te ears. The tail is longer and thinner, with a tuft of blue-tinted white fur on the end. The robe and cap have gotten less elaborate, becoming mostly white with blue, red, and purple highlights. In terms of personality, the host has become more friendly and gentle. This spirit confers the Strength [b]Woodland Native[/b], granting a thorough knowledge of forest culture and survival, including herbology and associated culunarianism. It also confers the Weakness [b]Dedicated Healer[/b], decreasing the power of offensive magic by 20%[/hider]

[hider=For Blazermate]Rare Spirit Devoured:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/ARzod1u.png]Abyssal Sun Princess[/url][/b]
This spirit has resolved into the Sun Princess Chassis. Blazermate’s torso now resembles a mannequin’s, albeit forged of villainous-looking blacksteel. It is clad in the upper part of a kimono, which is a gradient going top to bottom from light to dark red, with two thin pairs of yellow-range stripes, a blash sash, and a red knot. The kimono hangs down only to about mid-thigh. Having this part makes Blazermate less concerned about her allies’ well-being. This part grants the Power [b]Abyssal Target[/b], allowing her to mark a target with a reticle for fifteen seconds. Any minions under her control will automatically prioritize the target. Meanwhile, allies will be able to see the mark, even if the target is stealthed or otherwise hiding. This part also confers the Weakness [b]Low Rider[/b], decreasing Blazermate’s maximum flying speed and altitude[/hider]

[hider=For Link]New Striker Spiritbound:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/PAqkS4Y.png]Beguiling Siren[/url][/b][/hider]
The Siren is a dualistic spirit whose cooldown depends on how she’s used. Devour and Pressure Crash are abilities that affect a wide area, dealing low damage (but with high crit) and Stress, respectively. Crits caused by Devour also cause Stress. Against enemies, Stress increases susceptibility to status ailments and increases their duration. Either of these abilities incur a short cooldown. Song of Desire incurs a long cooldown, and charms an enemy on the battlefield for a while. The charm automatically affects the enemy with the lowest debuff resist who hasn’t already been charmed and ignores debuff resist. It will fail if there is only one enemy
[/center]

When the light died down, Nadia blinked a few times to clear the stars out of her eyes, then got straight down to business looking herself over to see the extent of her changes. It took all of one second to realize that her crop top had gained silky extensions in both front and the back, something like a sarong or other cover-up one might wear to the beach. It struck her as just a little too elegant for her tastes, but as far as appearances went she could hardly complain, and if push came to shove she could just cut it back down to size. Other than that, however, she couldn’t detect any changes. Not until a discoloration of her scar tissue prompted her to pull off her forearm, at least. “Whoa, look at that! I’m all blue inside!” When she shook her stump a splash of bright blue blood splashed onto the ground, which she promptly absorbed back into her body. Mind racing, she reattached her arm and ran a hand through her hair without realizing its new length or flow.

After noticing something her friend did not, Peach elected to inform her cat-eared comrade. “Your left eye,” she supplied. “It’s the same color as your blood, with a white dot in the middle.”

“Oh, really?” If anything, Nadia looked disappointed. “Well, I know heterochromia’s all the rage, but maybe I could work it into a cool eyepatch or something.” She absent-mindedly scratched at her collar, which was tickling her neck just a little with its new fluff. “Although, I’m pretty sure my vision’s fine…”

Pleased by the extent of her fusion overall, Nadia put her perfect vision to use on the others. Blazermate’s new kimono looked nice, although all her different parts were starting to make her look like she’d hit a real-life randomize button. Her gaze lingered a moment longer on Kamek, whose change had been more drastic. In fact, while she held her tongue, she couldn’t help but think the Magikoopa looked pretty weird. A bizarre blend of animal and human. It took her a moment to realize, not that she herself was an animal-human hybrid and a hypocritical one at that, but that a more significant change had taken place for Kamek. “Wait, what...!?” she murmured in awe, her eyes wide as saucers. “That’s how that works!?”

That left the spirits of the little Black Mage and the Ucas, but since Nadia wanted nothing to do with any of them, she left the others to deal with them. Now more than ever, she felt the need to be careful about what she fused with, and being either shorter or uglier was not on her radar. Instead she obliged Blazermate with a summary of her own encounter. “Well, the fish-thing I stuck in me didn’t actually fight us. She just summoned these animals made of water to fight for her. At first it was just pigs and birds and stuff, nothin’ serious, but then she whipped out tigers and giant turtles for round two. Then for round three she just plops down giant fish monsters and sea dragons! That last one even had shield and ice powers! They were so. Damn Tanky. It took fur-ever for us to whittle them down!”

Remembering another element from the fight, she glanced at Delsin and Hatty. “Man, you two really saved us. If ya didn’t take down that giant eel by yourselves, we woulda been dead for sure.” She shook her head with a groan and laid herself back down on her bed of kelp. “When we’re done with this rotten island, I’m gonna take a vacation. There were beaches around Limsa, right? Oh man, I can’t wait. Just me, the sun, and the surf, nice and warm, coconuts and barbeque, ahh…and lots and lots of alcohol.” She stared at the grotto ceiling wistfully, only to turn up her nose at the weird masses growing there, so her gaze lingered on Ace instead. “...Can’t get meowtta here fast enough.”

Her brows suddenly furrowed. “Wait, we’re bein’ paid for this, right!?”

At the very least, Spinal was. Link offered him one of the treasures he’d collected during the group’s stint in the Luma Pools, a gorgeous crystal sulfide. Its luster certainly caught the greedy skeleton’s eye. “Oh, hohohoho!” he cackled as he snatched the gemstone to affix to his shield. He crammed it right in the eye socket of the wooden octopus, where its viridian gleam could shine with the ghostly power at the pirate’s command. Link then left, retracing his steps up from the grotto in a hurry to find the unknown Abyssal freed by Sakura in the course of her trial.

He found her in the Parasite Farm, momentarily flummoxed as she sought to find a way out of the cave and up toward the less detestably malodorous surface of Carcass Isle. At his call she turned, first her head and then her crustacean mount. The haughtily beautiful New Southern bore a faint resemblance to Bella, her sister the Seaplane Tender, but she bore a snooty, lazy air all her own. She looked like she had a lot on her plate, and not very happy about it either, but the last thing she wanted right now was more enemies. “What is it?”

Link’s questions prompted her to raise her knuckles to her cheek as she searched for answers. “Yes, I remember…my sisters and I. The interminable campaign. Our only purpose in life, to oppose. To slaughter them, our hated enemies. I remained beneath, ever by the side of Her Excellency. I lacked the speed to go forth, but I could defend. In doing so, I could see my sisters, my people. Reduced to ash, resurrected time and time again. A grim parade of death, infinite, meaningless, and so very, very bothersome. Then suddenly, I’m here. With Her Excellency herself, and that oh-so-perfect toady, Pacific. The taste of death, my own death, for the first time…” The Abyssal sighed, allowing her eyes to slip closed. “If that’s all life is, I am done. Checking out. I wish only to be comfortable as I sink into a sweet, soft end, for good…” Her eyes flashed, and her brows knotted un annoyance. “Once I free myself of this wretched, stinking pit!”