[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Carcass Isle - Where All Things Must Come
Level 8 Nadia (21/80)
Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Blazermate’s [@Archmage MC], Hat Kid’s [@Dawnrider], Geralt’s [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN], Ace Cadet’s [@Yankee], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey],  Link’s [@Gentlemanvaultboy]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2569[/center]

For a long moment Nadia stood stock-still atop the roof of her briny, tar-splattered hovel, trying to get herself under control. It came as no surprise that even taking aim with her strange, plasticky firearm she’d been given was a challenge. It extended backward rather than forward, with a tall, heavy body and a large stock, but no forestock or handguard of any kind. The best plan she could come up with was holding the grip with both hands like a fishing rod in front of her, and extending her neck muscles high enough that she could look down the sights.

Of course, the logistics of using the gun was only the tip of the iceberg. Her limbs felt like lead, and perhaps due to the constant and oftentimes external exertion on her muscle fibers, her best efforts couldn’t prevent a bothersome twitch. Her nerves were shot, and not just from all the physical duress she’d undergone. As numb as she’d gotten in recent times, the sight of her beloved Fishbone Gang shook her more than she could describe, reopening the one wound that never quite healed. It would be a while before she could wrap her head around what she saw in that all-too-brief moment, as taunting and ephemeral as a long-forgotten dream, but in a way…it was enough. Nadia didn’t need any scientific explanation or therapeutic soul-searching to know that her family was watching over her. That even if she couldn’t see them, they were right here with her, holding her up and guiding her hand. And that gave her the strength to carry on.

Dimly Nadia was aware of other visitations across the beach, other haunting glimpses of bygone souls offering much-needed relief to her teammates in their hour of need, but she did not dwell on them. As far as she was concerned, these precious memories were private, and none of her business. Instead the feral steeled herself at last, flashed open sea-blue eyes, flattened her ears, bared her fangs, and with her bizarre handgun as well-aimed as it was going to get, squeezed tight. Dutifully the weapon sprang into action, condensing her oceanid blood into bullets that it then launched via magnetic propulsion. “Have a taste of your own medicine!” she cried as her weaponized blood streaked through the air, more than happy to pay the Orphan back in kind for the bloody devastation it had wrought. 

Nadia’s visceral charge shots joined their strength to the bombardment of cannon fire and sniper support that had been both whittling away at the giant BT and shooting down its attempts to return fire. None of the Gas Bags withstood more than a single shot from anything, instead bursting like the balloons they so resembled before they could plant themselves like mines in the tarry battlefield the accursed beach had become. The heroes’ ghastly pursuit by golden BT’s warranted more urgency, and though the lustrous fiends managed a couple close calls, they failed to drag anyone down into the muck. As more and more of the Seekers received aid from their phantoms, replenishing not just arsenals but bodies and souls, the cannonade turned into a withering deluge of steel, lead, bombs, flame, electricity, sound, shadow, and blood. Thanks to Blazermate’s healing even Peach could lend a hand, and though she couldn’t blast out railgun shots or deploy bombers like Bella, she had a trick or two of her own. Mr. Grimm’s revolver sent forth screaming spirits of the restless dead to home in on the BT’s blood-drunk heart alongside the Medabot’s purgatory ghosts, where all three specters collided with explosive results.

Working together, the team piled on the damage while keeping one another safe from the hazards that the BT spat back out at them. The punishment culminated in an uproarious fireball from Ace’s alchemy barrel, almost bright as the sun in the stormy dark of the shoreline. Its explosion ruptured the heart in a burst of nauseating, necrotic slime, and with an abysmal moan the eidolon recoiled. Its strands flailed like streamers from the tips of its stricken arms as it took a half-step back, and despite all that ailed her Nadia found herself wearing a gleeful grin. “We’re making progress!” she called out to encourage the others, but by now the feral knew better than to celebrate prematurely. “Just keep your guard up!”

Right on cue, the odious collapsed eyeball slid shut, and began to recede into the BT’s chest. In the span of a second the organ disappeared, and the patch of golden crystal began to slide across the nightmare’s tarry skin. It moved upward and around, coming to rest on BT’s left shoulder, where after another moment the mutilated eye protruded once more. Nadia couldn’t help but let out a wry chuckle. It was such a simple move, but on such a large scale it meant that most if not all the Seekers couldn’t hit that weak spot any more. Not from their current positions, at least. Luckily, the problem had an equally simple solution. As Nadia lowered her gun and prepared to move, though, she realized exactly what was going on. The beach was shifting again, and in a big way. Almost everything that lay above the surface had already begun to sink below, while new fragments pushed up elsewhere. The scraps of shipwreck and shack that bubbled up looked even more rickety and decrepit than what she’d seen already, if that were even possible. She set her sights on the pieces of ancient Atlantean ruins instead, but even they seemed weird, their odd angles impious with horrible images and hieroglyphs. “...Hissterical,” the feral spat. Like it or not, it was time to get a move on.

Loathe to leave her family’s parting gifts behind, Nadia sacrificed the use of one arm to bind the cases and the gun in a sling of muscle fiber. Then she was off to the races. Before her roof could disappear into the mire she got clear with a running jump. She used the prow of an upturned rowboat and the top of a lamp post as stepping stones, then nimbly ran across the top of a crumbling stone wall. Spotting a rotten [url=https://i.imgur.com/LtnSfAD.png]ship’s figurehead[/url], she jumped for it with a blood-propelled dropkick. The impact snapped the spar supporting the carved maiden, and with Nadia atop it the whole thing fell forward into the quagmire, forming a bridge to a circle of standing [url=https://i.imgur.com/2TxKOq0.png]fish idols[/url]. Breathing heavily, she crossed over, used the statues as stepping stones, and landed on a section of [url=https://i.imgur.com/c2OK8rE.png]antiquarian aqueduct[/url] just in time to see the BT’s strands whipping across the beach. “Whoa!” she yowled, separating at the thighs to avoid the first pitch-black tentacle. As she came together she sprang forward in a jet of blood, diving between two more before she landed with a roll at the end of the aqueduct, blotched by the tar pooled within. “Eugh,” she groaned, getting to her feet to assess the situation. She’d managed to get almost to the beach’s east side cliff, from which she could definitely hit the big bastard’s eye. When she looked back, however, she spotted the BT swinging its strands in a colossal backhand, chasing the heroes as they made their way Nadia’s direction. “Look out, it’s coming around again!” she yelled.

Hat Kid was mid-jump when she got hit, caught wholesale by one of the hands that adorned the BT’s strands. It squeezed her tight, then like a stone from a sling, let her loose. The poor child hurtled out of control, straight toward the rocky cliff. “Hatty!” Nadia screamed, dropping her loot without a second thought. With only a split second to act she launched herself toward the girl as best she could, but it wasn’t good enough, and she realized mid-flight that she and Hat Kid would pass one another by a matter of meters. In an act of desperation she sacrificed a chunk of what little blood she had left to throw a half-formed copycat Hatty’s way. It managed to intercept her, grab hold, and be dragged along as the little girl flew, wrapping itself around her in a hug until the two hit the cliffside. Nadia’s copycat exploded from the impact, but its gelatinous body managed to cushion the kid just enough. She fell onto a stony shelf behind a promontory, and a moment later the real Nadia descended with the help of an airdash. Though lightheaded from the blood loss, the feral crouched down beside her. “Hatty? Hatty!” The girl wasn’t moving, and Nadia didn’t want to touch her, lest she worsen her injuries. “Blaze, over here, hurry!”

There wasn’t much that Nadia could do for her, she knew. Blazermate would have to bring the tyke back from the brink. At the very least, though, the cat burglar could make that monstrosity pay. She dropped down from behind the promontory, retrieved her weird gun, took aim, and fired. As the others let loose, having made their way to new vantage points from which they could strike at the BT’s eyes, Nadia fired and fired and fired again, until the expenditure of blood made her pass out, too.

It wasn’t long after that that the Seekers struck the final blow. The BT has reached the shore, but the relocation of its eye had been its last resort, and once they maneuvered their way across the perilous beach to get a bead on their target, Nadia’s allies finished the job. Their enemy fell to one knee, vying to support its weight on one arm, then with the last of its strength attempted to stand once more. Golden crystallization spread across its entire body, and as it stiffened,the hands that sprouted from its neck splayed wide. As the fingers bent and twisted, as if grasping for any shred of salvation, it shook the beach with one final bellow, like the song of a dying whale. Above it, the tumultuous sky began to calm, and the tar -with all its clutter- began to recede into the earth. Then, with agonizing slowness, the abominable thing toppled backward into the surf. Its golden body shattered like a mirror, and from within surged a tide of darkness. It swept over everyone present, but instead of pain or further horror the heroes found a strange relief in its momentary embrace, like the relief of closing one’s eyes after staring into a bright light.

[i]”Ah, the sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean…”[/i]

Then the shadow passed, and in its wake it left only the Beach, devoid of tar, or corpses, or filth of any kind. The water had receded a couple hundred feet from the black sand, leaving a wealth of [url=https://i.imgur.com/ZTtLaDJ.png]chiral crystals[/url], a field of frozen, grasping hands. In the largest formation, the spirit of the Orphan of Kos lay, its visage every bit as horrifying within the cerise swirl. A distant sunrise shone through the clouds, and in its warm rays the last traces of black mist melted away.

[i]”A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all that there is, and can be.”[/i]

After making doubly sure that no more nasty surprises awaited them, the weary heroes reconvened. Those in good shape helped along those who weren’t. Despite being barely conscious, Nadia clung to her gifts as if her life depended on it, which turned out to be oddly appropriate when a friend of hers inspected the containers. One of the labels on the box of cryptobiotes mentioned their ability to restore blood levels when eaten, and once made aware Nadia began to chow down. Though gross, the little bugs proved effective, and after munching through ten of them the feral felt a lot better. “Oh, man…” she exhaled, still a little woozy but able to (mostly) stand on her own. “I hope that worked. Otherwise, my efforts will be…in vein.”

She felt bad the instant she made the pun. Everyone was dirty, in pain, tired, and miserable. Their gear and clothes were in a pitiable state; Nadia was one hundred percent sure she’d have to throw hers away. Her mind swam from the horror of what she’d witnessed as much as from the blood loss, but no amount of not-so-yummy snacks could make that go away. Nobody died, at least. Bowser got whisked away by the cats to go hang out with Mirage, Link overcame his electrocution, Sakura jumped up from the mud like her alarm went off, Hatty got knocked out and...that was all she’d seen. It had been pandemonium, but all of her friends were still here. [i]That’s something worth celebrating,[/i] she thought. [i]Aside from the whole saving-the-world thing.[/i]

Once everyone left was accounted for, Peach took a deep breath. “Screw this place,” she declared suddenly, all the optimism and goodwill she’d striven for in her earlier speech washed away by the Orphan’s final act. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

The princess only got a few steps before she suddenly stopped, an important realization came to mind. “Damn it.” She turned back around. “I know that freak is the last thing we want to think about, but someone needs to fuse with it. It can’t be destroyed, and if we don’t take care of it...well, it’ll probably come back.” She looked around, her expression as apologetic as it was weary.

"Think I might be the best one to take it." Geralt said in response to the question. "That...thing...isn't something to be considered lightly. And Witchers, specifically, are mutated in such a way that allows us to take in alchemically prepared monster parts to gain some of their traits. Spirits are like that, in a way." Looking at the Orphan's Spirit, Geralt nodded. "And I'm willing to take the risk, and the downsides, that come with it. Whatever they are..."

For volunteering the Witcher found himself caught in a deluge of thanks and praise. Nobody wanted the Orphan inside them, horrific as it was, and to have someone willing meant a weight off their backs. Going near the chiralium crystals proved to have an immediate negative effect on his mind, taking the form of a sudden surge of depression, but Geralt’s long stride allowed him to retrieve the Orphan spirit quickly and retreat to a safe distance. There, with everyone looking on in worry, he did the deed.

[center][hider=For Geralt]Guardian spirit Assimilated:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/fJgT3rg.png]Orphan of Kos[/url][/b]
The severity of this fusion has been greatly lessened thanks to Geralt’s mutagenic resistance and his fusion with the harbor demon, whose height, beauty, general thickness, and voluminous hair almost perfectly counteract the Orphan’s shriveled, grotesque, hairless husk. The host is now pale enough to be considered albino, down to 7’7” in height, with a present but not too worrisome decrease in mass, if not physical strength. Harbor demon’s original hair length plus the Orphan’s baldness has resulted in somewhat shaggier hair at only a little longer than the host’s original length. The host’s generally a little less good looking than he was originally, with a ghastly smile and overall more bony structure (prominent ribs, elbows, knee bones, cheek bones, etc). From the shoulders of his gear extend two half-capes of a slightly translucent white material that is mistakable for silk when dry. Confers the Power [b]Eldritch Lightning[/b], which allows the host to call forth waves of electricity with a scream. Also confers the Power [b]Hateful Flesh[/b], which allows to pull the Orphan’s cleaver from within himself at a moderate health cost. The heaviest of his three weapons, it possesses an edge of siderate, a mineral said to have fallen from the great beyond, and rather than men or monsters, it deals extra damage to eldritch and spectral enemies. The host can pull clumps of extremely volatile tissue from the cleaver, which can then be used as contact explosives. Also confers the Strength [b]A Call Beyond[/b], giving the host an affinity for and insight into nightmarish things beyond mortal ken. Confers the Weakness [b]Rager[/b], making it easier for Geralt to give into anger when fighting (or in general) and suffer compromised decision-making with no increase to combat ability[/hider][/center]

When the light died down the Seekers were relieved to see that their grouchy friend didn’t look all that much worse for wear, somehow. In fact, he looked rather like his original self, if a little worse for wear. With that matter settled better than anyone -Geralt included- could have hoped, there wasn’t much to do other than gather up loot and get the hell away from the beach, as Peach prescribed. Though it glittered, the chiralium was certainly not gold, and just going near such a vast deposit gave rise to a disquieting onset of dark thoughts, so the heroes prepared to hurry on their way.

That left just one question, which Nadia, after blinking a few times, ended up voicing. “So…how do we get back to Limsa, again?”