BrokenPromise

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

"When you say dick, I say head! …Head!... Head!”

— Daniel Castro

_{@Punished GN}

Dan hopped backwards when an African American man suddenly poofed into existence. It took him a moment to realize that this was Jaden, the guy who had been blaring that music out of all the speakers. The situation didn’t look great for Daniel. He didn’t like fighting almost as much as getting falsely accused of things. If he thought there was a rational explanation that would appease Jaden, he’d have spit that out right now.

"Ah, yes, you were performing.”

Sadly, the truth here sounded like an excuse to not own up to something he did. It wasn’t like Daniel had the full story either. He didn’t know if that girl was trying to set him up, or if she was an inexperienced member of the maintenance crew. It wouldn’t be right to dump all of this on her. Which really just left Dan with one option.

"And it was a great performance! You really looked alive up there. But there was something off about your sound. B-but I knew it had to be an issue with the speakers!” He reached down and picked up the wire again. "So I tried to fix it, and I seem to have made everything worse! I think there was something wrong with that speaker anyway. Otherwise, I’m sure everyone would have been dancing along.” He started to move his feet. "When you say Nin, I say ja! …Ja!... Ja!”

---

"Someone needs to brush up on their social studies.”

— Oriko Ishii

_{@CaliforniaState}

When asked where she was from, Oriko shot the woman a sideways glance. Partially because she wasn’t expecting a question, but also because the answer to said question seemed so apparent. Oriko was wearing a new year kimono, had two katanas, a kitsune mask positioned on the side of her head, marked scrolls adorning her back, and was drinking out of a sake cup. Her attire and accessories all screamed, very loudly, the place of her birth. Sure, the number of native Japanese with green eyes and blond hair were almost nonexistent. But it wasn’t like miss drinks-a-lot here had any business taking her hair color into account. Hell, her hair made her look like a lemming with a boob job, but that didn’t mean you could judge people based on appearances.

…

Regardless, it was a stupid question and Oriko wouldn’t dignify it with an answer. At least she could confirm that she wasn’t Japanese, since obviously a Japanese person would recognize a sake cup. Especially if they were into drinking as much as this one did.

Wait no, she had something for this.

"Well, if you looked closely at my outfit, you’d see that I’m wearing a festive kimono.” She grabbed her sleeve and pulled it tight. "If you really think about it, the only logical conclusion is that I’m a Brazilian native.”

When she was asked why she was drinking, Oriko scoffed. "I doubt there’s enough alcohol to-” She paused and looked between the woman’s money and the empty cups on her side of the table. "We have to pay for this?” It seemed absurd. The entry fee wasn’t cheap, and then they had to pay for the booze on top of it all. There’s a saying in Japan that bitter medicine works best, but this was something else. She doubted anything that smelled so foul would be able to cure anything. "What are they even charging for this? Well, whatever. I’m good for it.” She filled her sake cup again. "I joined a fighting tournament to test my fighting skills. I will not drink in place of a fight. But it seems like everyone is expecting a show, so let’s give them one.”

It was, admittedly, an interesting idea. Fighting people by out drinking them. While waking up from a drunken stupor was no less awful than waking up from a traditional knock out, it was at least more fun to go into. At least, she figured that was the thought process the last few men had.

"Oros the Swift is my magical girl title.” Geez this lady asked a lot of questions. It was preferable to the trash talking she was expecting. Slightly. "Would you like me to catch up to you?” She was already filling her sake cup for the third time.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

"Remember to love with your heart, and use your head for everything else!”

— Daniel Castro

Two adorable twins were camping in the woods. Their tent was pitched, the rain deflector was up, and they had a table set up with all of their other camping gear on it. Compass, whistles, lanterns, canteens, even a water purifier and a generator was part of their load out. To the uninitiated, it might seem like they had prepared for everything. Though a seasoned camper would find fault with the teenager’s outfits. Their black and white colors were horrible for visibility in the wilderness, and did little to let them spot ticks that might be crawling over their clothes. They were stylish though, and cool. Something that a younger viewer might emulate or respect. They had just finished stacking wood under a small camping pot. It was suspended over the wood from a short cable, which was held by a metal tripod. The boy adjusted one of the sticks under the pot before standing up.

”I guess we light it now.”

”Should we?” The girl used her oversized sleeve to wipe her head, which was dry. ”Dad’s not back from work yet, and mom went to see Auntie May”

”But we’ve got to surprise them!”

With a shrug, the girl walked over to the table and grabbed a big red Jerry can with the words “GAS” written on the side. It was so big in fact, that the girl had difficulty holding onto it. She took three steps before tripping up. ”Oh no!”

The Jerry can flew through the air in a perfect arc and struck the boy in the back. In an incredible display of bad luck, he was trying to light a micro torch and dropped it as soon as he got it lit. The torch flew from his hands and landed in the dry leaves. ”Come on!”

The leaves didn’t catch fire, they instantly ignited. The area around the teenagers were set aflame, trapping the kids in a ring of fire. ”What do we do?” The girl asked, but the boy remained silent. They were way out of their element, and the flames were only getting closer. And the Jerry can was right at their feet...

But when all hope seemed lost, a soccer ball made out of pure ki flew through the flames. Then another, and another. Each time a ball flew past them, more of the flames disappeared. When there was only a single flame left, their savior stomped it out. The savior in question was Daniel Castro. Better known by his fans as…

”Captain Superstar!” The teenagers said at the same time. They immediately ran to either side of him.

"Hey guys! I thought I smelled something cooking, but I wasn’t expecting this!” He looked between the two teenagers.

The teenager’s joy immediately turned sour. The boy pointed at his sister. ”She shoved the torch out of my hands!”

The girl placed her hands on her hips . ”Only because you didn’t help me move it! I knew we should have waited!”

Dan, still smiling, raised both of his hands. "Hey! Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility! You’re a team, and everyone wins if everyone’s safe!”

”You’re right.” The boy looked at his sister and lowered his head. ”I’m sorry, we should have waited.”

”I’m sorry too. I should have asked for help.” With a sigh, she looked back at Dan ”Can you coach us on fire safety?”

"Of course! First, it should go without saying that you should always have adult supervision when starting fires. Beyond that, the best way to stop a fire is to prevent it.” He grabbed a rake that just happened to be within arms reach and started to go around the campfire. "There’s lots of flammable stuff in the wilderness! Fallen branches, dead leaves, and trash can all catch fire. It’s a good idea to make sure that there’s nothing flammable around your camp fire.” He passed off the rake to the boy, and then he reached for a broad metal ring that had a “Fire Poof” logo stamped on the side. "It also helps to have a fire ring around anything you want to burn. Just be careful, as most of them will be hot after a fire has burnt out!”

The sister’s sleeve lit up when she reached for the torch. ”Oh no! I’m on fire!”

"You need to stop, drop, and roll to smother the flames!” While the girl rolled on the ground, Daniel removed his cape and dunked it in a “Fire Poof” marked bucket before throwing it over her. "Then you or a friend should throw a wet blanket or coat over you to finish extinguishing the flames! You should always have a bucket of water on hand to put out fires, but Fire Poof does make some fire blankets when water isn’t available.” After smoothing his cape over the girl, he reached behind his back and handed the boy a fire extinguisher. "Fire extinguishers are also good to have on hand, but you should only spray burning people with them as a last resort. They are best for putting out every other type of fire. Just get one with the proper letter rating!” While the boy blasted the camp fire with the extinguisher, Daniel looked down at the girl. "Are you alright?”

Her eyes were half closed, and a grin spread across her face. ”I’m still a little hot.”

"That’s… Normal.” He stood up, suddenly holding a Fire Poof brand smoke detector in one hand and a smaller extinguisher in the other. "Fires can happen at home, too! Make sure your parents have a smoke detector in every bedroom. Hallways and in front of sleeping quarters are all great places to put smoke detectors. It’s also a good idea to have an extinguisher on every floor, and an extra one in the kitchen. Fire Poof makes an all white extinguisher with a sleek design that looks great on any counter top!”

The boy leaned on the rake and smiled at Daniel. ”Thanks Captain Superstar! I feel a lot safer now!” His sister was hugging Dan’s cape without saying anything.

"Well guys, I’m off to check on the rest of the park. Just remember, when the team wins, everyone wins! And nothing makes a fire poof out faster than Fire Poof!”

…

…

…

Daniel, much like anyone from SHINING, wasn’t going to show up at a fighting tournament without getting a microphone shoved in his face. And if no microphone was involved, an interview would be recorded while a doll faced reporter got the scoop. Complete with cameras flashing and a whirlwind of notes flying off the reporter’s notepad. Dan was dealing with the latter today.

”Alright-my-boy-all-right!” The reporter paced her words like an auctioneer. ”Now-let’s-see-here-Captain-Superstar-let’s-see. You’ve-got-one-hell-of-a-competition-coming-up. It-looks-stiff-it-looks-mean. I-hear-it's-your-first-tourney-Superstar-is-that-true?”

Daniel chuckled. Thankful that it was quiet enough to get covered up by the loud background music. "I haven’t attended something like this before.” Dan kept grinning while looking at the reporter. "It’s not like I haven’t trained with other Nomads though. SHINING is filled with talented nomads and I’ve been able to spar with a few of them. But there’s a lot of talented people here, and I’m just happy to be a part of it all.”

”And-the-stone-my-boy-you’ve-got-to-have-a-plan-for-the-stone!”

"You can’t expect to win the first time you do anything, but!” Dan’s grin got just a bit bigger. "I’ve already decided that whatever I win is going to charity, so if I get the stone, I'll auction it off and donate the proceedings.”

”Alright-boy-fair-is-fair. Just-one-last-question-if-you-please-you-mentioned-SHINING-you-think-you-and-the-Justice-Riders-are-going-to-fight? You-gunna-whoop-them-boy-or-do-they-intimidate-you?”

Dan shook his head. "I haven’t sparred with them before, but I respect them as heroes of justice. I’d be honored to face them in an arena like this.”

”Thanks-boy!Thanks!” She gave his hand a vigorous shake before blending into the crowd like a ninja. But Dan could only exhale once they left him alone.

The room felt alien to Dan. He lived in Mexico, America, and even Brazil for just the past week, but this didn’t feel like any of them. People from all over the world had come together taking their culture and beliefs with them. There were no two people who were alike, and the only thing they shared were that they were all nomads. Without cameras to pose in front of or a reporter to impress, he felt lost. There were no familiar faces that he could see, and he figured the ones he did know were still getting interviews of their own. He was attending a costume party where he didn’t know most of the guests. Dan’s manager was right: There was nothing quite like the atmosphere at the fighting carnival.

A testament to this was the fact that there was a blond girl, decked out with a crazy number of swords and scrolls, climbing under a table cloth with a chicken wing in her hand. He didn’t know what to make of that, but it wasn’t like it was the weirdest thing he had seen today.

_{@Punished GN}

He found himself approaching a garbage can. A small part of Dan just wanted to climb inside it and hide. It looked to be empty, but there was something small at the bottom. His curiosity got the better of him and pulled up the object in question.

"A drumstick?”

A chicken drumstick to be precise. He couldn’t understand why someone would throw away good food after taking a single bite. The soccer player looked over his shoulders to see if anyone was eyeing him before taking a bite himself. And… Yea, it was a little ‘meh’ when compared to how it looked. A bit too much breading, and it was dry. But it wasn’t the worst thing he had to eat, and it was wasteful to throw away. It didn’t seem like its former owner was going to finish it, so Dan did before dropping the bones back into the garbage.

Hopefully no one saw that.

And it was likely that nobody did, as someone had invited themselves up on stage and was singing to everyone who could hear them. That was pretty much everyone. Dan couldn’t even say if he enjoyed it or not because of how loud it was. He found himself holding his hands over his ears as the deep base of Number One Ninja felt like it was reverberating inside his rib cage.

A tap on the shoulder brought him to his senses, and a girl in a baseball cap stood in front of him. She waved him to come closer and walked to the edge of the stage.

"Huh? What do you need?” But the girl didn’t say anything. She stepped behind one of the speakers and held out a black cable. Dan hadn’t gotten any verbal cues from the woman, but felt like she wanted him to hold the cable. As soon as it was in his hand, she ducked behind the massive speaker and was out of sight. Just a few seconds later…

Static.

Every speaker in the room hissed for a few seconds before going silent. There were some sparks and smoke coming from the back of the speaker, and Daniel looked to make sure the woman was okay. But in looking behind the speaker, he could see that she must have swapped one of the power wires and one of the sound wires to blow out the speaker system. But the woman herself was nowhere to be found. Aside from a single chicken wing, there was no evidence anyone had been back here.

When Dan pulled his head out from behind the speaker, there were a few concerned people looking at him. He met their gazes, then looked to the speaker, and finally at the cable he held in his hand. The power wire that was used to fry the speaker system.

"Uh…” He forced a smile before dropping the cable. "How about that, huh?”

---

"Are drinkers or rappers worse?”

— Oriko Ishii

Oriko, or Oros the Swift as she was known in costume, lifted the table cloth. She crawled out, stood up, and dusted herself off, and adjusted her scrolls. If there was one thing she didn’t like about her current setup, it was that all the artifacts she carried around made it hard to crawl through narrow spaces. Though to be fair, crawling wasn’t something she wanted to be doing.

In such a loud and crowded room, the speakers burning out didn’t concern a lot of people. This was a group of nomads, and if some speakers were going to scare them off, they didn’t belong in a competition like this. Not that Oriko had any love for this venue. It was a bit like a Wal-mart in that it seemed to attract weirdos regardless of its location.

_{@CaliforniaState}

And speaking of weird, you couldn’t get much stranger than a drinking competition taking place among a group of nomads. Oriko was baffled why so many people would spend money to get here, only to then drop out of an annual contest because they got hammered before a fight. Or maybe they thought they could win drunk off their ass? It was deplorable. Moreover, did no one find it weird that the skinny bitch had somehow managed to out drink everyone? But that was nomads in a nutshell. Every single one of them had their reputation to uphold, and yielding to anything but the bell or a knockout was out of the question. Despite how Oriko might have felt about the event, it did intrigue her. Especially since the current “champion” was oriental like herself. Technically Oriko was only half oriental, but who cared where her blood came from?

Oriko didn’t ask how much she had to bet or even who was next in line. She shoved her way through the crowd until she came to the wood table. At one side was the champion, at the other, a pile of defeated bodies. She used her foot to shove the last bastard off of his chair before looking at her seating arrangement. She stripped one of the men of their shirts and used it to wipe down her side of the table before casting it off to the side. Then Oriko turned her seat backwards and sat in it. It was an undignified way for a lady to sit, but the giant scrolls on her back made it impossible to seat herself any other way.

There were some annoyed murmurs from the guys that wanted to go next, but there was also a lot of interest in how long this other girl would last before she joined the pile of sleeping bodies. She reached into one of her sleeves and pulled out a ceramic sake cup. It was only a little taller than a shot glass, but it was considerably wider. She had to pour three shot glasses into it just to get it full. Once she was done, Oriko cupped her hands around the cup and lifted it to her lips. The positioning was weird. The back of the chair was between her arms, and she was so short she had to rest her chin on the backrest. But after a few seconds, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve and turned her cup upside down. Not a single drop came out.

After setting her sake cup beside three empty glasses, she reached into her sleeve again. "Where I come from, we don’t sip our swill from a glass chalice.” She pulled a second sake cup out of her sleeve and shoved it across the table. It came to rest just a few inches away from the edge of Rui’s side of the table.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

@CaliforniaState Yooooooooo so it's not really clear (to me) where Rui is right now. I would assume she's at the fight carnival but it's also possible she's at a bar instead. So which is it? Asking because she might get a visitor.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

"Pffft, like you’d do anything but serve Mariette anyway!”

— Tonya “Knows you’re only interested in the Slime Bunny cult” Murphy



‘Hey, as long as you just don’t ask me to leave the others, I can work something out!’

— Mayra “This is too fun to turn down” McCullough

After that totally pointless clusterfuck, Mac was ready to call it a day. She wasn’t up for continued sexual harassment from Nefer, nor did she want to bother Oliver. He probably needed some time to process what had happened. Hell, Mac needed time to process it. But that could happen later. She actually liked this Iron Mouse persona, and figured she could hold it up a bit longer and have some fun too.

"Okay Mayra, this is it!” Iron Mouse had Nefer drop her and Mayra off in the old abandoned warehouse district. Penrose was recovering, but there were still many areas that hadn’t recovered post Ascendency. Iron Mouse guided Mayra to a pair of double doors that were covered in graffiti. There was nothing artistic here. Just some random tags that had been covered by gang signs, then expletives, and then more gang signs. "This cult business isn’t for the faint of heart. Are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into? Are you sure you wish to join the Sisterhood of the Black Behemoth?”

‘Ooooooh! Wall paintings!’ Mayra called with excitement as they came up to the doors of the supposed cult. She listened with full attention to Iron Mouse, and looked so excited as she heard the name of the place. ‘The Black Behemoth… Yeah! I wanna see what’s up! I’ve already confronted my nightmares’ _{and lost} ‘, I can handle whatever this throws at me! Just let me-’

Mayra went up to the doors, superheated her fingers, and started drawing with them.
‘I wanna add some fire dragons!’ Mayra said excitedly as she started burning the door over the drawings of whoever else had drawn first in order to draw a crude drawing of a big and pretty ugly dragon, done by burning parts of the door instead of actually drawing with any kind of paint.

"That’s the spirit!” Iron Mouse pumped her fist in the air. "Once you’re done there, I’ll-”

The door swung inward while Mayra was drawing. It appeared that a young cultist girl had opened the door. Alternatively, maybe some gravity magic was used to open the door while an illusion was placed behind it. Who could say? Regardless, she looked very cult like. She was wearing ropes, she held a golden mask that had to be of a behemoth, and an alluring beauty that only a cultist could possibly possess. She had to have bathed in the blood of some virgins at least once.

”Mouse?” The cultist looked at the rodent magical girl with a raised brow.

"Finn and I ran into a snag, But Mayra here got us out of it. She’s one bad bitch, and I think we need her on the team!”

”Really now?” The cultist looked Mayra up and down.

‘Yepp! Finn got his head cut off, but I saved him from it!’ Mayra replied with zero hesitation, holding her superheated fingers that she’d been using to draw on the door up in salute. ‘´Sooo, what do you do here? Do you feed the Behemoth? Is it a big Behemoth? Would it win against a fire dragon? Is it like a deity or a horror? Does one need to wear robes? ‘Cause, you know, I am pretty sure I would light them on fire, hahahaha!’ Mayra laughed as she finished what she was saying.

‘Anyway! In here?’ Mayra asked and is already about to walk in. She had potentially already forgotten the questions she’d previously asked.

But before Mayra could get much further, the cultist placed her hand on Mayra’s stomach and pushed her back. ”I’m sorry, but what makes you think you can just waltz in here?!” She looked at Iron Mouse. ”Did you tell her about the trials?”

"Woops! Slipped my mind!” Iron Mouse chuckled. "Sorry about that Mayra. You did good helping Finn out, but Korone here is really serious about the trials.” She scooched over to Korone and patted her shoulder. "Mayra is interested, so just give her the spiel.”

Korone cleared her throat. ”The Black Behemoth will only be served by those untethered by human morality. To this end, we have created several trials for you. The trials are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride, Acedia, and Vainglory. Only after you have displayed these dark virtues may you walk past these doors. Iron Mouse may act as a witness to your trials.”

Iron Mouse placed her hands on her hips. "In that case, consider Acedia and Vainglory as good as done. She rescued Finn from a very dangerous magical girl and her plan worked without a hitch. Can’t get more vainglorious than that. And for Acedia, well, it’s kind of built into her personality isn’t it? She’s the embodiment of ‘a lack of care’ wouldn’t you say?”

”Two down, then.” Korone’s eyes didn’t move from Mayra.

‘Trials? Oh, oooh! Like challenges!?’ Mayra suddenly looked quite excited. She did like challenges. She listened to the rest of that, and…

‘Huh. Okay, so the trials are created, it’s not just that I have to go around proving I’m, er, all of those things? I don’t even know what “acedia” and “vainglory” is, but I kinda want to see the trials for them, haha,’ Mayra said, then clutched both fists, lizard-tail swinging a little as she took a prepared stance.

‘Alright! Lead me to the trials, or tell me how I otherwise accomplish them! I got a few ideas, already…!’

Iron Mouse chuckled "I’ll let Korone tell you the details, but as for the ones you completed, Vainglory is characterized as an excessive belief in one’s own abilities. So to clear that trial you just need to prove that you can do something extraordinary without any screw ups. That’s why rescuing Finn worked. Acedia is just a latin word that means ‘without care.’ This is shown by having a willingness to do something dangerous. It was good that we got those out of the way first, because they are easily the hardest.”

"Quite.” Korone agreed. "The nine dark virtues aren’t created. Iron mouse was just being coy when she said you embodied Acedia. You’re a very, hmmmm, carefree sort is all. The trials have nebulous clear conditions, but that’s mostly to let the one joining demonstrate their creativity when displaying their virtues. As for the trials themselves, the first one is Lust, which-”

"We’re going to do Lust last, so just skip that one for now.” Iron Mouse winked.

Korone had been fairly stern so far, but this made her crack a face wide grin that curled all the way under her cheek bones. "If you insist, very well.” In the next instant, she went back to normal and looked at Mayra. "Gluttony is consumption in excess. Greed is taking more than you need, Sloth is completing a task with little effort, Wrath is based in revenge, Envy requires you to mimic or take from someone you admire, and Pride requires you to demonstrate that you are the best at something. ”

Iron mouse approached Mayra. "So! Got any ideas?”

‘Er. Gluttony. Eating a lot, right? Greed. Taking more than I need. I mean, I don’t really need a lot, but. Hm. Revenge…’ Mayra had to think back if there was anyone in particular she wanted to take revenge on… ‘Oh, yeah…’ An idea clearly occurred to her, as Mayra started smiling again, as she thought of it.
‘I got something. We’re gonna need to jump dimensions to get there, but…’

~~~ Later ~~~

After a brief shaking down of some people in the Overcity…

The two arrived in a new dimension. It was one devoid of human civilization, one where monstrous lifeforms ran plenty, gigantic creatures were a relatively common sight and so on. After all, as Mayra might have told, it was the dimension she was from.

Within the crater of a mountain Mayra excitedly climbed was a lake. A still, beautiful and shimmering lake beneath an open sky, and standing atop the mountain looking out across that lake Mayra stopped her trek.

‘Here we are!’ Mayra announced happily, as she rolled her shoulders and smiled with anticipation, then kneeled to stretch her legs as well.

Iron Mouse stretched once she got to the top. "Fun hike, but why are we all the way up here?”

‘Okay… so… to achieve one of my trials…’ Mayra looked over, and located a giant boulder. ‘That one will do!’ she said, and leaped up on the giant boulder. Kneeling down on the boulder, she slowly, surely superheated the thing, the entire boulder starting to glow and smoke as it grew hotter and hotter, Mayra smiling as she did… Then she leapt backwards, blasting out with her feet as she did, and the entire giant superheated boulder flew down towards the lake…!

‘HERE’S FOR ALMOST DROWNING ME, YOU ROTTEN MERMAIDS!’ Mayra screamed at them as the smoldering rock hit the waters and immediately caused a cloud of steam and shaking… not just where the rock hit, but all over the lake. It was as if the whole lake came alive at once, creatures splashing out of the surface. Creatures that only kinda looked like what came to mind when the general public thought of a “mermaid”.

Like this.

"Oh wow! They have so much personality!”

‘Brace yourself, they’re gonna start shooting water,’ Mayra said, and just then she had to dodge aside because a shower of water-projectiles came shooting at her from the clearly agitated lake of mermaids…!

"Please, Mayra! I’ve been to my share of parties.” Iron Mouse twisted her body side to side as some streams of water flew past her. Of course, they would only be able to fight back for so long. The water that they relied on to live was boiling all over. That didn’t stop Iron Mouse from drawing her machine gun and firing a few rounds. "It’s too bad they aren’t crabs, they might have tasted good boiled!”

A couple of them definitely fell from Iron Mouse shooting at them, albeit they’re also strong enough to dodge relatively well, mid-power-level creatures and such. Mayra wasn’t shooting at them, however.

‘Well, they’re not gonna be our meal, anyway,’ Mayra shrugged. ‘See, they survive pretty well on land, too, just only for a limited time,’ she continued, and as she said, the mermaids were leaping out of the water, gathering as a decently huge army on the shores and also turning to look very angrily at Mayra and Iron Mouse…

‘Hey, can I do more than one of the trials at once? Because, sure, I could fight these guys in a probably pretty cool fight, but that would be a ton of effort. Instead, I could just…’ Mayra breathed in… and then roared. A very inhuman monster-like roar. A roar… that made the mermaids panic, and a couple of them even decided they’d rather jump back into the boiling water.

Mayra turned around and put her arms behind her head. ‘Aaaaaaaand now they’re not long for this world. Let’s go~’ Mayra said with a smirk as she started casually walking away, while the skies in the opposite direction were starting to darken with the wide wingspans of airborne creatures…

Iron mouse skipped beside Mayra. "So that was definitely a very ‘wrath,’ but what was the scream for? What trial were you trying to clear with that one?”

‘Sloth. I could have fought them all myself, but why do that when I can just summon the denizens of this world to do the job for me?’ Mayra asked, then chuckled a little. ‘Man, I wish I could do that in any world, hahaha.’

Iron mouse hesitated, but she eventually raised her eyebrows. "Yea! I see it now! That is a fitting one for sloth!” She drew a small list from her jacket and crossed something off. "Gluttony, greed, envy, and pride are the only ones you need to do before we report back.” she ignored the sounds of winged creatures diving into the pool behind herself, as well as the final cries of the mermaids. "Where are we going next?”

‘Hmmm, lesse…’ Mayra thought about it. ‘Greed and gluttony… I just need to take a lot, right? Huh, how would I do that…’ she tilted her head and thought about it. ‘Envy, take from or mimic someone I admire. Who do I admire?’ She thought about it a little. ‘The Matriarch, kinda. That is, the leader of the tribe I was in. Oooh, there’s also old man Dronach, the biggest and toughest of all of dragonkind, hahaha. Messing with him is kinda dangerous, though. Otherwise, hm…’ She thought a little more. ‘Penny. Sanngridr, a little. As for pride…’ Mayra grinned a bit. ‘I just need to win a contest of some kind, right?’

"That’s the easiest way to prove you’re the best at something. Though getting recorded in Guinness would also qualify. That’s just, you know, above and beyond what we expect from our followers.” Iron Mouse stepped in front of Mayra. "Whatcha got?”

Mayra thought some more… then her eyes lit up. ‘Oh. Ooooh! Wait, that works!’ She then spun around and grabbed Iron Mouse’s arm. ‘C’mon, let’s go!’ she requested, and then pulled hard to break into a run…

~~~ Later ~~~

As was often the case whenever she had some free time, Connie was in her room, working on yet another tranquil landscape painting. Such work was quite soothing for the nervous girl, and she hoped it would help her relax after the distressing battle and follow up interrogation she had just returned from. This particular painting was a springtime scene with lots of colorful flowers. She was just putting the finishing touches on a vibrant lilac, when she heard someone call her name…

‘CONNIE!’ … And not in a calm way, or anything, it was Mayra, suddenly having inserted her dragon-self through the window, beaming excitedly at her.

“Eeep!” Connie yelped, before calming slightly upon realizing it was just her friend. “O-Oh! H-H-Hi, M-Mayra,” the nervous girl replied once she’d caught her breath. “D-Did you, um, w-want to c-come in?” she asked with an awkward smile.

‘I did!’ Mayra called happily and slipped inside. ‘So, I came here because- ooooh, painting!’ Aaand she's distracted. ‘I draw, too! Though, mostly by burning images into walls, hahaha!’ she said, then wandered over to inspect. ‘Oooh. Really good! But, hm,’ she made a thinking expression.

‘Needs more dragons,’ she said, grabbed a spare brush, dipped in black color, and then started happily drawing a badly drawn black dragon in the top right.

At first, Connie was taken aback by the suddenness of it all, but she was only too happy to allow Mayra to contribute to her painting. After all, she had always wanted to work on a painting together with a friend, and now she was finally getting the chance!

“O-Oh! U-Umm, I-I n-never would h-have g-guessed y-you l-liked artistic t-things, M-Mayra,” she replied as she watched her friend paint an admittedly crude dragon in her peaceful painting’s sky. “I-It’s r-really c-cool to k-know I h-have a f-friend who l-likes t-that s-stuff, t-too! A-And, uh, t-that’s a v-very n-nice d-dragon y-you’re w-working on,” she added as encouragingly as she could, even as a small sweat drop appeared on her forehead. “U-Umm, t-that is a d-dragon, r-right?”

‘Yepp!’ Mayra said, finishing her not-really-matching-the-rest-of-the-painting dragon. She took a step back, admired her handiwork, and then nodded. ‘I like it. Good job!’ she said, unclear if she meant to herself for her dragon or Connie for the rest of it.

‘ANYWAY!’ Mayra now spun around to face Connie. ‘You're awesome, you know that, right? You command those powers that can best even me, yet you're also so nice to me! I've realized I admire you!’ Mayra said with a grin.

“O-Oh, g-gosh! U-Umm, t-thanks, Mayra…” Connie replied, her face reddening considerably in response to Mayra’s praise. “T-That r-really m-means a l-lot…” she added with a smile, while nervously playing with her hair.

‘Good! Now, with that said,’ Mayra said, grinning as she lifted the brush in her hand, ‘I'm keeping this!’

So she said, before turning around and promptly leaping out the open window. With the brush.

“O-Okay…” Connie replied even as Mayra darted out the window. “U-Umm… S-See you later…” she added as she hesitantly waved to the draconic girl’s departing form. Connie was more than a little confused by everything that had just happened, but if her friend was in need of a paintbrush, she was only too happy to provide one. She also very much hoped that they could paint together again sometime. Smiling at the sight of Mayra’s slightly deformed dragon, she got back to work on her painting.

Outside, Mayra did a combat roll and then landed right next to Iron Mouse, and then triumphantly held up the brush she’d taken. ‘Envy!’ she said with a happy grin. Not that she’d taken it while particularly representing said sin.

Iron Mouse let out a deep, nearly infinite sigh. "That just barely qualifies. But you saved Finn’s life, so I’ll count it. Not everyone can school these trials as hard as I did.” Her smile returned. "Just three left, then we return to the meeting place. Where did you want to go next?”

‘Huh? Barely? But I did what the challenge told. I took something from someone I admire,’ Mayra asked, but then just grinned. ‘But, eh! If it counts, it counts! Alright, then, from here…’

~~~ Later ~~~

It was a separate dimension again. One that harkened back to Earth one or two thousands years ago. There was an arena, surrounded by a city, inside of which the audience were cheering loudly. Numerous tough-looking men in armor and with shields and weapons of varying kinds were bashing against one another until either one surrendered or died. Certainly a barbaric practice that the audience was being entertained by…

‘So, for Pride, I just have to prove I’m the very best, right?’ Mayra asked with a grin in the staging area as she pulled a halberd from the array of weapons prepared on the wall, spun with it a bit with her arms before it ended up behind her head as she held the pole between her neck and two lazily raised hands as she turned and smiled towards Iron Mouse… in her human disguise, without her regular dragon-boosts. Wearing something that had been provided by the arena staff as appropriate wearing for fighting in the arena.

‘I’ve been practicing doing stuff without all my fancy powers. It’s pretty fun, it means I can face epic challenges that would normally have been trivial! Like, for instance, fighting a bunch of big men…’ Mayra chuckled. ‘I’d like to see Penny pull this off.’ She took a very brief break. ‘No, really. I am super-confident Penny could do it and look super-cool while doing it. I’d like to see it.’

Iron Mouse didn’t bother giving herself a disguise because, obviously, she was a magical girl and not a monster girl. "You know, I thought that we were going to just go down to a bar somewhere and have a few drinks, maybe arm wrestle a few guys, play some pool… But this works!” She leaned against one of the walls. "Even if Penny could, it doesn’t really count for pride. I take it you plan on fighting the reigning champion?”

‘Of course! The idea is that I’m gonna show I’m the best magical monster girl at fighting without my powers, and since nobody like me has tried beating this arena this way before, doing so will prove I’m the best!’ Mayra nodded at her fool-proof logic.

"It’s certainly the most out there way of tackling pride.” Iron mouse folded her hands behind her back. "Guess I’ll head up to the grand stands so that I can cheer for you!”

‘Great! Thanks! Now, I’m off!’ Mayra grabbed one of the nets on the side (because I seem to remember there being nets in gladiator arenas) and then ran off up the stairs towards the arena…

‘Hold on, it is not your turn yet,’ said the guard standing in the way of the stairs, looking like a typical legionnaire with shield and sword frowning somewhat at the strange contestant that had entered herself into the game.

‘Even better!’ Mayra said, and promptly attempted to jump above the guard. However, due to her complete lack of dragon powers, her jump was entirely insufficient and she jumped just straight into his shield instead.

‘H-hey! Stop!’ the guard said, but Mayra would not be opposed. If she could not jump over him, she would simply climb over him instead. Still with net in one hand and halberd in the other, she swung one arm up and got it over the top of the shield, heaved herself upwards so she could get the other hand over his helmet, pulled herself over him and raised her leg so she accidentally kicked him in the face trying to climb over him, causing him to fall backwards as human-Mayra jumped from his falling armored figure and dashed on into the arena upon landing…!

Once Mayra left the staging area, a massive wooden gate fell behind her. It shook the earth when it closed, but the spectators hardly cared. All one-hundred-thousand of them had been shaking the coliseum with their cheers. As distinct as Iron Mouse should have been, she was impossible to pick out of the crowd. She might as well have been a single speck of sand in the arena itself.

Things looked a lot different now that she was standing there. The sand looked pure and clean at a distance, but constant battle had stained it a shade of red. It shifted under her feet and spilled into her sandals. It was a lot easier to pick out the bones of slain beasts nestled among the dead sands.

But the previous fight had not concluded, but it looked like the champion was just finishing up.

Now, there was a part of Mayra that wanted to allow a duel to conclude. She knew that, if she fought someone, she wanted to be let to finish on her own. That said, she had a couple sins to knock off. Mayra grinned and hoped the following would count for Greed, seeing how she had forgotten the actual requirements.

‘HEY, LET ME HAVE SOME!’ she shouted out and dashed to join the fray… against the champion’s opponents. Because they needed picking off, first.

Mayra might as well have been whispering amongst a group of protesters, as her shout didn’t carry very far with all the cheering. The champion wouldn’t need any help either, as he knocked down his last opponent with a swing of his trident. He was a big guy. He had to be at least eight feet tall and clad in gladiator armor. The only thing more impressive than his size was that there were those that were willing to fight him. But at least they had numbers on their side, who was this thin girl charging at him from across the arena?

The crowd’s cheers changed from excitement to outrage, or was it concern? It was impossible to tell from inside the arena, and the champion didn’t seem to care. After you fell a hundred men, killing becomes natural, and after a thousand, it’s as natural as breathing. He had a new opponent, and so he would charge.

Mayra let out a little noise of disappointment when the champion finished off all the enemies without her help. She totally wanted to co-op the last few before they had to contend with each other. Oh, well!

‘Well, okay!’ Mayra said and threw the net aside for the moment (because honestly it was kinda heavy) ‘Let’s tumble!’

With that, she dashed at her opponent… somewhat sideways, because there was a bunch of downed guys in that direction, and forcing him to walk over those sounded amusing. Still, it was the champion, so she expected him to handle that pretty well. She bent down quickly and fished up a dropped shield, probably good to have. Still, she couldn’t let this end without a straight clash at least once, even if she probably had a severe disadvantage~! So she swung the halberd in his direction at least once, diagonally, ready to probably need to dodge a counter!

As Mayra suspected, the giant had little difficulty walking over the slain. He easily pressed them into the sand as he stepped on them. Though it wasn’t like the champion got this far being a mindless brute. If he could hop over them, he did.

But before long, they would be in striking range of each other. Mayra prepared to strike, and so did he. They seemed to be going for the exact same move. Both warriors timed their swings and attacked at the same time. Though reflex, they both anticipated getting hit and leaped backwards. The heads of their weapons collided, and the halberd and trident became intertwined. At the moment, it was like they were holding either end of an unusual nunchuck.

Both fighters were strong, but the champion was taller than Mayra was. He was able to lift her into the air and start spinning. The centrifugal force lifted her into the air as he continued to spin and spin.

‘Woh…!’ As fun as being flung around could possibly have been, Mayra had better plans. As soon as she realized what the champion was doing, she let go of her halberd before gaining enough speed to break bones upon landing. Instead, she ducked down among the bodies of fallen challengers and fished up a sword and shield!

‘Hey, big guy! What does fighting mean to you!?’ Mayra asked excitedly, as she bounced forward to clash one more time, probably aiming to avoid taking a direct attack and do some quick stabs if possible.

While Mayra was as bubbly as ever, the champion did not share her sentiment. He remained mute as he twirled his trident in his hand. Her halberd was cast aside as he attempted to bather sword off course. Most of her thrusts missed, while the rest grazed his thighs. Even if the wounds were superficial, she had drawn first blood.

He stopped spinning his trident and thrust it into the ground, trapping Mayra’s sword in the sand. She had just enough time to stop him from stepping on her by raising her shield. Her arm was strong, but there was a lot of pressure under his heel. The shield was starting to buckle and splinter.

Mayra blinked a bit as her sword got stuck to the ground, and her arm hurt as his muscular leg broke into her shield. Without being transformed, Mayra was at a strength disadvantage. She let go of the sword so that she could leap back and let his boot back to the ground before it broke through her arm/shield.

‘Stoic dude, eh? Well, I admire that, too!’ Mayra shouted as she rolled back and fished up another sword from a fallen gladiator. Now, then. How to end this.

However it was going to end, the gladiator wasn’t going to give her much time to think. It didn’t take much effort for the champion to wrench his trident out of the sand and lunge for Mayra. This time she could hear a beastial roar as he closed in.

‘Woa-!’ Of course, in her untransformed body, her body wasn’t quite as fast as her normal self. Mayra felt forced to simply lift her shield-arm… and the trident basically broke through it and pierced her arm. The untransformed dragon-girl gasped in the pain, and also had to restrain herself from just accidentally releasing the transformation then and there. That said… Mayra might have met the champion’s eyes… and her eyes grew momentarily beastly before she grinned.

‘CHA-!’ Mayra kicked up with one of her feet. Her leg wasn’t long enough to hit anything, but her intentionally loose metal boot sure flew straight off and into his face. She tore her arm off the trident to just charge straight into him, trying to knock him just the slightest diagonally back and right… because that’s where she’d thrown the net earlier. He’d never step into it and get trapped on his own, but now Mayra planted both her feet on him and kicked off!

It wasn’t possible to see the champion’s face, but his unsteady footing had to be a result of iron boot enacted vertigo. He fell backwards into the net, and Mayra wasted no time pulling it around him. But a mere net wasn’t going to hold him for long. Every muscle in his body flexed as he attempted to tear out of his confines. The champion was not going to surrender. His body would give out before he did.

So Mayra did the only sensible thing and swung a shield at his head.

The massive object slammed into the side of his helmet. It cracked so loud that even the spectators could hear it. Not long after, the champion’s body went limp. As soft as sand is, Mayra had little difficulty hearing her opponent fall over. That wasn’t because it was loud, but because the spectators had gone silent.

It was almost eerie. Mayra couldn’t even hear herself think just seconds earlier, and now she could hear the sand under her feet.

‘… Phew!’ Mayra stumbled back from her accomplishment, panting, still feeling the pain in her arm. ‘How’s that, Mousy!? I don’t need no… ow…’ With mere human endurance, that wound to her shield-arm was pretty serious, and she went down on one knee to balance herself and clutch the wound a bit. Still, she grinned, looking to where the champion lay. ‘Good fight! You make me proud to have this human form! Now, I’m… ow,’ she shuddered, but chuckled.

‘Heeey, isn’t this where you’re supposed to cheer for your new champion!?’ Mayra grinned as she looked up at the audience.

The colosseum came alive with noise, but it wasn’t happy. Mayra’s ears were assaulted from all sides with outrage. She was called a cheater among other much more harsh things. Some of the onlookers threw their half eaten chicken legs into the arena in protest. It wasn’t long before the guards had made their way into the arena.

"Well! That more than made up for the last one!” Iron Mouse phased into existence beside Mayra. "Just gluttony and greed now. Oh! And maybe some way to escape!”

‘… Huh,’ Mayra made a curious noise as she looked at the audience being really angry. It wasn’t the reaction she was expecting, neither did she really understand it. Did she break some rule she hadn’t realized existed? Still, just escaping and all that…

‘… Hey, saaaay…’ Mayra asked, smirking a little. ‘If I were to transform right now and play a bit with these guards for just a bit and enjoy playing with my food, would that count for gluttony? It’s certainly not something I NEED to do, but I sure could. Or maybe it’d be greedy of me, to fight on when I just don’t have to?’

"That’s…really something you want to do?” Iron mouse looked over her notes. "Let’s see…” While she looked things over the guards got closer and closer. "It could qualify for both! Really depends on how you go about it.” The guards had started to slow down, and were drawing their weapons. "Whatever you do, I’m sure it will be entertaining!”

‘Hehehehehe… Alright…’ Mayra grinned, and then bent down. She placed one hand on the ground, holding herself up and bending her knees, looking significantly more animalistic already with just this pose.

‘Don’t you worry, normies, later on your minds will come up with some explanation for what you actually saw, or something, point is, as long as I don’t kill ya I will be a-okay!’

Somehow, that doubled as Mayra’s magical incantation as a flash of fire and darkness enveloped her form, and then scales popped up from underneath her human disguise. The human guards staggered, unable to believe what they were seeing, before Mayra suddenly blasted forward.

She kicked a guard’s sword clean out of his hand with an upward kick. The same upward kick sent her up slightly into the air. A blast of fire spun her around so she could deliver a light kick (from Mayra’s perspective) into the same guard, sending him flying into one of his allies.

A spear was thrust at her, and Mayra caught the tip with her teeth. She grinned at the wielder, melted the tip in her mouth, and then spit it at the guard’s shield. The guard screamed in terror before a sudden punch knocked him out. The molten spear-tip didn’t hurt him physically. Maybe mentally.

A couple more like that and the remaining guards started retreating or fleeing, clearly not geared to take on a monster of this caliber. But when they spun around… a burst of fire delivered Mayra straight past them, where she rolled twice before getting back up on her dragon-feet. She turned and smirked at them.

‘Just so you know, I used none of this strength against the champion. That was aaaallll human-level strength. No cheating. So I won fair and square, alright?’ With that and a friendly grin, she then dashed at them and continued playing with her food…

Later, but in the same world…

‘Aaaah, that was fun. Sure, I prefer fighting worthy enemies, but playing with weak ones is also fun sometimes,’ Mayra sat in a tree outside the city in a nearby forest and laughed, as they had escaped that dimension earlier and left quite a mess behind them in that dimension. She’d avoided killing the guards, though. They weren’t ready to die. Not to a monster dragon, anyway.

‘So, what’s next? Did I get them?’ Mayra asked, grinning towards her companion.

Iron Mouse was checking things off in her notes. ”Alllll but one. Let’s get out of here.”

---

Once they had returned to the temple of the “Black Behemoth” Korone went over the trials with Iron Mouse.

”It sounds like you went on quite the adventure.” Korone nodded. ”You have a creative and wild mind. If you pass the final test, I’m sure you will be among our most prestigious members in no time.” She turned around and gestured for Iron Mouse and Mayra to follow. The path ahead was dark, and the flames from Mayra’s tail and the torches weren’t throwing a lot of light. ”Before we begin the final test, I have a question to ask you. I would say it is personal, but as a sisterhood we share information freely between each other. Have you been in many… romantic, relationships? And if not, have you ever wanted to?”

‘Oh, yeah, one!’ Mayra said, walking along with them with her hands behind her head, elbows in the air and tail swinging excitedly behind her. And yes, she was acting very much like a living torch, with that hair and glowing lines so. ‘My current one, in fact! I have a boyfriend!’ she said, in a happy tone that implied pride in the fact (and not the way one usually imagines that phrase being said). ‘I’m keeping him a secret, for his sake, buuuut since you asked, I guess it’s fine!’

Iron mouse elbowed Mayra’s arm. ”A boyfriend huh? You must really like him. Given how impulsive you are, I’m surprised you only have one! Have you been together long?”

Korone placed a finger over Iron Mouse’s lips. ”She said that she was keeping him a secret. Which, for the moment, is probably for the best.” She turned to look at Mayra. ”Because she’s probably going to want to keep us a secret from them, too.”

‘Hehe, maybe. But nope, only one. Because he’s the best, most handsome, and he’s mine, hehehe,’ Mayra replied anyway, looking very happy as she did. Still, moving on.

By the time they had stopped, they were in the center of a square chamber. One by one, more robed girls surfaced out of the darkness and looked to Mayra. They were all different shapes and sizes, ranging from quite short to very tall. They also had nearly every hair style imaginable and in every hue. Their cloaks were the only things that made them look the same.

”Unless he’s into stuff like this?” Iron Mouse scratched the back of her head.

But Iron Mouse went ignored as the droves of cultist magical girls closed in around Mayra. Dozens of hands clung to her as she was embraced on all sides. Even Korone moved in to wrap her arms around Mayra’s neck, which pressed a shorter girl’s head into Mayra’s stomach. ”You’re practically one of us now Mayra.” Korone pulled herself closer to Mayra. ”I trust you find the situation, agreeable?”

‘Huh, this is kinda your initiation, I suppose?’ Mayra asked, looking a bit confused with the cultists that had wrapped themselves around her. ‘Eh, sure!’ With them hugging her like this, Mayra did her best to wrap some arms around them in turn, albeit they were a bit too numerous to manage that.

Even more girls clung to Mayra, and then girls clung to the girls clinging to Mayra. But before Mayra could become three layers deep in girls, the uneven weight distribution of the girls caused Mayra to topple backwards. But she didn’t fall, but rather sunk deeper into what seemed like a giant harem.

---

‘Humans are weird,’ Mayra said, standing and scratching her cheek. If she could blush she probably would. Now, Mayra's always open for trying new things, but that one was out there.

”You are officially one of us.” Korone adjusted her robe. ”As you likely guessed, we’ve infiltrated Cradle, who we have vested interest in both protecting and learning more about. Helping them is helping our cause. That’s why Iron Mouse here is among their ranks.”

The aforementioned mouse was cleaning her ears. ”Sorry, all I can think about is that huge girl ball Mayra was a part of.”

”You could have been a part of it too. Though there’s only so much Mayra to go around, isn’t there?” Korone folded her arms together. ”You are presently an acolyte. Once you reach the rank of black apostle, I’ll show you the black behemoth itself.”

‘Oh, I can’t see it yet? Huh,’ Mayra commented. ‘What’s needed to become one of those?’

”Just continue to serve us. If you continue to perform well, you will get promoted eventually.” She nodded to Iron Mouse. ”If you have any other questions, just speak with the mouse.” Korone departed with the other girls.

Mayra kind of lost interest there, when it wasn’t really defined what she needed to do for the next step.

”I did warn you this cult stuff could get weird.” Iron Mouse patted Mayra on the shoulder. ”I know you had chicken wings already, but did you wanna have some pizza? Though I won’t stop you if you have something else to do or want to snuggle with the cultists some more.”

‘Oh, yeah, pizza, sure!’ Mayra shone up. ‘Jelena introduced me to pizza! It’s really good! Let’s go get some!’ she called, grinning and jumping up.

---

‘Hehehehehe,’ Mayra chuckled as she approached the warehouse “temple” once more, this time without any companionship because she’d made sure to come alone. ‘Gotta reach the rank of black apostle, eh? That, or I just sneak in myself and skip all the hassle,’ the dragon-girl chuckled, hidden by her darkness magic. She sought up the entrance that she knew was there…

And found nothing. Not even an entrance. You know, into those rooms she remembered walking just yesterday.

‘… Uh.’

She searched around, but all she could find was old normal warehouses. It was like the place she’d been to had just gone up in smoke. Confused, she jumped up on a roof and surveyed the area once more in a crouched position.

‘… Whelp, guess they have pretty good security. Oh, well. Guess it’s not the end of the world if I can’t find it. It’s a bit disappointing, though…’

But, with that, Mayra shrugged and jumped off somewhere else. Plenty of other things to hold her attention.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

~

The Storm Cycle: Reclamation

*Jazz Hands Intensifies*

— Luana Roycroft

@Rune_Alchemist@Crimson Paladin@Guy0fV4lor

"No, but we can stop it."

Pinning the dragon's rear legs had been a tactic to slow it down so that one of other knights could finish it off. But the queen was taking her time to approach, and Lonan and Ethelred had frozen it in place. It was time to deliver a decisive blow.

Luana gripped her spear with both arms and charged towards the dragon. She didn't belt out a war cry, because hunters were quiet. She didn't hesitate, because she was trained well. She didn't grin, because she wasn't sure if this was going to work.

She came at the dragon from the side and thrust her spear at its head. The wooden shaft grew longer while she thrust, guiding Endless Eclipse's tip towards the creature's eye. To assist with her aim, the shaft sprouted branches to hold onto the dragon's head. An unnecessary precaution, but it did ensure that her spear would hit its mark regardless of how much her prey thrashed about. Which, given the state it was in, hopefully wouldn't be much.

If the dragon survived that, Luana wasn't done.

As long as Luana held onto the shaft of her spear, it would keep growing. Endless Eclipse would get pushed deeper and deeper inside the dragon's flesh. If it penetrated the eye, she was going to go straight into its brain. Luana had never fought a dragon before, but she had never faced prey that could survive having its skull penetrated.

It was a vile attack to end a vile creature.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread Number Two

Someone referenced Alex Jones. It's an Alex Jones thing.

"Literal vampire potbelly goblins are hobbling around coming after us"

It's almost poetic.

Political Warning, Alex Jones is sometimes quasi-political
Although this is just a funny song turning his rants into a folk song.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KGAAhzreGWw&pp=ygUPQWxleCBqb25lcyBmb2xr

@BangoSkank

Next time, just mention the gay frogs. He's better known for that one.

Mahz's Dev Journal

@Dion It was addressed, apparently it was something Mahz did to make things look better on phones. He said he was going to try switching it back/changing it, but that was a week ago.

Tabletop peeps? Why just 5th edition?

It really does come down to 5 is newest and I want to say the one that DND Beyond uses so it's most common.

@BangoSkank

I would agree with this but when 4E dropped everyone hated on it like a red haired step child. Oddly, it's seeing a lot more success now that WotC are too busy making 5E more horrible with other projects. Apparently a lot of people find tabletop intimidating and the ability to create a character in 10-30 minutes is really appealing to the dungeon crawl crowd.