Burger

Altera: Of the Destitute and the Destined

The familiar smell of sulfur and other minerals filled the air. The warmth emanating from the spring was humid. Despite this, it was still pleasant. The wet, biting cold of before had been replaced. Relaxation at last~! At least, until the safety of Tithemal's aura left them. Had he been more like Ettamri, he could have sat next to Tithemal and engaged in the rowdy conversation that warriors tended to have. He wasn't like her, though. He was a, as the champion put it, coward. The thought of calling himself a coward made him chuckle. He really was. They could relax for a little while, anyways. He finally removed his layers of wool. The biting cold became apparent once more as the protection from wind he once had been removed. He slowly lowered himself into the spring. The hot water warmed him to his bones.

It really was relaxing. Almost all of his worries vanished as the warmth spread. It was as if his brain encountered an error. He simply stopped thinking of any of his worries. He was living in the moment. Without so much as a deep thought, he lifted up his left hand, the cold wind biting into it once more. The ring finger was a bit bent, alongside that small scar. Really, why was it like that? He was certain he wasn't born with it. He couldn't remember how it happened. In fact, he couldn't remember anything before he woke up in that dank, cavernlike chamber. As though born a full grown adult, he came into the walls of the city and became a soldier.

He lowered his hand back into the water and glanced to his party members. Argen was also getting into the water, though Renauld waited until he fully submersed his lower half. No matter how much he told himself not to, private parts were often the target of accidental (and embarrassing) glances. No matter how much he didn't want to admit it, they were like magnets to the eyes. The forbidden fruit, if you would. Really, he was a warrior through and through.

Then he looked towards Muu. She was a svelte bladedancer and, even though her figure was hidden by the bubbling water, she was quite an attractive woman. The girl seemed oddly at peace. Maybe Ettamri just brought out the worst in her, whatever the reason for it was. She was just so relaxed as her head slowly sunk lower and lower towards the wa—

Oh lord, was Muu drowning in the hot springs?

Indeed, she had lost consciousness. The second he had realized, his nature as a supporter for the more efficacious members of the team began to shone. Uncaring about the water level and its relation to his private concealment, he (slowly) dashed towards Muu.

He yelled her name as he placed a hand on her shoulder. He certainly hoped she was okay.

THE OUSAMA GAME | a Short-Term Horror

The rules on the wall were quite simple and easy to follow. Simply put, follow the orders and win. That's all there was to it.

Rather than converse with the others, Mari chose to watch. With eyes opened wider than they should have been, she watched everyone else. It was wholly unenjoyable, but what else was there to do?

The girlboy introduced himself. Mari didn't care about his name or who he was. He spoke about staying calm—something Mari already was—and simply playing along for now. He also tasted the blood on the wall. An entirely unneeded act, considering how there was zero doubt on if it was blood. Each of them had already been carved and bashed on the skull.

Then the cards came down. The game ended with death every which way, so stated the first card. The second carried an order with it: cut someone.

Quickly, the buff blonde manslashed the lanky boy. He was rather polite about it, for some reason. He chose to slash a cut only slightly deeper.

Besides those things, nothing of importance happened. Only idle chitchat and a plea. The things that Mari didn't care about, nor would she remember for more than a fleeting second.

The two Asian women mostly stood and watched. Though, their reactions were completely different. One seemed constantly lost in thought, only to have sweat bead down their brow when they realized what was going on. The other was practically dead, choosing not to show anything on her face.

Weird.

But so was the girl—herself—looking at everyone else with an unnatural amount of intent.

Then, a new order came alongside a pair of pliers. Tooth and nail. Proverbial, was it? Whoever was the king must have thought real long and hard on that order. That was her bitterness speaking.

Had she been a strapping young firebrand in his peak, she could have easily caved Five's jaw in and dropped the rusty nail in her pocket in. In fact, it would have been the most logical route to follow. The amount of suffering and loss would be minimized by all parties. Mari wouldn't feel pain and Five would had been too gobsmacked to suffer needlessly. Unfortunately, Mari wasn't a buff freak. Her strength was more akin to Glass Joe than Mike Tyson. Possessing an almost skeletal physique, one could make out every protrusion of bone on her body. Nonexistent muscle and pale skin did little to give her strength. Even if she charged at her with pliers in hand, she would do little more than stumble and bruise skin.

Such a hypothetical was completely meaningless. By the time she had fully thought it out, Five had grabbed the pliers and
began to tear out a nail. Rather than stop her, Mari did what she had been doing since: watched with eyes unnaturally open. And she watched as the pliers flew towards her feet.

Again, if she was strong, she could have ran over and knocked one of her teeth out. It would be easier that way. But she wasn't.

Like a cruel version of the objects that teachers passed around a classroom that designated a speaker, all eyes would have been on her. She chose to use this moment to unload all of her thoughts at once.

"The easiest way to win a game is not to play," she began, "the fastest way out would be to draw lots and just kill from there." She was entirely blunt in every way possible. Each word was as matter-of-fact as the rest, void of nearly any exertion or emotion. "One in seven the king ends up winning, one in seven that everyone else survives, five in seven that a few people survive. If I die from it, so be it."

She paused for a brief moment. In truth, she wanted to live. She wanted to see him again. She wanted him to tell her that it was all going to be okay. But just knowing that he would be safe from whatever harm the unknown malefactors brought was enough for her. As long as he was safe, she was okay with going through pain again. She was okay with never seeing him again if she knew he would be safe.

"You wouldn't get arrested for something like that, either. Extenuating circumstances."

She took a knee on the cold, rotting wood flooring. Without an ounce of hesitation, she rested the pair of pliers on her bottom lip. It pressed against her canine. The cold and bloody metal was cool to the touch. Unlike the girl before her, she wouldn't give anyone the enjoyment of her suffering. Her tongue held steady behind it all. Quickly, she took a single deep breath and plunged her face—pliers first—into the ground.

She didn't scream.

No, it was too familiar to scream. This wasn't a brand new experience for her. Unlike Five, Mari's pain was incredibly easy to handle. It was sudden, it was expected, and it was fast. Like pulling off a bandaid, her body quickly went to compensate her suffering with as many endorphins as it could. But still, it hurt like hell. Tears welled up in her eyes as her mouth opened. A glob of blood and spit fell out alongside a familiar white mass. In a pained motion, she grabbed the bloody tooth and hucked it towards the others. For now, she just lay on the ground with pliers in hand, clutching them as tight as she could with groans of pain audible between the dripping of her bloody saliva.

THE OUSAMA GAME | a Short-Term Horror

ill try to post tomorrow since my life was hit by sudden business

Reborn: Coming of Calamity

roleplay's full mb

The Hunter's Club

yaboi

^{17 | 5'5" | 115 lbs
Female}

Kon Yayoi

||||||||||||||| Hunter Power
Absorption is the power of the Kon bloodline, allowing the wielder to drain aspects of a target to take for themselves.

Taking the form of the jaws of an ethereal beast over her hand, Yayoi can latch onto a youkai and forcibly tear out a portion of their energy and power. Her ability then forces the energies into a usable form to her. Like a burst of adrenaline, she is pushed beyond her limits for a fleeting moment. Wounds phase her less, her muscles respond faster and move stronger, and her thinking becomes more clear. This technique puts severe strain on her body, so she is hit with a noticeable rebound when the effect finally wears off.

The second technique she uses is that she can temporarily "borrow" the abilities of other hunters. By having the jaws consume the blood of another hunter, she can perform an imperfect imitation of a technique held by that bloodline. The amount of blood required for any long-term usage is considerable, so Yayoi tends to only use small vials that allow for a single usage. Though, finding a hunter that consents to having their blood consistently drawn is a bit difficult.

Finally, Yayoi is able to overcharge herself by absorbing her own energy. While having a weird and counter intuitive process, the results are hard to argue against. One could consider it as acting on borrowed time; fighting with a day's worth of strength, energy, and pain, but used within a single moment. While in such a boosted state, Yayoi is forced to become a destructive fighter of carnage and thievery, taking the power of others to ensure she can continue. This ability has a fatal flaw, however. Once she activates it, Yayoi is unable to revert back to her normal state. Her body will be supercharged—alongside the strain that comes with it—until she runs out of energy. At which point, she'll essentially run into a brick wall and crash. The takes the full intensity of the wounds she had once ignored and, more likely than not, fall unconscious.

||||||||||||||| Skills
Yayoi's most notable skill is just how cool-headed she is all the time. Her general calmness often bleeds into other skills. Most notably, she can handle practically any food. Curry spicy enough to cause one's lips to become starkly red and swollen is easily devoured. She's also an absolute god at any card game: poker, craps, duel monsters, or anything that uses playing cards. Though, the talent in games is more comparable to pure luck. While not a skill, Yayoi is hopeless at any sort of housework. Really, the amount of mess she creates when trying to cook could, for all intents and purposes, be considered as a talent for destruction.

||||||||||||||| Heirloom
Yayoi's heirloom takes the form of a swordbreaker with a curved guard. By shattering weaponry in the serrated hooks, the swordbreaker can repair and sharpen itself.

||||||||||||||| Limiter | Charm
Yayoi's limiter takes the form of a blood red ring on her right middle finger. Her charm appears as a single bracelet made from embroidery thread, patterned with waves of white, black, and red.

||||||||||||||| History
Born the youngest child of the Kon family, Yayoi had been training since she could hold a blade. The family, known to the community as brutal maniacs hostile to both youkai and hunter (the latter at least not involving death), was reclusive. They chose to live and train at the outskirts of civilization. All of this to cultivate and groom the strongest hunters that the family could.

Yayoi was different to them, however. No matter how much effort she put in, she could never surmount the talent of her family. It took her weeks to learn simple techniques that took her brothers and sisters days. She barely had the heart for the violence within the household. The brutal lifestyle of a Kon was something that she couldn't handle. As a result of her failures, Yayoi was declared persona non grata at the age of 14.

The family wasn't completely ruthless. Considering how she still had taken the oath and had to take up arms, they gave her a heirloom and sent her on her way. Suddenly ejected from the house, Yayoi had to figure out her life as quickly as possible. Unlike the head of the family, her siblings were considerably more sympathetic to their young little sister. The eldest siblings gave her the money to live on her own. Considering how she was a 14 year old girl who lived alone, she enrolled for school and began to live for herself.

Since then, Yayoi diligently studied and trained. While her grades were questionable, she became a fairly functional person. The hunter's club taught her the basics since she turned 14. Though, housework was still the bane of her existence and the only thing she was really good at was card games. Well, at least she wasn't a NEET.

Altera: Of the Destitute and the Destined

Hunger often made for the best seasoning. The monkey meat had been seasoned with nothing more than prayers and smoke, yet Renauld couldn't stop eating his share. Even if it was overcooked to the point of being brown throughout, the mage's day had been too long for him to care. Even if it was gristly, dry, bland, and tough, it was still delicious. His body, however, wasn't quite as well as satiated as his stomach. Despite warming by the fire as often as he did, it did little to help the days worth of sweat that had clung to his body. His wool undergarments were in a constant state of uncomfortably sour. The cold did little to clean his clothes.

When Argen announced that he was going off to the hot spring, Renauld got up and gave him a solemn nod. Tithemal really wasn't a danger to cowards like them. Unless he left and the party got attacked by the local wildlife, they'd be fine.

DanMachi: Alter Oration [DEAD]

Master OwO will have to wait until my next post, or for a collab, before I do anyting to/with/for Dahlia though, I'm afraid.

@Xaltwind

boss

you just said the magic words

The Hunter's Club

I'll just have to put a restriction on the life-drain ability, though. It's a bit much if she can perpetually heal and gain energy, so I would say that it should be something like an adrenaline boost. Draining the energy doesn't actually heal or nourish her, but numbs pain and allows her to push herself beyond limits.

@Tomaru

Mm, I changed it a bit. The original power archetype was supposed to be more like a drain tank, but now it's more of an adrenaline boost. I changed the flavour a bit, though. Because her entire shtick is absorption (for lack of a better word), it wouldn't make sense for her to not use the enemy's energy. Now she weakens the enemy a bit and stuffs herself full of energy, but it leaks out and she is hit with the rebound when it wears off. Basically, she's forced to constantly drain and, so long as she drains, will go from boost to boost. When it finally runs out, she'll crash and feel the full force of what she did.

Haha. The final ability is fine as long as there is also a major crash for burning all her energy... Though have you read Mistborn? Look up Feruchemy. It might give you some ideas. I like her backstory quite a lot. Must be hard for a disowned hunter to make their way in the world.

@Tomaru

Haven't read mistborn. Feruchemy isn't exactly what I'm looking for, since it seems to be all about investment and my gal's power is all about appropriation.

also thanks my girl survives on convenience store lunches and the pity of her eldest sister

THE OUSAMA GAME | a Short-Term Horror

It hurt. That familiar pain had returned. Mari had not felt it in a long time; waking up with open wounds hadn't happened to her since she ran away. She opened her eyes. It was dark and suffocating. Not an unfamiliar feeling. Slight gaps let enough light in for Mari to see one thing in the death basket: a photo. Meaningless shapes came to form as she began to recognize familiar features. Sho, the words refused to escape her lips. It was a photo taken of him not knowing. Why? Why? For what reason? Why? He had nothing to do with this. It was self-defense. He didn't do anything wrong. He deserved to remain unknown. Why was there this photo of him?

Deep breaths.

Now wasn't the time to panic. Panicking didn't help anything. It was better to wait and think about it. Let it blow over first. Figure out what was going on first. Noises from outside? Voices? There were other people.

^{"H-h██lo? D█ ██u gu█s k█ow wh██e t█e h-h██l we █r█?"WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"W-█ho.. D██..█id ██u c█m█ o█t ██om th█r█ to█..?"
"S█m█th█ng b█d █ust hav█ h█ppen██ to u█, to f█nd o█rs█lv█s her█."WWWWWWW
"K█ng? Ord█rs? P█nis█m█nt? Wha- Is t█is som█ █ind of s█ck jo█e?"WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW"█gh, m█ wh█le █ody's ██ p█in. ██y ██ my wh█le bod█ in pa█n?"}

For better or worse, she wasn't alone. Judging by their confusion, they were just as lost as she was. She looked to the pain. A 1 had been carved into the back of her hand, blood staining both the coffin she resided in and her clothes. Her skull ached, but she couldn't feel any wound there. She patted herself down. No phone, no keys, no pills. She was completely barren of any meaningful possessions. She grabbed hold of the bloody nail holding the photo of Sho and pulled. It, along with the photo, detached from the wood. Both of them went into her pocket.

It was more or less time to leave her box. Carefully, she placed each hand to one side of the box and pushed with all of her might. The lid didn't move. She slid her hands to the other side and pushed. Greeted by the sudden burst of light, her eyes instinctively shut. She rose from the box and slowly opened her eyes. 7 boxes, 5 of which were open with people nearby. Greetings were meaningless. There was no reason to converse. Instead, Mari looked at the writing on the wall. Rules for a game? A terrible one, no less.

DanMachi: Alter Oration [DEAD]

The market was impressive. So many people gathered in such a place! It was quite an amazing sight! No amount of literature could quite encapsulate the bizarre beauty of the market. People haggled on the spot looking for the best deal possible. Occasionally, a merchant would be walked out on by the customer, only to begrudgingly sigh and yell for them to come back. Really, Dahlia would have been in an amazing mood, save for one thing.

The market was filthy.

People meant filth, therefore it was only logical for the market to be practically untouchable. Thankfully, Dahlia wore enough layers to keep the gross at bay. She would, however, ensure that these clothes were to be burned when she took them off. There was no saving them in her mind. Even though she had come to the markets to get supplies for her grand adventure, her attempts at acquiring gear was... less than successful?

The merchants and peddlers who haggled with regular folk had no real clue what Dahlia was talking about. For the peddlers who looked nice enough that Dahlia could buy things without judgement, they had to deal with the librarian's utter disrespect to established haggling procedure. Dahlia would offer a completely random number of valis for something or offer some bizarre item in lieu of cash. After the third offer, Dahlia would often be "referred" to another peddler, as the original seller had barely any patience for her.

Time passed and Dahlia hadn't bought a single item. To escape the overwhelming noise of the market, Dahlia snuck into an alley away from the chaotic market. Taking a nice place behind some old, busted boxes (her clothes were most definitely getting burned before she slept), she could rest. There, she could finally have some peace of mind. But rather than the murmurs of a distant market, she heard a conversation of two people further in the alleyway.

"Are you sure that she'll be there?" One asked, his gruff voice was barely audible.

"'Course. That girl's brand new. Reaaaaaal cocky. Gonna storm down much lower floor than she should." The second replied. It was apparent that the two of them were (thankfully) walking the other way.

"...Right, we can wait nearby an' getter with..." The first voice became inaudible.

"Such a sha... that girl's... a fine... get... coochie..." A few choice words by the second were occasionally audible.

Get coochie? What was that? Sure, there was a decently long gap between the two words, but Dahlia's mind was already set on coochie being something the two of them were trying to get. What was this mythical coochie, anyways? Well, whatever it was, it was sure to be something important! Without doubt, if Dahlia was to obtain it, that would easily be one of the achievements done for Athena.

Thus began Dahlia Pendragon and the quest for coochie. Whatever that was, anyways.