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7 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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Aventon — Town center


Rayne was glad that she didn’t seem to have been talking, or acting, to fast for Frankenstine to keep up with, so maybe she wasn’t concussed, or she was only hurt in a way that stopped her from talking a lot, or maybe she was just a woman of few words? Either way, she was more than ready to make up for her lack with plenty of excess when one of the villagers enquired if she’d be willing to help with some escaped animals.

Which probably only went to show how accustomed the villagers had already become to strangers with strange looks and stranger powers showing up out of the middle of nowhere, given as he barely even blinked at Frankenstine’s presence.

Speaking of the women in question, she seemed more than happy to help as she agreed to do so in what was, it seemed, her minimalist style.

Rayne, naturally, also agreed with a “I'd be happy to help” before lifting off into the air, picking her hat up off her chair, and then setting it on her head, giving it just the littlest turn of adjustment before being satisfied with it.

“I’ll admit, I haven't had the most experience with herding, mushrooms don't exactly get up and run around thankfully. Imagine if they did though, little legs scampering under bobbing caps” she joked, farmer to farmer, before pausing and adding “which I guess maybe they could do in some other world” because the familiar was now no longer a given.

“Either way, I’ll do my best!” she concluded, before turning around to Frankenstein to continue the fairly one-sided conversation they’d started.

“So, let me explain some stuff while we go '' she said, before proceeding to do just that “First things first, this is a different world from the one you're from. But also I’m from different different world. There’s also this big Toa, they’re a bit like golems but they’re people, called Lewa from yet another different world, a lady called Anne from another, for some reason 3 ladies from one specific other other one and… well you get the pictures there’s a bunch of us, and you’ll meet the rest in time I’m sure. Most of them are out in the woods dealing with monsters but they’ll be fine, I know they can handle themselves”

To explain why she knew this, and also just what had happened here, she then gave a quick little summary of the prior day’s events “See, yesterday, most of us sorta showed up in this church summoned by a goddess to protect these two children from these jerks called the Raven Heralds, but like I said, we already ran them off. Doesn’t look like that’s all she wants though, as the goddess seems to keep teleporting people here, like you and lady Remilia, so I guess she wants us to do more stuff. I don’t know what though, she’s not exactly said anything since we got here, but I guess whatever they wanted those kids for is still a big deal maybe? We never did find out exactly why the Heralds attacked the town.”

“Either way, right now we’re helping the town get back on its feet, and then after we’ll probably try and work out what in the world the goddess wants, or even just how to get in contact with her so we can go home” she concluded her quick summary as they headed out of town to where the farm animal escape situation was going down.


The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 590 (+1)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (174/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (59/140) (+1 bonus pending)
Kamek: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (54/130) (+1 bonus pending)
Rika: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (75/90) (+1 bonus pending)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams


”Come on, come on! At this rate we aren't gonna get back before-” Jr shouted at his family as they raced back up the train, only for he feared to come to pass and for them to not be able to reach their foe before the darkness took them down, prompting a disappointed ”awww” from the prince before he huffed about the tentacles being ”rotten kill stealers”

”Now we have to hope that the darkness is satisfied with just blotting out the light” Kamek said, not at all sad about the final phase being, if not trivial, then at least a swiftly done thing. The run back had not exactly been a fun time, what with it involving dodging through the endless piles of indiscriminately launched sword power coming their way, something they’d only really made it through thanks to Rika’s shot slowing power.

Bowser in particular was flagging, and was not going to be much help if they had to fight the ocean of darkness next

Fortunately, Kamek’s concern was unfounded, and, having taken down its sworn foe, the void was satisfied and retreated, leaving them to wake back up in the egg.

They were not alone however, as the hollow knight still kneeled where it had fallen when they entered its dreams. Now, in response to the death of the Radiance, the corruption both within and without it withered and died, leaving its long watch finally over.

As jr cheered about how they’d saved the underground (which only he really cared about among the Troop members) Bowser raised a claw and waved at the big bug, beginning to say ”Oh, uh, hey there buddy. Are we good?” only for F to appear and cut down the knight before anyone could find out what it would have done with its new, and likely entirely unexpected, duty free existence.

”Well now, that was quite uncalled for” Kamek commented, having been rather curious about what was about to happen as well.

”Yeah I had that” Rika agreed, tilting a raised gauntlet a few degrees from where she’d been ready to casually execute the knight herself to instead point it at F ”and now you” only for Kamek to raise a hand and lightly press her gun hand down, saying ”Now now, let’s see exactly what this fool expected, throwing himself at the mercy of villains” with a sneer on his beak.

”Yeah, what’s the big idea you sniveling shnook? Gonna help us till you can stab us in the back huh? Already gotta keep an eye on this guy for that” Bowser agreed, jabbing a thumb at Ganondorf before bringing the hand back and punching it into his other palm and telling F that ”So you better start talking and make yourself real useful before I decided to just beat the answers out of your sorry mug” while repeating the motion intimidatingly.

”Yeah like, where are the other guardians and and what they are and… and…” Jr piped in to add to the demands, before faltering for a moment while trying to think of more before suddenly launching into ”.. and give us all your treasure! Bet you got all sorts of cool stashed away somewhere, right?” in the exact tone a bully would demand some kid’s lunch money.

While all the others were demanding to know about things that would be useful in the future, Rika ended up looking back and asked ”Also why you haven't just done that time thing Kamek said you could do and undone everything we just did?” while scratching her cheek thoughtfully with an oversized finger while doing so.

wordcount: 2,060 (+3)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (108/100) (+1 bonus pending)
Location: Deep Ground
Warp Charges: 1


By the time Midna had blinked her sight back, it was all over, and whatever machine had been built around Tychoon began to fall apart. The gateways which she hadn’t really paid attention to due to being focused on fighting collapsed, tearing apart the machinery that had been going through them.

”Huh, I wonder what that was all for?” Midna asked nobody in particular, and then, much too late, got a very bad feeling about this. C had, after all, just said that they had no idea what the consequences of their actions were going to be, and he was very much right. Well. That she didn’t know anyway. Sandalphon worked it out in short order, and it was very bad news.

At least that’s the impression she got, she didn’t exactly know what a ‘citywide blackout’ was exactly, but she could infer that it wasn’t going to be a good time.

”How much of the city’s… everything is going to stop working? Is there nothing else they can use in its place? The actual reactors maybe, if they are off?” Midna asked. Not that she was exactly in favor of draining life from the world or however those worked, but ”It only has to keep running till we win, seeing as this is going away once we do” she suggested.

For Sandalphon, Midna's first few questions were a matter of guesswork, but she tried to provide perspective as best she could. "I am no electrician, but I can only imagine that the power needs of this city are truly staggering. Even if we could get the systems running in time, the region might not have enough life energy left to meet those needs, thanks to Nox."

Speaking of both Nox and power sources, the man had abandoned his at the start of the fight, and her eyes ended up drifting over to where it now lay, the untold amounts of life force it had held spent to undo his own victory and nothing more. It had also driven him mad, despite being just an energy storage device according to Sandalphon which might have dissuaded others from picking it up.

Midna on the other hand, who was presently wearing a madness inducing artifact as a hat, was fairly sure she could handle it. Just to be safe however, she formed and used her shadow hand to pick it up, the great orange glowing limb pinching the cube between thumb and forefinger, and then bringing it close to inspect.

It felt heavy in her hand, though not so much with mass but with import. It also seemed to have a lingering mote of power as well, she could see, as she brought it close to her face. She moved a hand to slip aside the mask she was wearing, the lens was damaged and getting in the way of a detailed inspection, only for the fracture lines along it to close back up, fully and perfectly repaired without so much as a hint of fanfare.

”What?” she asked, slipping off the mask and turning it around in her hand, confirming its repaired state with her own eyes. She made a little surprised sound at the sight, before hanging the half mask around her neck and then saying ”Well, aren't you a handy little thing?” to the cube.



In short order she’d used it to repair her broken tree spear, failed to find enough bits of her pistol to repair it, and then realized she could use this to fix the caved-in armor on her darknut.

”We really need to find a way to make you more durable, don’t we thing?” she said as she was patching up the undead knight ”Nearly everything we’ve faced that’s dangerous just ripped through you. That mech was way better… oh! Well there’s one way to solve that isn’t there?”

At this point they’d moved up through the one available teleporter out of the generator, and ended up next to the mainframe computer that controlled the city. She didn’t really have the know how to use it however, so instead she just answered and asked a few questions.

”Think it can tell us how much time the city has left power wise, and if there’s a way to turn on the other reactors? Also anything else we can really use? Such as why the regime was making Others in the first place?” she asked first

The archangel could make no suppositions about the inner workings of Shinra's power infrastructure. "I am unsure. Given the sheer scale of this facility, not to mention the city itself, restoring it to its original configuration could be an infeasibly gargantuan undertaking." When Midna mention Others, however, Sandalphon seemed to be at a loss. "Making Others...?"

Goldlewis realized that, as a member of DespoRHado down in Detroit, the healer must have seldom, if ever, interacted with an aspect of the Ever Crisis that mostly concerned the psionics of the plates above. "Uh, to be specific, she means targeted metamorphosis, not all Others." He stroked his whiskers. "I reckoned it was a way to assassinate their enemies all stealthy-like, turnin' 'em into monsters nobody'd think twice about killin'." The veteran's brows furrowed. "Now that I think about it, though, we never figured out how to stop Others droppin' from the Extinction Belt. That ain't good..."

”Still a strange thing to have developed in the first place, right?” she replied, but she had to admit, that even if they did work it out, it wasn’t a solution. None of the questions she’d asked had solutions, it seemed.

She did at least have one of her own, and that was ways of how to get out of here: ”I’ve got enough power to make one more, but I did also make one down in the guardian’s room to escape the massive explosion attack. If we can get back down, we should use that”

”As for places we can go in the city, that’d be the entrance of this place, the S.O.U. Building, the Seiran Clinic, two in the city of glass, and one in the underway subway tunnels out in the outskirts. Only useful one that doesn’t just put us back in the desert or up a mountain is the virgin victory, which is out in Port Meridian west of here. If it’s fixed, we could fly it anywhere, assuming it doesn’t get attacked again” she wasn’t exactly for that however. They’d come to solve the ever crisis, and by all accounts, they’d just made it worse by undermining the city at every turn, regardless of how corrupt it had been.

Questions asked and answered, she got back to the whole improving her darknut situation, resummoning it and applying the spirit of Roadblock to its chest.



”Quite the makeover. I think you got a bit of an armor upgrade out of that too which is good. So, can you-” she began asking even ash she magically commanded it, prompting it to raise its shield and project a barrier before it, a rectangle with beveled edges rather than the angular ones of the original Roadblock ”- yeah you can. Perfect”

After that very fitting and needed upgrade, she was still left with several more spirits of unfused strikers. She was tempted to fuse with one of the initiates, but her fusion had been getting pretty costly as of late, and so she decided the worth of the mediocre power was probably not worth whatever she’d sacrifice this time. Skywave might be worth it given its toolbox of tricks, but she ended up offering it to Sandalphon seeing as it fit well with her entire aesthetic and role in the team. The chillfos were not even worth considering, so she crushed them alongside the initiates.



”Well would you look at that, I’ve been needing a replacement shield-” Midna commented as that one appeared, grabbing it with two hands before it could fall on her foot ”- bit heavy though. Still, if it works it works”

Among the other items produced there were some additional useful oddities. The icy knife was bizarre in form but felt swift and deadly in hand to Midna, though her analysis was that it would be good to sneak into weak spots rather than specifically into the back. The Psi Stone meanwhile might have been awkward to use for some, but she figured she could blast with it, and then chuck it into a portal to free up her hand, which would work rather well.

As for the last bit of equipment she ended up asking ”Anyone need a helmet? It is nice to see all your pretty faces but it would be wise to protect them” in a bit of hypocrisy given she was basically only wearing a helmet for protection. Maybe, she thought, she should change that.

Then finally the geode, weird eye and card were stashed for when she could work out what in the world they were for. Or, more likely, worth.

With that all out of the way, all that was left was to try and avoid going blind from any and all other flashes of fusion going on, as well as sit back and see if anyone who knew how to work the computer would find any value in doing so. That and see if anyone was going to be the bearer of bad news to the city. Their premier hero and leader were both dead, their power about to fail, who knew how bad the machine attack had gotten outside without them. Things were not looking good.

”Only thing we can hope for is that Nox’s giving up puts a damper on the machine army. Do we think that without their leader they’ll just, well, stop?” she asked, very much hoping that it was a take of the king of evil’s head and his armies melted away sort of situation.

When Midna asked about the Machines, Sandalphon nodded stiffly. "Not Nox, per se. While we made our way through Deep Ground, the Machines clashed with Midgar's defenders just outside the city. I've been receiving reports from YoRHa operatives the whole time, and according to them, the loss of two humanoid units -known as Adam and Eve- left the enemy force leaderless and unable to fight. By now, their extermination should be nearing completion."

Goldlewis gave a sigh of relief. "Guess that's one third of the Ever Crisis that oughta be over with. If the OSF's busted and the city's shut down, though, the Others could still finish the job." He crossed his arms. "After seein' just how rotten Midgar really is for myself, I really wondered if there was any savin' it. Just too many people all crammed together, everythin' dug in too deep. I thought to myself, maybe it'd be better if we all started over. If the city's fixin' to go dark, maybe a mass evacuation'd be for the best."

”But where would we evacuate them too? This place is so isolated. Plus where can you even support this many people?” she asked, before pausing, and finally thinking out loud ”... there’s no farms here. There were ones where the Virgin Victory is parked, I think, and that’s nearby. So that’s probably where they get the food from. If they can get the food to here, they can get the people to where the food is the same way?”

Sandalphon opened a map screen. "Options nearby include Gutsford, the Satisfactory industrial zone, and Everdream Valley, where Meridian is located. New settlements could also be established in Kunad Highway or the Valley of Ruin, now that the Machines are no longer a threat. However, it is doubtful that 'we' have the means or time to evacuate them, beyond delivering a message. Chaos and panic will set in soon, if they haven't already. Many will no doubt refuse to leave, even with the continued threat of Others and Chimeras, and many will fight over the scraps now that the tenuous rule of law has shattered."

Giovanna shrugged. "Even if we took this chance to, I dunno, stick Vernon in the power vacuum, it'd be meaningless at this point."

"Midgar was already a hellhole," Goldlewis grumbled. "And now it's been dismantled from the bottom up."

”Living under a monster spawning sky and in a place where dimensional rifts kept opening was probably not the best idea in the first place, yes” Midna agreed plainly ”Not that anyone decided to do that I suppose, its all Galeem’s fault”

Aventon — Town center


“Your… Frankenstein? A… Servant Berserker? Or is that a servant who is also a Berserker?” Rayne echoed, checking that she was putting the slowly delivered words together. She had plenty of other questions too, like what a servant berserker was, or who she was a servant of, and so on, but it looked like the latest divinely abducted individual was in no state to answer any of them. Rayne’s incorrect guess was that the fall must have hurt Frankenstein more than her unharmed body might have suggested.

“Also are you hurt? Concussed?” she asked before glancing around and saying “You should probably sit down if you are. Here let me get you a chair, I think there was one just around-” before interrupting herself by blinking away round a corner, and then returning in a flash, finishing her sentence with a “-there” as she set down a plain but well (hand) carved chair down and then floated a step back as she offered it to Frankenstein.

Then she thought for another moment, considered that it would be rather strange for her to be sitting in the middle of the square on her own, and so in a few flashes another, non matching, chair was added for Rayne, as well as a table because why not, it completed the setup that she’d now made in the shade of one of the town square’s bordering buildings.

“There we go,” she said, dusting her hands off. If Fran did take a seat, Rayne would join her in doing so, the very short woman hanging her hat off the back of her chair when she did, before saying “now I’m sure you have questions, so ask away. We have time and we’re not in any danger. Anymore anyway. We already ran off the people who did this” gesturing vaguely at the state the town was in.

wordcount: 423 (+2) (+7) (+6)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (105/100)
Location: Deep Ground
Warp Charges: 1


While C might have been happy to sit the rest of this out, and she was frankly thankful for that, she wasn’t going to just sit around after handling him. She still had carrots left in the saddlebag (or, as she might have said if she ever learned how motor vehicles worked internally and wasn’t mostly convinced they all worked like cluster trucks, juice left in the tank if she’d), and she was going to put it to good use.

She glanced around the room, getting an idea of the situation and it was, it seemed, good. Nox really must have been the linchpin of his own pre-reset victory, because things were going well. C’s team was gone, and all that still stood was the guardian, and it looked like it was on its last legs thanks to the team that had been focusing on it while she was busy with C.

”After everything it took to get here, we don’t even need a massive train canon for this one” she noted, before adding nonchalantly that ”Still, a big gun can’t hurt” before getting herself one of those.

Her (slightly bullet peppered now) warthog rose out of a portal in response to her will, and then its wheels touching down as said portal close beneath it. It wasn't going to be using those to go anywhere however, as she was interested in what was on the back: the big gun she desire. True, it was no railway mounted artillery piece, but the chain gun mounted on the back of the reconnaissance vehicle was nothing to be sniffed at.

The princess promptly hopped onto the back of it, grabbed the turret in all four hands, spun it round, and let her rip, filling the air with a steam of lead from a relatively safe distance from their foe, a plethora of tracers making it clear where her bullet stream was even as she did her level best to not put her shots anywhere close to her allies. That plan worked relatively well, at least until Roxas and Tycoon started putting on a competitive laser light show anyway, because that rendered her entirely blind. There was no way she was going to fire like that, the risks of hitting friendlies where just far to great, and so the princess promptly diving off of her turret and into the shadows to recover her sight.

With any luck, by the time it was back, the cause of its loss would have ended the battle in their favor.


The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,074 (+6)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (173/140)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (58/140)
Kamek: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (53/130)
Rika: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (74/90)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams


”Well then. I knew I was wise to not go under those clouds, but I did not realize quite how wise” Kamek commented from on high as he observed the void rising up to try and smother the light that was their foe. At least the darkness seemed to be on their side this time, though he was a touch concerned as to what would occur once they won.

At any rate, they certainly hadn’t done so yet, and indeed the Radiance seemed to decide that it wasn’t going to give them the opportunity to be done ever as, after taking a lashing from the dark and then blowing it away, it promptly decided to just leave.

”Wait. It can just do that?” Jr asked, rather dumbstruck, while Bowser roared ”Coward! Get back here and take your lumps like a proper boss!” to no avail. It wasn’t coming back.

”Maybe I can sail on that?” Rika began to suggest, regarding the sea of black darkness around them, but fortunately before she could actually try this help arrived in the form of train based transportation. It was crewed by a friend of Nadia apparently, and their appearance here was apparently entirely unexpected as it had to exposit a bit to explain it, but more than welcome.

Speaking of expositing, given they had a touch of breathing room, Kamek decided to do some of that himself as he flicked open Robin Goodfellow’s book and sought out the Radince’s own page on it, just in case it held some helpful tips.



While the mage did wonder about who on earth the Pale King was, what stood out at the end was the note about darkness. That, and the earlier comment about the void, certainly explained what the shadow stuff was, and it also gave him an idea about a plan of (magical) attack.

While Kamek did that, and exposited to anyone that was interested in what he was reading, Jr used the moment they had to check on and top up everyone’s health with his healing magic, ensuring they'd all be primed and ready to go for round two.

After that, it was time to climb abroad. Climb being the key word here as they would be riding atop the train rather than inside of it. None of the Troop questioned this however, it was simply the logical place to fight from, and soon enough they were up top and ready for action.

They just had to reach said action first

”Well, this looks like it might take a moment” Kamek commented as they began their minuet long catch up to the Radiance, before he glanced at his green doppelganger and decided ”We might as well make the most of it”

Thus 3 more green orbs were tossed, three more green mages were made, and as they rolled on towards the second confrontation with the ‘end of thought’ they were put to work, giving each and every single of the party a nice little boost to their speed, attack, and defense.

Of course, the Radiance wasn’t exactly content to let them approach, and so proceeded to blast at them with inaccurate laserbeams which, fortunately, had a tell and wind up time that left them perfectly dodge-able. Things started going particularly well when Rika took point and the rest began a game of follow the leader, the troop, Kamek clones included, forming a line that dodged back and forth to avoid getting lasered under the princess’ guidance.

By the time they had arrived, everyone was boosted up by the clones, and Kamek wasn’t the only one who’d been busy prepping, as the front of the first train carriage was absolutely littered with iron knives that had been stabbed into the roof.

”Opening salvo, go!” Jr shouted as they got close enough to attack, having used the travel time to scheme as well as stockpile magic, thrusting a finger forwards and sending a hail of pre-prepared blades stabbing towards the Radiance, forming and launching more alongside the initial volley. He was joined in this by Rika who launched a fresh volley of disrupting shots at the Radiance inorder to debuff the firepower she was throwing back.

The Troop’s final hit came from combo attack from Kamek and Bowser, the king grabbing the mage’s doppelgangers by the broomstick and hurling forwards like javelins, and then, once they got close, Kamek had them cast his explosion causing dark magic beams spell.

The clones were, inevitably, cut down soon after launching, and it was an inefficient way of casting the spell, but it was safe and strong and that was what mattered, even if it did leave the mage rather drained.

Indeed, between them the Troop expended most of their rechargeable resource pools in that opening strike, which could have been an issue had it not been the plan. As a volley of swordblades came hurtling down the train, Bowser grabbed Kamek in one arm, Jr in the other and waited for a moment for Rika to grapple hook onto him before leaping backwards, over the heads of those behind them on the train.

The wind blasting backwards along their path, though nowhere near as strong as it should have been, caught them, sending the entire Troop flying all the way to the back of the train, and in so doing opened up the front-lines for someone else to give it all they’d got.

Just as Jr had planned.

Bowser touched down, thorny vines stabbing into the train’s roof for grip, his and Rika’s heels screeching as they slowed their backward flight, stopping them right before they tipped off of the back of the train, and right before the swordblade volley hit.

It was faster, but, thanks to Kamek’s now destroyed green clones, so were they. With speed he hadn’t had till now Bowser (still holding Kamek and Jr) stepped between the swordblades and received only a light scratch for his efforts, helped greatly by Rika sticking close to and slowing the shots down for him.

After they’d done that however they did have to face the slight flaw in their plan however, and that was that they were going to have to advance all the way back up the train to take another swing at Radiance.

”Nothing for it to get moving. Let’s go, let’s go!” Jr commanded as he was set back, leading the charge back the way they had come.

Aventon — Town center


“And so I told her, we don’t sell that kind of truffle but she just wouldn’t-” "-aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!" “-huh?”

Rayne’s retelling of a tale from the happiest and least interesting chapter in her life came to a halt when the interesting times she was currently living in came along and reasserted dominance by taking a boot to the monotonous rhythm she’d gotten into with helping the townsfolk with their scavenging.

And what an interruption it was. It wasn’t every day that you got to see a woman fall out of the sky, let alone find her more or less unharmed when you dashed over to see what was going on.

There was a little moment of tension when the horned person emerged as people, Rayne included, waited to see how this sudden arrival would act, one that was thankfully broken by the awkward greeting and wave the stranger gave them that put them all at ease.

It was enough that Rayne stopped focusing on the distinctive mechanical augments the woman had had done to her head, the equivalent of which she’d seen only once (no, twice now actually with Anne) and took the rest of her in. Other than being generally very pretty the other thing about the rest of her appearance that stood out was her outfit, one that prompted Rayne to to raise her hands to her cheek as she gasped “oh no. She didn’t steal you away on your wedding day did she?” before shaking her head lightly and responding to the situation properly, replying “Hi, hello” (along with her own little wave) to the well, greeting.

As she did so she floated down to hover just above the ground and approached to a distance she deemed close enough to not be standoffish, but not so close that she might worry the stranger with her own strangeness before introducing herself. She did so by tipping her witch hat to the stranger and then saying “I’m Rayne, Witch Knight, and, I hope, a friend” before asking “What’s your name?”
From the depths to the surface and back again


“Representatives, please! There’s no need for all this alarm!” Lilly, secret daughter of Asheel and member of Tricity’s council, called out, attempting to defuse the uproar her clarifications about the nature of the Dominion had caused among her fellow council members.

“Beneath our very feet exists a god chosen civilization ruled by a mind controlling despot, that is most certainly reason for alarm!” retorted a snouter giant in both height and girth as he slammed a fist down onto his sturdily built chair, before pointing a fat finger at Lilly “How do we know you are not compromised right now, and this isn’t some scheme of this ‘Maxima’ you spoke with?”

“How do we know every goblin isn’t compromised?” a young beastkin with the body of a human and head of a tuna added hysterically, jaw flapping at the top of his head while the one eye he was looking at them with wheeled around the room, looking for answers, befre fixing on the closest goblin council member.

“I know my own head you ingrate, and I’ll gut you if you need me to prove I’m not under this peace enforcing princess’ spell” said goblin woman, who had come to the meeting in a set of overalls of all things, and who was the last sitting representative of the greatly diminished miner’s union, bit back at the tuna-kin, before putting one of her boots up on her chair so she could pull a knife from it.

“She’s got her! Assassin! Monarchist assassin!” the tuna-kin shouted in a panic as he rose from his own seat, knocking over his chair, only to fall over it and knock over the representatives who had come to his aid.

It was all Lily could do to hold her face in her hands while her avian companion Seam quietly asked if they were always like this. They were all saved however, when the doors to the chamber were quietly opened, and an aged looking kingfisher wildblood entered the room, his cane and pegleg clacking against the fine stone floor.

The Speaker, a man old as the world, a mortal not from woman born but made by the hands of gods, and thus one of a rare few who could practice the arts of speaking with other’s past lives, took the scene in for a moment. As he did a platypus-goblin attempted to calm the situation, only to be grappled and accused of being mind controlled as well by a muscular croaker, prompting him to try and stab the tuna-kin with his poisoned spurs, at which point the Speaker decided to intervene.

He raised his cane once more, and struck it forcefully into the ground, causing runes on the handle to glow and create a pulse of awe to radiate through the room, while at the same time, he used his actual power to touch every soul found therein for just a moment.

“That is quite enough” the speaker declared, with a voice that, though now withered, still held the command and confidence of a powerful leader. He was, of course, not one, merely a spiritual guide, but still, he brought the council to order and to their senses just long enough for a thankful Lilly to rally a rather simple argument “If she wanted to control everyone and take over, surly she wouldn’t have me tell you what she could do. And especially not that her will could be broken”

“Hmmmmf. Broken by the will of a legendary hero” the large snouter, one Counselor Vontibrath, retorted, clearly unconvinced, though with more of a debative tone now rather than an accusatory one “besides, we had already heard an account of this Dominion from… oh what was that Aardvark-kin’s name?” he snapped his fingers twice, before a pig-kin beast woman whispered something in his ear “ah yes, Desmond. He already told us about how how you, council member, ensnared your companion here while the other goblins held him up and blade and hammer point without a second thought about your prior allegiance”

“Hey, I can vouch for all of this so don’t you dare use me against her” Seam bit back at the big snouter

“Hmm, yes, you say as you wear the gifts of the god who is patron of this land of slaves, a god we may well have misplaced our worship in if he created a land so antithetical to our values” Vontibrath replied in reference to the fancy armor and diamond topped swords Seam had been gifted, prompting several gasps from the more religious among the rest of the council. Only a few however, as Galaxor’s addition to the rota of gods worth veneration was rather recent.

“Galaxor’s worthiness is a topic for another time, but is hardly a reason to distrust Seam” Lilly replied evenly, before pressing forwards with what she hoped would be her winning point “Still, I understand that the council might have difficulty trusting either who’s lives Maxima has touched, which is why I invited the Speaker here”

“Ah, I see it. This Maxima can controle goblins, but you have not always been a goblin, have you, my teacher?” the old bird quietly said as he caught on, despite lacking much of the initial context, before addressing the council at large “If you will allow me just a moment, council members, I shall bring clarity to this situation”

There was some further discussion and a vote on the motion of taking him up on the offer that took a fair bit longer than a moment, but after that, those in their room closed their eyes, followed the Speaker’s steps, and then opened them in a shared vision of sorts. Before them a great serpent-kin, a snake in all but her eyes, one who sat coiled lightly around Lily in a comforting hug rather than a crushing bind, and who spoke in defense of her current life.

“I am here. I am free. I saw all even if could not help when the queen held Lilly’s mind” the serpent-kin said, seemingly ashamed of not being strong enough to intervene, before explaining in her short words that “I saw how god and queen played a twisted game with a hero, threatened to leave him forsworn. Saw too how Lily danced around the queen to prevent that end, and bartered great treasure for home from the god”

The counselors, their own past lives leaning over their shoulders like an ensemble of advisors, nodded along, looking quite relieved, but some, the great snouter Vontibrath
Chief among them leaned in with a great deal of interest at hearing one word, and that was “treasure?”




Months in the future, but not many, down in the depths, a wall cracked, and a monster with too many limbs, hardened digging claws and a mouth sloping stone melting acid burst through into a cavern filled with ore, gems and crystals galore. Its arrival was met by a line of armored pike wielding goblins, the miners working this holiest of sites having already long since cleared out after hearing it scratching at the walls.

With a cry of “For the Dominion!” They rushed the beast before it could recover its strength from its digging work, a dozen diamond tipped blades impaling the beast before their owners fell back, and a second row seamlessly charged past them and delivered a second sequence of stabs. These two backed off to get behind a remaining pike wall, preparing slings to continue to contribute to the fight with, but the caution was unwarranted with regards to the beast, reduced to a pincushion, collapsed to the ground.

It was, as it turned out, still warranted however, as no sooner had the beast fallen but 3 figures burst out of the tunnel it had dug. All three were tall and slim, with pointed ears, but that was where their similarities ended. A sea of tawny feathers somehow moving silently on 4 sets of viciously sharp talons that where reinforced with bronze and which starred down the goblins with the massive light drinking eyes of an owl came first, followed by a tower shield carrying humanoid tortoise moving unnaturally fast thanks to the rings carved all over its shell, and a elf with angelic swans wings wielding a glowing trident and covered in shimmering tattoos that hurt to look at.

The shield carrying tortoise-kin immediately put themselves up front, slamming their shield into the ground in a taunt and catching a dozen thrusts and stones upon it as a result while the howling owl started to slip to one side of the pike wall. The goblin commander was no fool however, and she barked two short commands that prompted the wall to start backing up and angling its flank’s pikes after the hulking owl-kin so as to not get flanked by it. A few took jabs at it as it got too close, only to be rebuffed by the most powerful hoot they had ever heard, the sound wave pushing them back with physical force rather despite only momentary deafening them

The third of the bestail figure’s number did not join in this positioning and, rather than attempt to flank the goblins from the other side, the swan-kin called back into the tunnel “someone tell the boss we found the goblins!” before telling the others to “hold you two, hold!” prompting them to back off a few steps.

The goblin commander was quite sure she could take them still despite the unusual abilities they had demonstrated, but she wanted answers rather than blood, and so she was happy to use the space to back up and take an even better defensive position. Once she was situated atop a small ridge and had sent a runner to report the situation with another hyper efficient command, she called down to the beastfolk, demanding to know “Who are you? Who do you serve?” and then regarding the monster they had initially put down “Why are you associating with outer beasts!”

Her answers arrived on cloven hooves that trampled through the blood of the fallen beast, flaked by another such monster, several more beastfolk equally as eclectically armed and armored as the first three, and followed by some kind of plaque that held, of all things, a little garden. “That, is, or was a Chimera made specifically for tunneling. Top of the line and damn expensive” the group’s leader, a certain snouter large of height and girth, informed her as he emerged from the rock dust, lightly brushing it off his fine long coat and tophat, before informing her that “And these fine folks serve me, just as I serve Tricity, and we’re here to stake our fine home’s claim on this god gifted bounty!” as he swept a hand across the caverns the goblin had been protecting

“Any objections?” Vontibrath asked, as yet more beastkin (along with the odd snouter and croaker) peaked out of the freshly breach into the hold site, not a goblin or miner’s union member in sight.




Weeks in the future, but not many, Vontibrath paused in his digging to admire his work. It was a fine patch of land he owned, one he had carefully cultivated only the most fascinating underground plants, all of it growing in soil that had traveled with him from the outskirts of tricity to the heart of its richest district, and now down here into the depths of the world where he might be the first of his kin to stake a claim.

True, it was a touch of a downgrade from his lavish lifestyle up with the movers and shakers on Trictiy’s northside, but his other work made it more than worth it. Setting down his trowel, he stood and looked down from his rooftop garden and out over the burgunning town growing around the entrance to the cave of unlimited bounties. True, there were some hurdles to be found in this new operation. No one made Buggies quite like goblins, and with their banning from the exposition, lest they be compromised by the mind controlling despot they now shared the cave with, they had to rely on newer, more experimental methods of transportation. The only recently tamed Chimeras had resulted in a few unfortunate accidents, it was true, and there had been teething problems with the Runecraft and R’kava modifications made to the miners, but it was all worth it.

With the first outer beast infested and then earthquake collapsed mines restored, and bolstered by the unending ore growth of the cavern, Tricity was once again king of the eastern waterway’s metal trade, and this time it was free from the stranglehold of those dirty unionists. No now it was Vontibrath who had that stranglehold and by Hummus, was he going to milk it for all it was worth.

First thing’s first on his agenda, muscling in on as much of the cave’s bounties as possible. The Dominionites had had a head start after all, it was only fair that they make way for his, or rather Tricity’s, workers for a time. And if that argument never moved back into something more balanced? Well, now wouldn’t that be a damn shame?



The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,059 (+6)
Bowser: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (167/140)
Bowser Jr: Level 14 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (52/140)
Kamek: Level 13 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (47/130)
Rika: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (68/90)
Location: The Under - Mercy Dreams


The came a crack as Bowser punched his own shell, causing a spider web of glowing fissures to form upon his armor lighting his load while also increasing his vulnerability to attacks.

”Good, now you can stop taking hits and-” his son began saying, having been the one to advise this change in strategy for the sake of his mana reserved, before being interrupted when the Radiance summoned a ring of white spears and launched them in all directions, prompting the prince to call out a warning of ”-dodge!”

”Huh? Gah!” Bowser replied before half lunging, half stumbling to the side as a spear came right at him, only for its flight to slow down just enough for him to avoid it thanks to Rika ducking in close to protect him with her shot slowing aura.

”Just a bit faster and you’ll be good” she told him encouragingly, before suggesting ”maybe Kamek can have his minions help with that? The green buffing ones” and then wondering ”Wait, where’d he go anyway?” causing all of them to look around in worry for the mage.

Fortunately the brief spike of fear they had was put to bed when they spotted the mage up and to the left, gradually floating his way back towards the battlefield. That fear was then promptly rudely awakened all over again when the Radiance seemed to follow their gaze, and promptly used her next spell on the mage. A string of three glowing homing disk shots were sent flying fourth towards him, each one casually adjusting its trajectory as the mage attempted to float from side to side to avoid them.

”Oh dear” was Kamek’s somewhat understated response to this as the shots grew closer and closer. Then at the last moment he tilted his broom straight down and went into a nosedive, narrowly slipping under the turning arch of the leading shot.

The second, however, smoothly swung down after him and, worse, the first proceeded to do a complete 108 turn so it could also race down after him.

”Well that’s not good” when a now a fair bit more concerned mage who was at risk of plunging down past the hazy cloud barrier surrounded the platform, which he really did not want to dive into without knowing what was down there.

Rather than panic quite yet, the mage waved his wand behind him, conjuring a doppelganger and sent it careening back into one of the chasing shots, only for it to cleave right through the magic construct and continue to race after him.

”Ah. Well. Here goes nothing” the mage declared as he twirled his wand and, mere moments from impacting the clouds, vanished in a puff of his own, before reappearing off on the other side of the arena. He paused there, indecisive, for a full two seconds, which would normally have been disastrous levels of passivity but fortunately the Randince had since transitioned into a vertical lance barrage and so wasn’t ready to target this sitting duck.

Unfortunately, the shots that had been chasing Kamek simply continued to do so. While one vanished into the clouds, never to return, the other two went racing right across the arena, which was very inconvenient for everyone currently raindancing around the falling spears lancing down onto it.

”Incoming from the side!” Rika called out in warning, having been watching Kamek’s chase out of the corner of her eye, before she bunny hopped over the first shot, and then double jumped to avoid both a spear and the second.

Jr was fortunately already out of their path, but Bowser got clipped, toppling to the floor and nearly receiving a lance to the noggin had he not tilted his head to the side just in time to avoid such a fate.

The shots continued on, only to, moments before they struck the dithering Kamek, dissipating into nothing, their power apparently spent.

”Ah, so it was, 2.75 seconds. Noted” he commented, having roughly timed them when they had been chasing after Ganondorf.

Back on the platform, both Jr and Rika helped their papa get back on his feet, but they weren't going to squander the brief opening between attacks by not throwing out their own.

”Bug strike her! Go” Jr commanded, prompting a shower of flukefey strikers, the toothy winged grubs from the home of tear’s sewers, to appear and launch forth to strike into the Radiance like a hail of missiles. They were followed swiftly by Rika’s vespikan queen striker, flanked by a trio of lesser vespikan berzerkers. Together they struck with the cohesion they had had fighting alongside each other in life, 4 large cleavers tenderizing the Radiance before she received a final titanic swing from the vespikan queen.

In response, the Radiance did her best impression of a bug zapper, a shower of beams lancing out from her eyes, scouring several lesser minions from the skies, and striking the Vespikan queen multiple times as said striker stabbed her spear sized venomous stinger to the claver wounds she and her demon worshiping nieces had inflicted upon the divine insect.

Both Jr and Rika stumbled as the feedback damage coming in from the strikers burnt them, but this time Bowser was the one who helped pick them back up as the Radiance blinked away to one side of the arena where she started another volley of lances. Rather than just let her do this again, Bowser dipped into his own bag of striker tricks, summoning Marie Korbel to form a wall of skeletons across that end of the arena. The barricade bent, buckled, and eventually on the third volley shattered under the spear based bombardment, but it was enough to give the troop time to heal up a bit, and the others to do as they will with the moment of respite the former skullgirl had provided.

Kamek for one used it to summon his dopplegangers, not wanting to be the single target for the Radinces shots again thank you very much. Though in a response to a call from Rika, he did convert one of the distractions into a green mage, which proceeded to pop a speed enhancing buff on Bowser. With that added boost, the king finally got the edge he needed to dodge around the last volley of spears, prompting a cheer from his children.
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