Rayne’s initial browsing and chatting proved productive, as she first found out that 1, yes, there were people other than humans out there, and that 2, some of them need the same kind of fit that she did. Just about anyway. The cloth seller offered to do just a bit of tailoring to make things fit just right, with which she happily agreed. Naturally this process involved a fair bit of chatting while measuring and sowing, during which the question of who they were and why they were here, one which Rayne answered quite frankly. Unsurprisingly, having not seen them in action (or straight up appear from the sky in one case), the caravaners were a fair bit more skeptical than the villagers when it came to the whole ‘being summoned from another world by a goddess no one had ever heard of’ deal.
Still, it passed the time, and soon enough, Rayne had a small but respectable set of changes of clothes that actually fit her short frame. A welcome change after a week of ill fitting garbs and repeatedly washing the same outfit over and over.
One of these, a simple cream tunic, she slipped away from the caravan inorder to slip into, returning wearing it, some dark stockings, her belt with pouches, her red scarf and a pair of feathers in her hair. It was an outfit which would have made her bend in with the people of this a fair bit more, were it not for her ears, stark white hair, and the way she casually floated above the ground.
She returned just in time to find what seemed to be something of a standoff between the other wordlers and the caravan guards. Or if not a standoff then at least a whole lot of posturing.
She couldn’t say she was a fan. She’d been hoping to have a chance to take a look at some of the books, a dense collection of info about this world could only help, and it could pass the time while traveling, but it looked like they needed to avoid some kind of altercation. She’d missed the why of why this was happening, but she stuck her nose into the problem anyway, as heroes were prone to do.
“Maybe we could give some kind of demonstration? Or have a friendly competition? Outside of the village, where there’s less risk of, ah, accidents” she suggested on the heels of Anne’s goading. She did not want to know what Fran using her powers inside of the village would do to it, and she wasn’t exactly one to talk to either, risk of collateral damage wise. You couldn't exactly cast a spell called Armageddon when anything you cared about was nearby and expect it to still be standing once things were over after all.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
”Well, I guess that’s one way to do it” Midna commented as Goldlewis uppercutted Roland onto the ship, trying to make light of the situation even as her voice was uncharacteristically filled to the brim with nerves.
Those nerves died down just a little as the Virgin Victory proved itself to be quite the absurdly powerful machine, lifting into the air and then blasting off and away, but, unfortunately, the initial part of their getaway was only a brief reprieve. With little effort the Consul caught up, bringing the storm with him, and setting Midna’s heart beating faster again. The boasting he was doing didn’t exactly help, nor the way he called them ‘mortals’ which lined up with Pit’s identifying him as a god, or at least as someone who considered themselves as one.
Had she been in a more confident state of mind Midna might have shot back with insults and counter boasts about how he’d be their third so called god today, but as it was, all she ended up saying was ”Goddess, this is going to be awful”
She was, at least when it came to her own subsequent experiences, entirely correct in this assessment, as the already pain on the eyes lightshow in the sky started to rain down upon them. Lightning unending, infused with an extra kick that was just perfect to bring her down
Still, she didn’t find this out right away, as when Z targeted the badly spaced pair that were Midna and her Flygon with a bolt of chain lighting they had a way to handle it. The blast arched down towards them, prompting the ground type pokemon to throw itself in between its mistress and the attack. The bolt slammed into it, and then, rather than arching onwards, was redirected into the ground as the dragon earthed the strike. Still, despite its supposed immunity to electrical attacks, the pokemon still hunched in pain, something else other than electricity in the attack clawing at its vitality.
That was concerning.
The despite attack not striking her, it still impacted the princess nonetheless, Midna experiencing a spike of stress from mere proximity, as well as being dazzled by the close proximity of the blindingly bright lightning strike. A rather poor combination that left her retaliation, frantically flicking down the trigger of her Mutagen Shotgun till it clicked empty several times over, incredibly scattershot, all the pellets flying wide, which was an impressive lack of accuracy even for her. At least her flygon’s own retaliation, a burst of spikes who’s damage valued half of that of the chain lightning damage pre-damage-mitigation, flew far more true, lightly homing in on the causer of their release.
Unfortunately, while the Flygon could shut down a lot of Z’s lighting effects, both she and it fared incredibly poorly when a wave of ice washed across the battlefield thanks to the consul’s minions. The blizzard bit deep into Midna’s bones, while also chilling the soul and cracked the scales of her flygon, both of them weak ice due to their shared dragon typing, and the ground typing of flygon making them even more vulnerable, leaving the strikes devastating to endure.
It was her turn to block now, with the princess pulling her new ice shield from a portal, and them both of them hunkering behind it as the storm threatened them with extinction. Given it was merely a medium shield, it only did so much too ward the large beast and now fairly tall Midna from the storm.
It was incredibly fortunate then, that the lack of shooting power in the team led to them focusing a great deal of their strength on cutting down the mooks. Them, and also Midna’s own beast legion which casually ignored everything going on on the battlefield, moving through it like a ghost, claws scything down anything that was in reach like it was a reaper amidst the wheat. If only it could get more than a few meters form Midna, she’d have happily let it play her part in this entirely.
As it stood, it and others struck down the first wave of minions, bringing an end to the storm and a reprieve to those most vulnerable to them… just in time for her flygon to have to earth another chain lightning strike. Already sluggish, wilting, and panting with pain, Midna could see as she hid behind it that it would not be able to protect her from many more strikes, and another surprise ice storm would be its end.
So, upon seeing Z casually sumon a replacement wave of Zeustrikes, she let it flee back to the twilight realm, leaving her alone, frostbitten, holding an empty shotgun and practically cowering behind her shield while her mind stumbled over what to even do to help or fight.
Seeing this, Goldlewis knit his brow together in concern, his teeth gritted. He could read body language just fine, but he reached out anyway. "Hey, Midna! You hangin' in there, cowgirl?"
Had she been herself, she might have insisted everything was fine, but a pileup of her inherited malusis caused the dam to break as she admitted “No! I can’t see shit, I can't feel my toes, and my heart’s trying to rip itself out of my chest in fear!” on the open coms for all to hear.
In that moment, she might have learned something. About reaching out. About asking for help, as spot healing from Sandalphon, a defensive boost from Zenkichi and a hand to rise from Goldlewis helping her get back on her feet. Then the shield came flying and everything she’d been given was washed away.
Midna’s stress went right back to the roof as a bolt of lightning came flying in after the shield, coming face to face ⅔ of the causes of Urbosa’s death, fear leaving her far too slow to try and get out of the way of what came next. The lightning slammed into the shield, causing an electrical denotation that threw Midna back to the floor. Then, with no flygon to ground it, the chain lighting arched onwards, pulsing between those that had helped her and then the princess herself, prompting Jolted to trigger, bringing down a third bolt down on her location.
It was here where she found out what the extra damage that hadn’t been resisted by her flygon was as she tried and failed to push herself up off the ground with strength-less arms, and saw her own skin. Unnatural paleness suffused it, the tan skin she’d gained from several fusions gone as that dreadful familiar sight from her lowest moment starred her straight in the face. The moment where she herself had almost died, exposed to the divine Light Spirit’s radiance by a spiteful Zant.
If there was any doubt about Z’s claim of divinity, it was washed away by this and this alone. Even as the color returned to her skin, the Light spirits’ later blessing of her and Zenkichi's boost having turned what would have been a dead nail to simply a devastating strike, Midna’s spirit was broken. She was worthless in this fight, and if she stayed in it she was going to die, be it from frost, light, or a heart attack.
So, with a weak tug on her astral chain, she brought her beast legion running over to her, where it promptly grabbed her by her collar, threw her over its back, and then started running for the entrance of the ship, a defeated Midna slumped over its back.
“Madness? Berzerker? Oh my” Rayne replied while scratching her head. She supposed the latter explained the impulsiveness (maybe, it wasn’t something she’d encountered other than in stories after all), but calling a speech impediment a product of/type of madness just felt wrong to her. It wasn’t really her place to tell Fran she was wrong however, now was it. Either way, she realized she was being awkward mulling this over and stumbled into a response of “Thanks for explaining. That sounds, well, rough. If there’s anything I can do to help make things easier, just let me know”
There was an awkward moment after, at least on Ranye’s end, which fortunately for her was interrupted when one of the chickens she was carrying started to wake up, and then proceeded to freak out about being up in the air in unfamiliar hands.
“Oh no. Please calm down, I’ll get you to your pen right away!” she told it, before telling Fran “we’ll catch up later” and zooming off to deposit her clucking load.
Once that was all said and done, they were unexpected (for Rayne anyway, she’d have helped out either way) paid for their efforts. She might have turned that down, but her stomach would have none of it, and so she happily accepted some food, and then headed right back to town to cook the first proper meal she’d have had in this world. Guests and co-chefs were more than welcome.
The next few days saw Rayne doing all sorts of odd jobs, and putting more of her mundane farming and house making talents to use than her magic. Salvaging crops, re-sowing fields, cooking meals and so on. She also learned a bit about how magic was different here, finding her mana stores (very) slowly filling up over time, which did mean she could put a little bit of that to work. Felling an entire swath of trees in a single axe spinning spell and then using rundedge to split them into planks in-order to help provide rebuilding materials for example (and then for the sake of this world’s Gaia, making sure to plant replacements in their stead).
Either way, while working there was plenty of time to mull over what the somewhat standoffish Anne had told her about what the goddess had apparently said to Millie. Too much time maybe, given how thin on the ground that info was. At least the child seemed to be doing alright despite her wounds and divine possession.
The days of labor came to an end with the arrival of the merchant caravan, which Rayne was all too happy to check out along with the others. She herself was mostly interested in getting a set of clothes that weren't borrowed or, well, inherited from the dead. Going around wearing armor all the time was silly after all, not to mention uncomfortable, so getting something casual and comfortable that fit her pint sized proportions was a must. Hopefully there were non-human peoples in other places in this world that matched her halfing stature, ones that the merchants might have clothing intended for stashed away somewhere.
Other than that, gossip of all kinds was always of interest, particularly anything related to the capitol, seeing as the goddess that had brought them here being worried about something occurring there being their only lead.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”Oh thank badness” Kamek sighed with relief when he got the call from Nadia about how Ganondorf’s meeting had gone, namely, somehow, steller
”Really? Well, when you’re a backstabber you have to have some kind way with words I guess” Bowser loudly observes right after, causing Kamek to cringe, hope that their distance from the wall stopped anyone overhearing and suggest he ”maybe don’t be so loud about the man’s past performances, your thunderous-ness” before adding that ”with any luck we won’t be sticking around long enough for that to be a problem”
The subsequent question the two youngsters had about why they couldn’t take a bath somehow managed to be even worse than the king’s potential ruining of Ganondorf’s reputation. Fortunately while Kamek ah-ed and um-ed about how on earth to explain Nadia’s comment Bowser simply sidestepped the issue decarling ”Who needs their baths, we’ve got a plan to enact! Koopa troop, let’s move out and get us some mirrors!” which got him a pair of affirmations from the pair, and a relieved sigh from Kamek.
They left behind the burnt sand, as well as the satisfied with it’s victory Pycko, and headed inside, Kamek radioing in that they’d be checking out the market, a place where they would soon be causing quite the stir.
The crowds of ladies who’d followed the arrival of the king to the palace, or more accurately the ones at the back of it who couldn’t see anything over the rest of them and so where in the best position and with the highest inclination to go find the other voe to get a look at them, ended up having plenty of things to gawk at as a result of the troop’s entrance. The trio of voa turtles and their mechanical gauntlet wearing vai companion certainly were interesting to look at even just from a first glance, and things only got more entertaining from there.
Through this crowd maneuvered a middle aged woman who, had she been from earth, would have been from Indian decent, and had she been from her own she would have been from the queendom of Feminie, first vassal and then successor state to magnificent Ind, but as things stood she was a sorceress of Garudo town, and she was on the hunt for magic. Both of the smaller turtles radiated it, not just from themselves but from a set of small objects she could tell the hooded one had on his person. Objects from a home she did not know she had. Objects that resonated with her style of magic more than anything else in this world.
Thus she pushed through the crowd, and as she did she heard snippets of the troops antics-
“-she walked right up to the poor girl and asked why she was starting at her, as if we all weren't-”
“-he and the ‘king’ stole spheres of the world together-”
“-made metal from his hands- -armor of mirrors- -cracked them when he moved-”
“-reflect a god’s light, must be mad-”
-And then the crowd pulled back, letting her through to see them clearly now., and she was immediately concerned by what she saw.
”Your illuminous-ness, young majesties, I’m not sure this is the wisest idea” Kamek said, hovering atop his broom at the side of Bowser as the king angled a cannon down range, specifically at Rika, who was holding a round mirror her brother had welded an iron handle to the back off, creating a mirror shield of a kind.
”You were the one who said it ‘wouldn't be wise to use an untested strategy’” Bowser replied, mimicking Kamek’s voice as he repeated the mage’s words back at him, to which Jr added ”Yeah! Besides, Papa said he’d only use a weak flash cannon, right?”
Given the amount of sun that the king’s shell was presently drinking in, this seemed like something he’d be unlikely to be able to do. At any rate, they were prevented from finding out how a common mirror would fare vs a flash cannon round by the sorceress, who decided this was the perfect moment for a sale’s pitch.
“A mundane mirror is a terrible choice for defense” she declared, punctuated with a thump of her staff to the ground causing a little fiery burst that caused her ruby red robes to billow around her dramatically “fortunately for you, among my many magics I hold mastery, one is over reflections”
With that she drew a gold framed hand mirror from seemingly nowhere, flicked it so that it flashed in the sunlight, capturing a reflection of Bowser as it did so, and then in the next moment released that reflection, causing a mirror image of the Koopa king to be standing before him.
Both blinked, and then tilted their heads from side to side in curiosity, before the true king declared ”huh, that’s a pretty good one”
Kamek meanwhile was not so impressed, replying ”Somewhat impressive, but I can already do that” dismissively as he formed a portal and summoned a shadowy copy of Bowser as he had been before any of his fusions to face off against the other copy
“I think my likeness is much more accurate, don’t you?” the sorceress retorted, and indeed it was both in hue and to the king’s current state, causing the mage to furrowed his brows and then sneer as he replied that ”mine is truer to his spirit, and his strength. Let us see if your mere reflection can defeat a creation forged by my bond with my king?”
“No! No fighting, no magic duels, or whatever a flash cannon is!” barked the leader of the guards who had been assigned to watch the Troop, her brief thankfulness towards the sorcerer ended whatever the debacle had been about to unfold already at an end.
“Ah, of course captain. My sincerest apologies” the sorceress said as she dismissed her illusion, before saying to the Troop that “and my apologies to you as well, I did not mean that as a challenge, but as a demonstration of my talents. When it comes to enchanted mirrors, if you need one of the defensive variety, I may be able to make precisely what it is you need. Certainly something far more durable than vanity mirror you have strapped to the young vai’s arm”
”Well why didn’t you say so!” Bowser replied with a waft of a hand, before telling Kamek to ”Put that me away, we’ve finally found the right lady to ask about this” prompting the mage to grumbilingly dismiss his magical creation, much to the sorceress's relife, as she knew that her glamor made minion would have stood no chance against Kamek’s much more solid construct.
She didn’t let it show, however, and instead boasted that “indeed you have!” before turning and inviting them to “come, my home is this way, and within are the defenses you will need against this luminous foe.
With their assent, she led the way to her sandstone abode, slipping past the hanging bead-covered doorway, entering her home and getting away from the prying eyes of the crowd. Within was a fairly basic setup living space wise, cramped in by multiple sets of empty shelves. At least they seemed empty till the sorceress reached forwards and drew a book from the illusion warding her most prized possessions.
She set the tome down on a worn desk and flicked through it, pausing only for a moment to warn a curious jr “there’s traps in there too, so don’t go sticking a hand in if you want to keep it,” before finding what she sought.
“Here we are: The Mirror of Long Lost Battles” she told them, as she turned the book to show them a diagram of a warrior using a full length mirror as a tower shield, one out from which a second warrior was in the midst of lunging to strike at an unseen assailant.
“Far more durable than a plain metal shield, self repairing, and, as a bonus, capable of generating warriors to distract your foes. All you wanted and more, no?” she said, which got several over eager nods from the royals, while Kamek was more skeptical ”a diagram is all well and good, but can you make one? And what will it cost?”
“For me, 10 of these” she said, as she plucked a set of silvery gems from another glamored shelf and placed them on the desk, where they shimmered with a pink and purple aurora, before adding “from you, bronze and silver for the base materials, gold for my services, and something to barter for these gems. Mere gold will not suffice for them, I need an equivalent exchange of power, magic for magic”
That got them grumbling from the other, but Kamek was mostly nonplussed as he reached into a pocket and placed a handful of his own gemstone the table, two white, around which the constant wind blew, three purple, out of which a skull started, and four green that caused the wood of the desk to sprout leaves.
“Hmmm, air and death are not my specialties, I will need to trade those onwards or convert them at a loss of power. Nature is good. Still, more” she proclaimed, hiding her delight at gaining even these, causing another grumble from Kamek before he added 3 amber gems that shimmered with the light of a trapped soul onto the table. She looked thoughtful for a moment, prompting another sigh, and the addition of a poison cloud scroll by Kamek, which, after some inspection, got a nod from the woman.
“Good, very good. Now that is left are the metals, and, of course, my fee” she replied, preparing to up-sell them the other materials before Jr leaned over and commented ”Don’t we have that refined metal stuff, it seemed pretty good, right?”
”Ah of course, well remembered young Master. here” the mage said as he re-enlaged two sets of refined metal and placed them on the table.
“We would require specifically silver and-” the sorceress began to say, before pausing and correcting herself “No, wait. I see, I sense the potential and purity in these too. How intriguing. Those will indeed do nicely for the materials, now all I need is to be paid for my services”
More grumbling, only for Rika to pop a strange rock she’d gotten atop the pizza tower onto the table, saying ”Do you want this, I keep forgetting I have it, and it only works when running, not jumping about like I’ve been doing”
”Ah, well, if you are sure, but I’m sure we can cover whatever small extra cost we are accruing with gold, geo, or souls” Kamek replied, attempting to put emphasis on small.
“Souls?” the sorceress asked as she paused her inspection of the Little Disciple, prompting Kamek to hold out a hand holding in a sum of 900 of the ephemeral currency. The shimmering light of them reflected in the sorceress’ eyes, before she moved a hand to take them, paused, and then offered to shake on it instead, saying “with that, you have yourself a deal, and my best work, that I can assure you” quite sure she had just made a killing.
”It’s a deal” Kamek replied, clasping the offered hand and shaking it, quite sure they were the ones who had come ahead in the end. Really only time would tell. Specifically the amount of time it took the sorceress to create the item, which involved a lot of magical circles, chanting, and other magical classics as she worked her power.
While she did, the troop enjoyed the shade and privacy of her home, and either took a rest or played some video games, depending on their proclivities.
Soon enough there was the unmistakable flash and feel of magic, and it was done. Sitting within a burnt out spell circle, and surrounded by 10 now lifeless gemstones, sat the fruit of the sorceress's labor.
Tall as she was, the tower shield was framed with immaculately carved bronze, sporting the emblem of the Koopa troop at its top, namely Bowser’s face, which loomed over a plane of immaculate polished silver, that reflected both the troop and, shimmering around their own reflections, hazily reflections of Bowser’s minions … mostly in the process of being squashed by a certain plumber.
It appeared that ‘long lost battles’ could have two meanings, one of battles lost to the mists of time, and the other battles that had long ago been, well, lost. The troop certainly had a plethora of those to draw from.
Standing behind her creation, the sorceress was a touch confuse as to why the three koopa's eyes narrowed at the sight of it, then yelped in alarm as Bowser declared ”alright let’s test it out!” before swiftly cocking a shoulder cannon and unleashing a flash cannon burst at the offending object.
As he did so, one of the figures became clear in the hazy reflections of battles past, and a perfect mirror image of Mario leapt out of it. Right in the path of the bolt of light Bowser had fired. It slammed straight through the illusion and then into the polished silver of the mirror shield as the sorceress cowered behind it. It was the only thing that saved her from being blinded when the concentrated light bolt burst against the surface and the resulting light flashed back the way the shot had come.
There where several gah’s from the troop, except for Rika who had the passive protection of the essence of melted down sunglasses to shield her from the glare, so she was the first to observe how ”Oh hey cool, it worked”
There was a little pause, followed by a cough from the sorceress before she regained her composure and replied that “of course it did” even if it hadn’t really reflected the shot, mainly endured it. Still, Bowser for one was delighted (once he had wiped his eyes clear) declaring ”Gah ha! That was great! Let me blast another Mario!”
”Perhaps another time your glaring-ness, I can’t imagine the city guards will be very-” Kamek began to say, right on time for one of the guards to pop her head (and spear) in through the door to check if everything was alright.
“Everything is fine, nothing to worry about. I was just concluding a deal, assuming my clients are happy with it?” she replied, before glancing at the troop, who all nodded in agreement. The guard narrowed her eyes, made a gesture indicating ‘im watching you’ at the troop, and then departed, prompting Kamek and the Sorceress to sigh with relief.
“Well then, a pleasure doing business with you?” she enquire as a polite suggestion that they be on their way, to which Kamek agreed ”A pleasure” before following up on her suggestion by making his own, namely ”I think we should perhaps be on our way? Can’t leave the others lingering too long without, ah, proper royal guidance” which got them moving.
A few moments later, and they were heading out to find the rest of the team, their new mirror shield strapped to Bowser’s arm, the king lifting the tower shield sized bulwark as easily as a smaller being would a common round shield.
The Mirror of Long Lost Battles: made from refined metal and empowered by glamor magic, this tower shield sized silver and bronze mirror (emblazoned at its top with the symbol of the Koopa troop) is incredibly durable, and can negate blows twice as well as mundane metal tower shield. Given time between battles, can self repair any damage it has taken (such as dents, punctures, etc) however if fully broken (say snapped in half) the magic will be lost, and the item unable to be repaired manually.
It is also 5% more resistant to light based attacks thanks to its reflective surface.
Within its polished silver surface hazy images of past battles can be seen. Whenever an enemy closes to close range with the shield wielder, one of the warriors will step through the mirror to defend them. Each opponent generates exactly one reflection, and it will generally attempt to take on the form of a warrior who once defeated that enemy, as long as that enemy could physically step out of the man-sized mirror. If this is not possible, another warrior related to the foe will appear instead, and if that is not possible, one related to the wielder instead. The mirror will also not produce duplicates of notable warriors (1 mario, unlimited goombas) and the reflections will dissolve either at the end of battle, or if/when the mirror is destroyed.
These mirror images have all the battle prowess and offensive abilities of their real life counterparts, but any wounds they inflict are as illusory as they are, and they only have a single hitpoint. However, even illusory wounds add up, and though the true damage is incredibly minimal, the illusions can still kill via a death by 1000 cuts, preventing them from being ignored entirely. The illusions are also ethereal in nature, making them difficult to actually strike with mundane weapons, 3 out of 4 blows made against them simply failing to connect.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”What do you mean it’s girls only? How are we gonna get a mirror now, huh?!” Jr complained before the gates of Gerudo Town while Bowser simply eyed up the town’s walls and considered the feasibility of simply busting in through them in order to go grab what they wanted anyway.
”I mean, I could go in? Scope the place out. Find a mirror store or something” Rika however pointed out, but the others would have none of it, with Kamek replying ”All on your own? Baddness no it could be dangerous to go alone”
”But Ganondorf’s going in with the others, I wouldn’t be on my own” Rika rightly pointed out, directing a large finger in the direction of the other king and the ladies who were going with him to see what went down, who where at that moment preparing to enter the town.
”Ganondorf going in is precisely why it might be dangerous. I highly suspect things will not go so smoothly as he desires” Kamek replied, entirely incorrect in this assessment as it would turn out (at last as far as the initial meeting went), but nonetheless it was a good point at the time, though not quite as good as he simple act that ”Besides, they are going to speak to whoever’s in charge no doubt, which isn’t exactly the place to go for mirrors”
”I guess…. Still. I can handle myself” she insisted, causing Kamek to press two fingers to his forehead in exasperated thought, before pulling them away and snapping them when he came up with a way to explain it.
”You remember how we were both so worried about the young master running off on his own down in the Ancient Pools that you ran straight into an ambush while hurrying after him? We would be like that, only unable to act on the need to regroup with you without doing anything drastic”
”Wait, you where?” Jr butted in, only to echo his sister when he claimed ”I handed myself just fine!” as well.
Kamek sighed again, and then tried a third strategy, reminding them ”So can the young mistress, but it is still, it's best we stick together. We are stronger together, and we all know how nasty this world can be, hosting everything from Robin Goodfellow to that Thing from the stars and the Maw” prompting a shudder from all (including himself) at the mention of that last name.
There was a brief moment of quiet before Kamek coughed into a close fist and then continued ”hence why I recommend we officially instigate a Buddy system. No groups smaller than two, that way we always have someone watching everyone else's back”
That got a round of nods and agreements without much complaint. The majority might still have not put two and two together vis a vi the others feeling the same supernatural dread whenever any of their number who went off alone, but the logic was sound enough.
”So uh, no mirror then?” Jr concluded after a few moments, bringing them back to the original point.
”It seems like that plan will have to wait” Kamek agreed, but Bowser was having none of it, declaring ”Bah, who needs lady-vill anyway! We’ve got plenty of sand and I’ve got plenty of fire, how hard can making glass even be?”
As it turned out, very, given that while Bowser’s flame breath was hot, it was not 1700°C hot. Not that that stopped both him and Jr from flame breathing a bit of the desert outside of Gerudo town in a futile attempt to melt it into glass. Not that would have helped either, given that they did not have silver to back it, but odds are that would not have stopped them even even if they had known it would be an issue
All they really managed was drawing the attention of a Pycko, which proceed to squeak at them an angry yet still adorable manner before blasting sand at some unfortunate shubs they’d set on fire by accident, smothering those flames in the process. It did not, it seemed, approve of their reckless fire slinging, despite its cheeks pouches emitting a constant stream of the stuff.
Kamek, then, would be very relieved when they all got the message that they could enter the town, putting an end to the whole farce, including what could only be described as a yapping match between Jr and the Pycko as the prince and salamander yelled/squeaked insults at each other from opposite sand dunes.
Rayne gave a sigh of relief once she’d helped the last of the farm hands get up and on their feet, wiping her brow clear of the sweat she’d built up flying around doing damage control for Fran’s reckless if ultimately, and one might say miraculously, effective cowgirl escapade. Not that it was over, of course, but none of the animals looked to be going anywhere in a hurry, all of them having been conked out just like the cows.
Rayne, naturally, set about helping out. It was while she was doing this, a chicken under each arm, that she happened to float by Fran and paused for a quiet word.
“So, um, I know things worked out, but they were a bit. Well. Chaotic, and I’d really appreciate a warning next time? An idea of the plan?” she asked, trying to be polite even though it really had to be said. The issue was that, well, it seemed that doing so would be tricky for Fran, so she decided that it’d be best to prove that issue, because at this point she was pretty sure it was going to be a permanent one “or as much as you can manage of one? I, um, hope this isn’t touching on a sore spot but the whole, not talking much thing. Can you explain what the deal with that is? Or does the deal stop you from explaining it well? I don’t suppose you can write, or draw or sign language or something to get around it?”
Rayne looked rather sheepish throughout all of this, aware that she could very well be coming off as rude or annoying, asking questions Fran had doubtless have had hundreds of times. Despite this she insisted on pressing forwards regardless because if they were going to be in situations more risky than just herding animals, she really wanted to know where they stood regarding communication.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
Midna and her minions chomped away at their burgers while watching the people go by, all ravenously hungry after a morning of high energy activity. It wasn’t exactly royal fare, but then she wasn’t exactly doing typical royal activities either, and so she needed the energy dense food to facilitate all the running around she’d been doing. It certainly beat the granola bars she’d been fueling a lot of said activities with by a long shot, that was for sure, causing her to idly wonder if it would be ethical to free and recruit a random chef specifically so they could have good food at a moment's notice.
Probably not, she concluded.
At any rate, after eating her fill the princess set about looking for something to pass the time and wind down now that all the essential tasks she’d set herself were dealt with.
Sat astride her wolfos’s new saddle, having been recommended to break it in before trying to actually fight it, she rode through the streets seeking entertainment. Unfortunately, though the town seemed to have a fair amount of things for sale, be it food, drink, or items galore, there was a distinct lack of things like, say, spas, or theaters, or other classy time wasters, at least where the princess ended up roaming. So she ended up mostly window shopping with the time she had before everything went back to hell.
Hell arrived while checking out a set of pens containing colorful creatures that where apparently made of paper mache and confetti (the latter of which Midna had to deduce where the hundreds of little bits of colored paper that made up their fur, as had no idea what either of those two things actually where) and had a big taste for candy. Despite several looking like farm animals, they were apparently being sold as collectors items rather than as creatures to be exploited for food and labor. Very expensive collectors items as it turned out. The call she received in the middle of this might have been bad news then, but it did at least mean that Midna had a good excuse to bail rather than having to talk her way out of explaining she had nowhere near the amount of money needed to buy one, regardless of how pretty they were.
”Sorry, just got a… what was the term… a call! A psychic call. About an urgent meeting with a consul, so I have to rush, bye!” she told the shopkeeper, before dropping her wolfos into a portal, stepping into the shadows, and finally vanishing from sight before the seller could get a word in edgewise.
Moments later, she reappeared on the top deck of the Virgin Victory with plenty of those 2 minutes to spare. Once there she found Sandalphon had already claimed the highest vantage point, and so joined her on look out, pulling out her Therian Viral Rifle to do so. She wasn’t exactly going to hit anything with the marksman carbine, she was well aware of this, but it did have a long range sight on top that she proceeded to use like a spyglass to scope out the situation.
First thing’s first, she looked up to the clouds. Having remembered the way the Virgin Victory had apparently been chased by a storm, she wanted to see if there was anything up there, driving it. Some storm riding ship or great electrical dragon, perhaps. Sadly, even if there was anything up there, the clouds, naturally, obscured if from sight, and so all she saw was lighting arching between those same clouds, causing her to flinch away from more than just the light.
”Right, that” she murmured to herself, a sense of dread creeping up her spine now that she’d gotten a physical reminder of her inherited fear of that element. In response, and almost without asking, her lightning proof Flygon slipped out of a portal and joined her side, hunkering by it both defensively and reassuringly.
Its bulwark against electrical damage was enough for her to raise the scope back up to her exposed eye, sending it roaming across the town again til a tap on her shoulder and a point from Sandalphon set her gaze on the door of the bar Geralt had left behind, right in time for said door to swing open and reveal the armored form of the consul.
On hand was occupied by a large, round, golden shield that made Midna, and only Midna, uneasy merely at the sight of it. The other was unoccupied, allowing it to be casually raised and then snapped. The storm above flashed and rumbled as something above responded to its master’s call, but Midna did not see it, for instead she had dropped her rifle in shock, the weapon clattering to the ground as memories of a death that was not hers arched across her mind. Of sword, shield and lighting all flashing as they took Urbosa’s life.
She stumbled, a hand finding the back of her crouching Flygon, upon which she steadied herself, pressing another hand to her heart in an attempt to still its frightfully fast fluttering.
At least, she thought as she clenched her eyes, blocking sight of storm and master and focused her breathing to calm herself, at least he didn’t have a sword as well.
Central hub: Smash City Alcamoth Accessible locations: Peach’s castle Limsa Lominscuttle Town Lumbridge Twilight Town Kosm’s Beach
”Wait but what about kirby?” that was jrs first question when Kamek relayed the information they’d received from Asgore. They were doing so not upon a paper boat, or on stag back, but instead in a little catcafe (a cafe for cats!) which served all sorts of delightful drinks as well as snacks galore.
Outside cats pulling trains and cats not pulling trains went about their day, fortunately not all swarming to take them down this time. The others were out there somewhere as well, most likely hunting pons, but the troop had delegated that to Minions, specifically Kamek’s toadies.
That left them plenty of time to catch up on important exposition (the trip here having been taken up mostly by first consoling and then listening to Jr complaining about his near drowning experience) hence the resulting Kirby question.
Kamek sighed upon hearing it, having failed to explain general relativity to his king, only to have an idea, pushing his spectacles up, causing them to flash in the light as he grinned.
”Why by using time travel of course young master!” he lied, or perhaps simplified, depending on how you looked at it ”In order to outrun Galeem’s shot, he traveled so fast that he raced into the future, hence avoiding multiversal annihilation by simply not being here when it happened. It being a spur of the moment thing however, it seems he overshot the start of all this by quite some time. Who knows how long really, but Asgor claims it has been a lot. In people years anyway, I imagine it has still been the blink of an eye compared to the age of our own universe, hence how Kirby’s landing was a bit off”
”Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Jr replied with comprehension, while Bowser asked instead ”why didn’t you just say that the first time instead of going on about how, uh, something about going fast making time slow or something?”
”Oh, ah, because I needed some time to process it all, is the thing. My apologies for doing such a poor job earlier” Kamek lied again, before getting ahead of the next question and saying ”and no, I can’t just build another time machine and travel back in time to fix things, because we had no idea where the cliff face upon which Galeem first fought is, if it even exists at all any more”
”Lame” Jr complained, while Rika asked what was probably a pretty key question, which was ”So how are we going to avoid that? The light I mean? Because that’s very fast, right, and papa couldn’t avoid it last time. So what do we do when we go fight Galeem?”
”Last time was a fluke! A cheap shot! This time I’ll, uh, um...” Bowser replied, before failing to actually find an answer and scratching his head and failing to come up with an answer
”Couldn’t we use the time machine for that?” Jr asked, making Kamek grimace for a second about how his white lie was coming back to bit him, only to actually think about it for a moment.
”It wasn’t exactly combat capable. However… Perhaps we could use something like F’s rewind? To undo the beam attack when it occurs” Kamek theorized ”but any kind of time based solution would take, well, time to develop, not to mention resources and a magical workshop to perform my work in, none of which I am sure are available. Gallo and his Tower are the only real instance of magical learning we have really seen now that I think about it, myself and that dingy little dungeon excluded”
Suddenly Bowser pounded the table, causing their half finished glasses to jump into the air and land back down before he declared the solution he’d thought of ”A big mirror! That overgrown disco ball tires to blast us with light but then, ha, gotcha, big mirror to reflect the beam right back at it”
”I, well, hmmm” Kamek attempted to object, and yet failed to find any real objections to the base principle other than that surly Galeem was to powerful to be foiled by meer glass and silver, resulting in the others running away with the idea ”We could make you a big shiny tower shield!” ”or maybe reflective armor?”
”Oh dear” Kamek murmured as he rested his head on the table as they kept going, only to perk back up when his toadies appeared, carrying their collected spoils, namely the pons they needed to get a ride out of here.
”Ah thank badness. Looks like it’s time to hit the road. Or the rails rather” he said as they entered, before rising and saying ”let me just go settle the bill” before going and doing just so.
While he was at it, the royals received their pass paying pons from the toadies, after which Bowser demanded to know if they had seen any mirrors.
They had not.
”We’re going to a desert though, right? And you make sand out of glass… right? So they might have some” Jr pointed out, which enthused his father, who clapped him on the shoulder with a ”That’s my boy!” before declaring ”Let’s move out troop, we have a train catch!” and setting them on the path towards the yellow line.
Then they came back a couple of seconds later because Kamek was still fussing with paying.
But after that was done they were off to sunnier pastures!
“Oh shoot they can’t hear me, um, Rayne said to herself as she floated above the wall, looking down at the still deaf people. She pressed a contemplative fist to her mouth, while holding the elbow of that arm with her other hand and tapping a foot in the air as she thought, before doing some low grade charades
She used a pair of fingers to mimic a horn on her forehead, before sweeping her hands down a bit like lighting, used two fingers to mime cow horns, made a scared face, mimed something running away using her fingers, did the gesture for Fran again before miming shouting very loud with both hands cupped around her mouth, miming the running away thing falling over, placing her cheek on two hands like it was a pillow, before finally giving a thumbs up.
It looked very silly, but that probably helped stop people worrying more than an actual explanation of the mess the latest addition to the imported heroes number had first caused and then, mostly, solved. It also meant that the woman in question was mostly done electrocuting people into wakefulness when Rayne turned back and had something new to worry about.
The thumbs up really did not help. At least all the loud noises seemed to have stopped
“Gaia give me-” she began to sigh, before pausing, remembering Gaia was gone, and correcting “me give me strength I guess. Not like she was listening before anyway” and then did indeed give herself the strength to go down and keep helping.
“Everyone ok? I think it's over” she asked the farm folk as she drifted to and fro, checking on their health and state of mind, giving a reassuring smile and a helping hand to stand even while she was very unsure about how to handle Fran. Things seemed ok now, but she needed to take the woman aside and try and see if she could impart some caution into her.
Virgin Victory teleport room Top of the Split mountain Outside the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage Tostarena Town S.O.U. Building Seiran Clinic Underground Roadway (Seiran Rebel Base Outskirts) Below City of glass entrance (plate maintenance tunnel) Vandelay Campus (Alleyway) Arahabaki’s entrance Deep Ground - the Source
After Midna returned to the ship and finally got away from Midgar, she found herself wandering the town, looking for something specific. Not food, she’d done that before, no she wanted to make use of something that had been languishing in her inventory since the split mountain inorder to solve a certain problem she had.
That was how Midna found herself looking up at a powerful looking woman who was running a smithy on one of the town’s streets.
”Hey, I was looking to get some armor made, specifically for a wolfos of mine. Can you do that? I can supply materials” she enquired. The woman looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodding and giving a thumbs up, before heading Midna a bit of worn paper, much to the princess’s confusion as to the lack of verbal response.
She asked what it's deal was, only for the woman to point at the paper with cheerful insistence, prompting her to examine a small set of images depicting an amateurish if not half bad depiction of the woman herself and a few other figures first conversing with squiggles in speech bubbles representing their speech, only for some abstract force to ‘steal’ the squiggles, leaving them all unable to speak to each other.
Then there was another sequence where they tried to write to each other instead, only for the force to steal their writing as well, leaving them with just drawing and gestures, something that was represented by, among other things, the women drawing this very retelling of her story.
As Midna’s first exposure to the medium of comics, it wasn’t a half bad one.
”That’s terrible” she said once she was done, only to quickly clarify that she ment ”your curse I mean, not the drawings those are really good” which got a laugh out of the woman.
”So, right, I can work with that, if you can work with these” Midna she said, before pulling out all the disparate crafting materials she’d gotten her hands on over her travels; some Chitinous Shell, rolls of draconic Deegahla Hide, a vial of Mordant Dew (a deadly venom), the strange PSI Core and Card that where probably related, the Ice Geode and, a after a moment, also the Other Suppression Data which felt crafting material-y but she really didn’t know if it would be at all useful.
It did feel a bit like a pile of junk now that she looked at it, and it certainly felt like the moment for making use of the other suppression data had passed which she kicked herself about a bit, but she hoped that some of it might come in handy with making use of the rolls of hide.
She also summoned her wolfos who’d be the subject of the crafting for her to examine, explaining ”I use it as a mount, so making the ride smoother on top of making it tougher is a pretty big priority”
The blacksmith nodded, looking the beast over for a few moments, before then going over Midna’s haphazard items pile. The hide was immediately put off to one side after getting an approving nod, as was the shell after she gave it a sniff. As for the rest, well the venom and Ice Geode were put in one pile, and the PSI and other data got some weird looks before she gave an apologetic shrug.
”Yeah I thought so. Maybe the Midgar refugees will be interested if we run into them” Midna said, and was then prompted to give a quick explanation of what had gone down there (without mentioning her own involvement of course)
”So, what’s that pile for?” she then asked, regarding the geode and dew sitting in their own pile. In response the blacksmith pointed at the hide and shell, and then shook her head, before pointing back at the other items and mimicking a sword slash and then flexing her muscular arm.
”Good for making weapons instead? Strong weapons? Huh ok, I could do with a good sword. What can you make? With them” she asked, only to get a shake of the hand gesture she interpreted as meaning ‘not so much’ followed by the blacksmith flicking her hand up, which she interpreted as ”More? Need more materials?” and getting a nod.
It made sense those two where pretty small, she’d probably only get a knife out of them, assuming you could even make an actual weapon out of just those materials
”Well, I could always get some more stuff. Or do you have anything that would go good with them? Iron or bronze or ..?” she asked. In response the smith vaguely gestured at some supply boxes, before giving a thumbs down. When Midna didn't get it, she pointed at the geode again, flexed again, then pointed at the boxes and made a limp wrist gesture.
”So you don’t have anything as good? You sure it wouldn’t be fine to just go with-” she started to ask but the woman shook her head, and then held up a hand before quickly starting drawing something. Midna waited patiently for her to finish, and was then presented with an equation of sorts, only with pictures instead of numbers, with geode + dew + glowing metal and gems equaling a very impressive sword, and one where those two items + wood and scrappy metal equaled a dull blade. With stink lines coming off it.
”Is it really that bad? Surly the good stuff raises up the bad” Midna replied, which got her a raised palm and a headbob of ‘technically’ before the smith pointed at the drawing of the crap sword, then at her items, and then mimicked chucking them in her bin, which made her point well enough
”Be a waste huh?” Midna understood, before shrugging and saying ”fine fine I’ll keep them and keep an eye out for more strong stuff” before directing her attention back to the hide and chitin and asking ”But is that enough for some good armor”
The smith raised one hand up (held flat to the sky,) pursed her lips and did a bobbing nod to indicate it would be ‘pretty good’ before looking about for a few moments and then finding a measuring tape. With it she took a whole bunch of measurements of her beast to get its exact dimensions, and then did some scribbling of a design. She also cracked open a box to reveal some regular leather which she added to the diagram, indicating it was for a comfy saddle, complete with stirrups and a storage pouch. After a bit of back and forth on whether that would be worth it when she had portals, they’d rejigged it so that the pouch mainly acted as a place she could safely open portals without having to launch and catch things. After showing her a few of her weapons in the process of the prior discussion, they even added a set of dedicated weapon holsters for her two auto-pistols. Oh and also strapped a cardboard missile launcher to the back of the armor, and slapped the spit sticker under the saddle when they identified it as being able to empower creatures, resulting in the beast getting a nice little boost in ranged firepower.
After that, there was a brief moment where Midna wondered how in the world they were going to work out a cost, but fortunately while the smith’s words had been stolen, her numbers had not, and so a price of 500 zenny was agreed upon. A fair chunk of her funds, it was true, but freeing up a hand in combat and toughening up her beast were both definitely worth it.
Once they were all done planning, the actual crafting of the armor took a mere 10 minutes. The hide was tanned, making used of the shell as part of the process rather than as additional armor interestingly enough, and then the resulting material was forged into a set of scale mail that covered her beast from snout to tail, while still leaving said tail and snout exposed for sniffing and balancing purposes, along with its legs for unrestricted mobility.
After a quick little test ride around the smithy, the princess was very satisfied with the blacksmith’s. Good, quick and friendly service, and comparatively cheap to boot. She was very much considering popping a portal here specifically so she could stop by again if she had any more crafting needs.
That said, while eminently affordable, the princess wasn’t exactly flush with cash either, and so the transaction left her pretty close to the red. She was flush with stuff however, and so her next step was a quick ride around town till she found somewhere to make some of her own sales. She ended up outside the wagon of a traveling seller of trinkets and baubles because, when you boiled it down, that was most of what she had on offer. That she wasn’t using anyway. The idea of trading away any of her bulging armory didn’t even cross her mind.
A manikin hand and Jester cap where pure novelties truth be told, while she managed to convince the woman that the psi-card and core where going to become valuable now that there was a load of Midgar citizens, many psychics among them, on the way, while the abandoning of the city would also make the Other suppression data rather rare, and thus potentially valuable.
She then quickly stopped by an armor merchant to sell the Horned Ice Helm no one had been interested in as well.
All told she ended up with 3400 more zenny in her pocket, which was absolutely nothing to be sniffed at, that was for sure. Particularly when she had 3 hungry mouths to feed (hers naturally included).
Rather than find somewhere to sit in for a meal, the princess ended up getting her and her two living minions some Mozzarina Cheeseburgers to go, before finding a rooftop to perch on and watch the people below go about their days. Doing so made it fairly easy to find her when it came to rounding up the group, assuming those doing so looked up, and certainly would make it easier to spot anyone else in the group who was out and about as well.
Drifting Pollen
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