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9 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 3181(+3) (+15 encounter exp)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (50/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////// (36/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////(43/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino
Blazermate and Queen Sectonia
Level 6 - (13/60) +3
Level 1 - (9/10) +3
Location: Guild Hall/Casino



Artifex, and the legend of the first bug


At first there was an ant. Just one. None could say where it had come from, but ants do have a tendency to get anywhere and everywhere if you let them. And so because no one had decided to ant proof existence yet here it was. This particular ant found itself in a sea of green in the shade of the greatest tree in existence.

Now ants are simple things, and are not known for their great wisdom or intelligence, but this ant did know two things. First, that it was utterly alone and second, that this should not be the case.

And so it wasn't.

The lifeblood bubbled, simmered and then boiled across the realm of nature, forming first into more ants and then into all other insects in the blink of an eye. Bees, bettles, butterflies and more burst into existence and then tumbled to the ground as the roiling sea of lifeblood washed out from the ant and over the land that the Tree of Genesis had blessed. Insect kind shared a singular brief beautiful glorious moment of unity as they marveled at their suden miraculous genesis before they immediately turned on one-another and began competing for resources in a deadly war for dominance and survival.

Only a few retained a fraction of the first unity. Greatest among them were the ants, who together built their home at the base of the greatest tree, digging tunnels around its roots where they tended to gardens of mushrooms, raised their young and sent out foraging parties. Out in the wilds they found the termites who gnawed at the flesh of lesser trees. The ants were abhorred by this sacreligious destruction of the genesis tree’s lesser kin and so the first war began.

As below, so to did this story play out above as bee found the wasps and in so doing began the war of a thousand stings. Soon these conflicts spilled over into one-another and the land and skies around the Tree of Genesis were filled with death as millions of slaughtered each other in battle after battle, much to the first ant’s dismay. All it had wanted was to not be alone. It had not wanted this, this death, this destruction, this misery and torment such as bugs could know such things. Aging and decrepit it raced to the center of a battle where the four sides were all locked in eternal struggle beneath the great tree and cried out for peace. Had they not all once been one, it cried, had they not all once had unity. Where they are not the last vestiges of civilised bugs. Could they not all work together to build their homes and shelters instead of tearing each other apart!

Miraculously, they did. For just long enough to tare the first ant to bits instead. Truly, it seemed , nothing would bring the bugs together once more and yet, from that death, from the death of the first ant, nay, the first bug, something bloomed in defiance of all that had been wrought.

They met in secret for the first time on that very day. The first council of bugs made of those who had seen, or heard, of the first ant’s death and saw not the death of a fool, but the martyrdom of a hero! Ants wasps, bees and termites. Workers, soldiers, princes and princesses. All came in defiance of their kind to build something in the first ant’s name.

But what they asked, could they do together to honor their memory.

They could build a home in secret where all could live in harmony! And yet all new that they would never be able to hide forever.

They could fight in the name of all bug kind. And yet then they would only be another side in the war. Small, hated, and soon crushed.

What then could be done? All they could do was remember, and, perhaps, spread the word. Spread the first ant’s vision so that others may know of it and join the bugs of unity.

Soon carvings began to appear across the realm, then small statues of splinter and grass. Then, as their numbers grew they too grew bolder, carving greater works until their number grew so great and their members so proud that they swarmed together one day on the site of the first bugs death, forging a monument that towered over all. A titan of stone, an embellished image of the martyr with the face of an ant, great horns like the jaws of a termite, the eyes of a wasp and the wings of a bee.

Look, the bugs of unity cried, look upon the statue of a hero and witness what their vision can achieve! Come to us, they cried as every one of their kind gathered around the statue. Come they did by the thousands and yet even as their ranks swelled the angry and hateful bugs drew closer, come to tare down the first bug once more.

They died there, fighting side by side. Ant beside termite, bee beside wasp. They died in droves, sure that they were right, sure that the first bug fought with them and that sure they would survive, sure that this time it would be different, and yet die they did, til the final bug drew its last breath, the name of its hero on its manables as it fell.

And when that last bug fell the armies that had slain them, the armies of ant, wasp, bee and termite, continued to fight one-another, trampling the corpses of the bugs of unity as their endless war raged on over the stone body of the one who had tried to unite tuem.

And then the statue opened its eyes. With eyes full of contempt it gazed down upon the murderous bugs and said, ”If division is all you desire, then division is all you shall have”

With a wave of one of its colossal hand ants ceased being simply ants. They become fire ants, leaf cutter ants, black ants, brown ants and so many other kinds of ants. So to where the termites, wasps and bees sundered, becoming a thousand species of insect where but a moment ago they had been four. The bugs recoiled as friends suddenly became foreign creatures worthy of hat. Then with a wave of his other hand the giant bug sent the insects to the for winds, scattering them across the world so that their wars many never ravage the Tree of Genisis’s lands to such a scale ever again.

The first bug, joined now in perfect unity with a billion faithful souls, looked out upon what remained of the battlefields of and ruins of now abandoned super hives. It sharply raised one of its massive forearms skywards in a fist pump, causing stone cubes to rise from the earth, and then thrust its final unused arm forwards, shattering stone and revealing a field of statues commemorating the fallen who had given their lives in the name of peace and unity.

Finally, it was done. The great bug rested its arms by its side and looked up at the Tree of Genesis that had towered above all this time. Now they, like it, were a god.

”We… I am Artifex,” the construct told the tree, before giving the colossus of nature a polite bow, ”You have borne witness to my fist folly, but know that this time, this time things will be different.”




the Beast Pen's arena, being Colosseum, defiantly has a roman style bath house attached to it for post training rinsing and relaxation
K
EDIT:
Nevermind, i was being a dumb.


What was it. What did you say? I still got the mention and it's taunting me.


“Well then. That was highly alarming.“ Kaldora said to herself after Chuunitrixx decided to leave their conversation. She stood there for a few more moments with a hand on her temple before taking a deep breath, steadying her emotions and set off for the Beast Pens at a brisk walking pace.




“Ever so sorry about the delay my Darlings” Kaldora apologized to Zouyu and her vampiric kin once she arrived. “I was having a conversation with Chuunitrixx and, well, I’m sorry to say that things look like the times will getting a tad more interesting than they already are”

Kaldora then proceeded to quickly describe the conversation she had had, where the Mimic had attempted to convince her to secretly form a police force consisting of Sun200’s vampires and her own mimics that would keep the peace. Kaldora aired this without opinion and without the attached insult that they would be paid for this labor in human-esque blood and was glad to see that her own rejection of such a plan was mirrored by her kin. Most of the conversation that went on was about the lack of time and resources or a general disdain for the very concept of a police force but it was Arthanar who hit the nail on the head.

“Ah knew this would happen” he insisted. A few disbelieving objections made him rectify his statement to “Ah knew something like this was gonna happen. Someone was bound to get too big for their boots or want to be in charge instead of the halfblood and cause a big mess.”

Kaldora nodded “That was my analysis as well. Even without us involved such an endeavor is bound to cause upheaval and raise potentially violent objections.”

“Definitely don't want no coppers sneaking around. Especially mimics. Bloody things could be anywhere spying on us. Decent folk shoulnt have to stand for their business been looked into!” Arthanar declared, receiving a chorus of ayes from the assembled hunters before the hunt’s master asked “yeh did not agree to this, did you?”

“Of course not” The Vamipresse, who spent her days clad in a pirate captain's uniform, replied. “In fact when she attempted to bribe us with the blood of her human impersonators I’ll admit I got rather heated with her.” Kaldora continued. Her mention of Chuunitrixx’s suggestion that they be compensated with the blood of the survivors of the apocalypse rousing a bout of jeering and indignation at the very thought of such a thing from the beast blood drinking vampires.

“Precisely.” Kalodra said once the outburst had burned itself out and it would no longer be dismissive to keep talking “Now. Some ignorance of our way can be expected and excused,” she glanced towards Zouyu, ”But it was a reflection of her complete disinterest in our own circumstances when forming this plan that would involve us. All in all she came across, and you will have to forgive my language here, as an arrogant child. Simultaneously clueless and yet cock sure she knew what was best for everyone.”

“Then we don't need to worry so much about this brat then. Bet she’ll piss everyone else she tries to talk into this”

“If we are lucky she’ll self sabotage and make many enemies. But her talents are both uniquely suited both to subtifuge, as Arthanar already pointed out, and acquiring power via military expansion. As I learned in the meeting she already has a number of external settlements. She’s growing while we are barely staying afloat”

Arthanar grimace before asking the question on all their lips “So... what’r we gonna to do about this?”

“Uh, can we even afford to do anything about this” Agathina, the armored vampire woman who had overseen Rodias’s training exercise asked. “Because like you said, our food situation is still far from adequately resolved. You remember the calculations I did right? We’re far from sustainable.”

“Indeed. The health of the beast pens come first.” which brought relief to the faces of the assembled beast tamers, but concern to others, mostly hunters. “But, we cannot sit idle on this either. So for one thing, Zouyu”

She turned briefly to the only living person in the room “I’d be delighted to train with you once we return. In fact I have some ideas that we might allow us to synergize rather nicely.”

“I think we all might be in need of brushing up on our combat capabilities, particularly in conjunction with the beast we have access to.” she then told the others “Just in case.”

After receiving agreement to this plan and a few minor suggestions regarding it from the crowd she finally added “Also, Agathina, i think we should bring forward your idea to enquirer with the other departments as to what aid they can give to our current supply problem. It would be good to check that they aren't also about to cause trouble and politely enquirer about Chuunitrixx while you are at it.” the armored Vampire nodded in response and had to be politely stopped from going on at length about her ideas as to who could help and how.

After a touch more discussion during which everyone was allowed time to digest what had been discussed Kaldora brought things to a close “Well I believe that's all that is all we can do on the matter for the moment. For now, we have work to do,” she said before approaching her dark unicorn mount and hoisting herself into the saddle.

“So let’s go hunting.”



The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 883 (+2) (jr still asleep)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (32/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (18/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(25/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino


”You made a scarecrow?” Kamek asked his green clone as it showed off its creation while nodding vigorously in response to the mage’s question. The arms of the scarecrow were made of two hoes, while it’s torso and foot were made out of the pitchfork stabbed into the ground. All 3 farm implements were tied together by the spotted whip and had then been covered by the shirt. Finally its head was the scarecrow head, of course, which had been topped by the summer straw hat.

”Why?” Kamek asked with bemused exasperation. The clone began to launch into a series of hand gestures in which it attempted to covey the fact that it had been presented with the bits to build one, and thus how could it not do so. As it failed to get this concept through to its creator Bowser joined in with the dice rolling. Together the team were getting close to maxing out the board but as fate would have it the game was over before anyone could be declared the winner.

First they received an onslaught of reinforcements. Linkle’s informing the townsfolk of what was going on had paid off massively in the end, with the onslaught of faces familiar and new culminating with the Houndmaster attempting to arrest the so called Guildmaster. Gneidxick retaliated by summoning legions of chess/card combo themed monsters and Bowser got himself hyped up for seeing what the dice headed head honcho’s final phase was when someone else decided they did not like the game being played and decided to flip the table instead of let it continue.

As the horde of heroes and token evil teammates were busy picking themselves off of the floor the table flipper showed herself to be one of Gneidxick’s associates Kamek had theorized existed, though she did not seem like the gambling type. Infact she seemed incredibly displeased by Gneidxick’s actions, berating him for acting like a person he was not. With actions and words she rapidly broke their adversaries’ will and herded him off into a portal of darkness before any of them could do much of anything about it.

”He’s nobody? Nobody nobody nobody. Now why does that strike a cord?” Kamek muttered to himself half remembering something the master of master had said the day before as he finally found his feet. After he did he quickly glanced around and located his masters and his minions.

Fortunately, they were all to be found in the same place, Bowser having moved to his dozing son’s side when the final brawl had threatened to loom, putting him in and among the dry bones and Kamek’s clones. The mage dismissed his undead minions before they could cause a panic or draw the ire of any of the adventurers and pointedly ignored the Green clone’s waving its scarecrow around in such a way that conveyed that it was convinced had scared off the Gneidxick. As the white mages picked their way through the crowd and silently patched up any light injuries people had received during the kerfuffle Kamek joined Bowsers side. The king was cradling the the sleeping jr (and by extension Mimikyu who was standing guard atop jr’s shell still) in one arm and carefully scooped their treasure into one of his pockets using his free hand.

”Who just up and leaves right before the final fight!” Bowser asked after the two had exchanged simple greetings to confirm that they were both in one piece.

”Someone is just going through the motions, or so it seems.” Kamek replied before looking at the dozing form of jr with a touch of concern ”Is the young master still asleep even after all that?”

”Yeah. Pretty lame that the first propper bad guy we meet is just a fake.” Bowser replied before completing his treasure collecting and waving a single wave of acknowledgment to the small number of individuals with naturally colored eyes who’d arrived with the friendly army of influenced heroes. Kamek nodded and then scratched his chin thoughtfully before theorizing that jr was under the spell of ”Some kind of enchanted sleep perhaps?” as a result of his complete lack of understanding what drugs were or how dangerous they could be.

He did not get much further than that before the arrival of two individuals with drinking vessels for heads arrived through the doors of the now regular sized casino. Their brief conversation with the courier added additional details to the Gneidxick situation, because apparently they knew who he was. Or, Kamek theorized, who he had been. Or who he was based off. The mage was left deeply in thought as he mulled all this information over while Bowser focused on the much more immediate question Cuphead’s arrival.

”IF YOU WANNA HELP THEN YOU CAN TELL US WHERE IN THE WORLD THIS CASINO IS? BECAUSE I DON’T REMEMBER TOWN WHAT’S ITS NAME-” ”Lumbridge” Kamek absentmindedly injected, still pondering away ”-LUMBRIDGE HAVING A GIANT MINI-GAMING HALL IN IT. OR UNDER IT.” Bowser asked the new arrival in his usual booming volume.
@Lugubrious
id love to add Kaldora and the pens to Tabula's ever lengthening list of people/places to visit.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1354(+3) (jr is napping, no xp for him)
Bowser: Level 6 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (30/60)
Bowser Jr: Level 5 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////// (18/50)
Kamek: Level 5 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////(23/50)
Location: Gneidxick‘s Casino


”Not looking like a conveyor belt so far” Bowser noted with relief after he took in their surroundings, which appeared to be some kind of magician's lair.

There was no time for additional commentary however, as Gneidxick clearly wanted to get the show on the road. His hand plunged down into a top hat that was about as large as the Koopa King and pulled their opponent out of it.

”Giant animal. Classic” Bowser commented when confronted by the oversized bunny rabbit magician, while Kamek merely grumbled about that being his gimmick as he quickly mounted his broom and took off into the void filled with cards and roses surrounding the table. Unlike Bowser’s previous foe the oversized rabbit did not introduce themselves. Instead they let out a bout of manic laughter as they unleashed their fist spell, beginning the summoning of several rabbit skull shaped skulls around Bowser. These began to rapidly rotate around the king as they formed, phasing through the floor as they did so and in so doing making it abundantly clear that they were also forming below him even if he could not see them.

”Hey no fair, you can't just surround someone with projectiles like that!” Bowser yelled at the rabbit but the bunny seems to have little interest in fair play. Instead with another wave of its wand it completed the conjuration, causing the skulls to cease spinning and instead begin to closed in on the king.

The bunny cackled evilly as the ring closed in on the rapidly panicking Bowser until a call of ”Sire. Over here!” caught both of their attention. The rabbit scowled at the other magician, only for shock to suddenly grip its features as Bowser leaped sideways(!) into the void, laughing as he soared towards one of the other floating cards.

”Welcome to the third dimension cheater!”

As the ring of skulls crashed harmlessly together the rabbit ground its teeth together angrily before shouting wordlessly at the Koopa as he crashed into a floating card and barely managed to hold on as his momentum caused it to drift out further into the void. Then it formed another ring, not around either of the Koopas but instead around the card floating on the table, after which it gesture wildly to the gap at the bottom of the circle it had formed through which Bowser could have escaped. Then it crossed its arms and stared at Bowser angrily because in the rabbit’s opinion it was he who has cheated by going out of the bounds of the stage.

”Oh come on how was I supposed to see that!” Bowser yelled back as he continued to float away into the void. ”Don’t put the gap under ground next time!”

Several more bouts of yelling and gesturing resolved nothing as Bowser insisted that the rapid spinning made it impossible to see the gap and asking how was he supposed to know he had to stand on the card in-order to dodge the first cheap shot. This all gave Kamek plenty of time to sample one of the giant flowers. They tasted rather good in the wizened turtle’s opinion. His second breakfast was rudely interrupted however when the rabbit decided they were done with words, or rather frustrated about their inability to speak them in order to argue with Bowser, and went back on the offensive.

With a slash of their wand they formed a row of card suit symbols just ahead of them and then sent them hurtling out into the void after the now rather distant Bowser. One of these symbols was pink, but seeing as neither of the koopas were familiar with the mechanics of Gneidxick’s universe this meant absolutely nothing to them. Instead Bowser did as he had done before, launching himself from his card to another one before the line of symbols scythe through his former position, causing the two haves of the card to plummet down into the void.

”ALRIGHT IT’S ON,” Bowser roared before returning fire from his new perch by taking a deep breath and spitting out a massive fireball at the bunny. The weightless projectile rolled through the sky towards the rabbit who, after a short moment of sweat inducing panic, grabbed the sides of the hat he was in and hooped it to one side like they were in a sack race. After they came to a rest the two glared at one-another for an intense moment, which ended as Kamek’s own contribution, a swirling mass of 3 colored shapes, slapped into the rabbit.

Hostilities immediately erupted for a third time, with the rabbit sending wave after wave of projectiles at Bowser as he leapt from card to card, while simultaneously forcing Kamek to fly around avoiding rings of skulls. Meanwhile Bower and Kamek returned fire when they could, fire and magic bombarding the tabletop as the Rabbit bounced too and fro to avoid them. This went on until Bowser started running out of cards.

”Uh. Um. CHARGE!” he yelled, before launching himself back towards the table top, leaping from card to card as rings and waves tried to blast him to bits. Then with one final leap he hurled himself at the rabbit. Instead of dodging the rabbit saw their chance to end this and instead forming a wall of projectiles in front of the incoming turtle. In response Bowser retracted into his limbs into his shell and then, at the last second, Kamek cast enlarge upon him mid flight. The flying spiky shell increased in size for just a moment and then plowed thought he shots causing the spell to lose its potency. Bowser instantly shrunk back down immediately but thanks to the spel they made it through with only a few scratches to his name rather than suffering grievous bodily harm.

Bowser smashed into the stunned rabbit, rendering it literally stunned as the collision sent the bunny reeling while Bowser fell back down to the table cloth with a thud. The bunny shook its head to clear the stars floating around it’s skull, and then, once its sense quickly returned to it, grinned evilly. The turtle was out of cards to jump between, it thought to itself, and now he was trapped on the table where it belonged. Victory would now it’s to claim! This thought lasted right up until the point where a second not quite as massive hat was plonked down on top of it’s own, trapping it between both of the hat’s velvet interiors. Then it felt both hats were being lifted and before it could do anything the shaking began. The horrible horrible shaking.

Outside Bowser, enlarged by both his and the now static Kamek’s channel enlargement spell, gabbed the top of each hat and lifted them up while keeping their bottoms pushed together so that the rabbit could not escape. Then he began shaking both of them like a cocktail mixer.

After a minute of vigorous mixing the rabbit could take no more. A minute after that it finally managed to jab it’s wand out of a crack between the hats. Bowser immediately gabbed for it but discovered that it had not been poked out to blindly attack but instead to wave around a white neckerchief tied to the end in surrender.

In response revived and Thoroughly scrambled rabbit was unceremoniously deposited on the back onto the table by Bowser. With the thread dealt with Bowser immediately began to shrink back down as Kamek ended his spell and flew down to join his master, though not before he retirved one of the floating roses for a post brawl snack.

”Another spectacular victory over Gneidxick‘s minions your majesty” the wizard congratulated his king.

”Yep. That's what happens when you mess with the best!” Bowser replied smugly before tossing the rabbit magician’s wand, which had shrunk with him, to Kamek ”Here. Least we might get something useful out of this.”

Kamek thanked him and then, after a tap with his own wand to adjust and fix the size of the wand, popped it into a pocket in his robes. While the two had been congratulating themselves and mugging their foe the portal had opened leading back to the center. The two turned to go, but not before Bowser laid out some more criticism.

”So yeah, make the ring gap more obvious. Also no idea how you were supposed to deal with the walls in a flat plain. You need to put some work in if you wanna measure up to the best!” he told the bunny before hopping through the portal after Kamek, ready to spin the dice once more.

They missed the conversation between peach and Gneidxick by a long shot, but arrived just in time to watch as the green Kamek clone put the last touches to its very helpful creation.
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