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7 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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wordcount: 1,134 (+2)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (27/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Inner-Mountain


Midna found herself nervously chewing on her lip as she watched the pair ascend past her up to the top of the chain, and her nerves where in no way helped by the way the ship shuddered beneath them at one point, which almost tipped her and her wolf-dran off of their perch on its near vertical deck.

”Goddesses,” she murmured after steadying herself, before then calling out ”are you both alright?” to the climbers.

Fortunately it looked like they were and soon enough Raz had climbed up into range of the frozen chain, and offered a (big) hand to Therion to get him up as well. One they were up she drifted over to follow them and found Raz chipping away at the ice binding it using psychic blasts. It was an impressive amount of power, coming from a kid, but chipping away was definitely the right description.

”That might take a while” she noted, and then offered ”want me to try and take a swing instead?”

She got her chance when the boy got distracted by falling skeletons. She wasn't sure what was up with that, but she was fine with taking over the ice freeing. After all, her wolf-dran was down there, and if the kid wasn't find on his own, she was sure the dragon dog would be able to keep him safe.

She was too focused on thinking about how best to deal with the chain to put two and two together as to why there were skeletons falling out of the ship until a little while later.




Down below the wolf-dran pelted through the ship’s hold, an lovely selection pile of juicy bones held in its jaws while a veritable swarm of very, very, very angry glowing skeletons chasing it, who either ran after it and tried to grab it with their one remaining arm or did their best to crawl or one leggedly hop after it to do the same. This did not end well for them, as the twilight bone thief was agile as could be and lead them on a merry chase, dodging to and fro and, intentionally or not, matadoring several right of the edge of the ship as the limb lacking undead failed to compensate for their new weight distributions and went plummeting down onto the ice below.




Back up at the mast, Midna had given the ice a few good punches, and then thought of a better way to deal with this that involved less exertion. The less energy she burned on action, the more she had to keep herself warm after all. Plus her new plan would help with the cold problem in its own way.

”Goddesses, I can smell it through the mask. Who in their right minds would ever drink this stuff?” she complained as she emptied the bottle of dwarven rotgut all over the ice holding the chain, the incredibly alcoholic booze freezing on contact with the frozen water. But not for long. The princess summoned two weapons, in preparation for her cunning plan. The first was the clubba club, which she held in her shadow hand, ready to use it as a ball and chain again in the same manner that had proved so effective against her new chillfos minions. The other weapon she summoned was the smaller of her two knives. This little blade she pressed the flat of the blade of to a gloved palm and charged with lightning for a moment, and then with a thrust hammered a bolt of lightning bolt into the ice. It chipped away at it meekly… and also caused the frozen rotgut to ignite violently.

”Ahahaha yes, burn!” Midna giggled a little maniacally, pausing for a second or two to enjoy the heat of the fire she’d started, while letting it work away at the ice for a few moments, before winding up the clubba club and swinging it around in a 270 degree spin and sending it smashing into the ice, before turning and rotating it all the way round again a full 360 of momentum building in the opposite direction before hammered into the rotgut thawed ice once more, this time shattering it int a million pieces and sending a shower of burning ice all over the area.

Including the wooden boat.

It was both a good thing and a bad thing that Raz came out when he did. On the one hand the force of the chain breaking loose played havoc with everyone who wasn’t floating like Midna, causing both of the humans to both go plummeting towards the ground, with the princess able only to futilely try and chase them down towards the icky floor below while crying out in horror. Fortunately, the boy psychic proved to be full of yet more tricks and though his bubble left things far too close for comfort for Midna’s heart, it did save them from being shattered on the ground like the skeletons.

”Goddesses, that was too close” she called down to them and then landing down beside them to say ”I’m glad your both safe, but maybe don't stand on a mast while it's being hammered on next time?”

She was going to actually apologize for nearly killing them with her reckless plan next, but sadly that was when the other half of the consequences of her reckless plan caught up with her. Or rather, her Wolf-dran did, still hauling its bone based loot, and then promptly bumped its head into her back and tried to shove her away from the ship.

”Hey, what’s gotten into you? And what is with those bones that’s gross!!” she complained at first, turning to swat at its head, and only got it when she followed its snout and gaze when it looked pointed up at the glow of light coming from the ship.

There found the reason why it was a good thing Raz had left the ship when he had, because said ship was currently in the process of catching fire due to the almost napalm-like qualities of the scattered dwarven rotgut causing it to refuse to go out and managing to heat up and ignite even the frost bitten timber of the ancient ship.

”Oh… fuck” she swore, this bad enough that she forgot Sectonia’s comment about her unprincessly language for a moment, before mounting up and telling the others that ”Time to go!”

If it was any consolation, the rest of the yellow team’s battle with the creatures of the dark wouldn't be lacking for light much longer as the ancient vessel began to really burn as the trio of chain freers left it in the dust. Especially when those flames found some of the old black powder stores, because that was when the fireworks really started.


The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,348 (+6)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (155/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (169/80)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(9/100)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika




In and out, dodge and strike, hit and run. That was the name of the hero’s game. Chip away at the monster, one drop of blood at a time, and eventually, they surly prayed, it would bleed its last drop. It was a game that the badguy’s present knew all too well, but that didn't mean they were going to join in.

Unfortunately one of their favored strategies, just hit hard and rely on being tougher to tank anything they throw at you, hadn’t worked out too great. Another of their strategies, just stay out of reach and pelt them with stuff, was also about to be proven ineffective as well.

That moment came during a sudden lull in the fighting, when everyone coincidentally was doing the run part of the hit and run at once, leaving the Orphan without anyone tussling with it, which at first looked like a boon to the shooters.

”Mimi copy me!” jr commanded, before raising a hand up in the air and then shouting ”eat this!” and slamming his fist down on a big red button. A cannon deployed from the clown car’s mouth and shot a flaming clown head shaped balloon, which was quickly followed by a smaller pikachu styled one and a standard cannon round from Rika. All three hammered down onto the Orphan , kicking up a cloud of sand and smoke.

”You like that you creep!” Jr taunted down at the orphan as it burst from the smoke screaming. And then it was jr who was screaming ”It can fly!?” as the monster hurled itself into the air right up towards them (with a jump so good it made Mario look like a goomba in comparison) far faster than either could react.

With one grotesque hand it grabbed onto the car’s rim, and when jr leaned forwards to look down it found that wizened face leering up at him. Then it smashed its club into the side of the already sinking car, causing the whole thing to lurch in the air.

”Gah! Get off get off get off!” jr shouted as he hammered the controls to try and do something, anything, to remove the monster. Drill arms deployed front he side, only for one to be smashed off by the second blow. The other, however, rammed itself into the Orphan’s side, and then a moment later the mouth of the car opened up and extended a whirring saw blade that jammed itself right into the monster's ugly face, spraying viscera everywhere, which honestly just made the whole situation even more of a nightmare.

As Jr’s machine tried to slice the horror apart his friends tried to help him detach the monster, from atop the prince’s shoulder Mimi clawed away at its face with her long tendril like arms. Meanwhile Rika swooped closer, hammered it with a Brachydios slime splattering gauntlet punch before unloading all of her guns, and one glob of spit, right into the Orphan’s back, shells punching into and detonating inside its flesh, while the hail of rifle fire added more venom to its already poison laced veins. Despite their efforts the nonplussed horror simply sung its blade a third time, which caused a bang to bark from the clown car. Sparks burst off of its machine arms that turned limp a moment later as the whole vehicle started leaking smoke and sinking even more rapidly.

”No no no no!” jr panicked, desperately trying to find the necro smasher as they began to go down. With one flying pest dealt with, the Orphan launched itself off of the car and right into a horrified Rika, dragging her and the toadies carrying her, down with it.

As jr spiraled down out of the air to crash land somewhere off in the distance the monster and the abyssal slammed into the sand. Rika’s spine was only spared from snapping because the toadies who had been carrying her acted like airbags in their final moments, cushioning her fall and bursting into magical dust in the same time. That did nothing to get the Orphan off of her however, and neither did much of anything else she tried to do. Even with her hall blades flailing at it and it's back literally exploding when the Brachydios slime went off, it took a sock to the face from Bella to prevent it from simply cleaving her pinned form in half.

As the princess and the street cat held the Orphan’s focus Rika scrambled backwards through the sand in a panic, only to find a pair of arms wrapping under shoulders and pulling her up.

”Up you get, Rika. I’ve got you” came the reassuring voice of Kamek as she and a white mage clone helped pull the ship girl back onto her feet. The clone helping her directed its wand at the wound on her waist and sent a curing spell through it, while the other three pointed at Bella and caused a burst of magic to race through her, reassembling her shattered hand in a single pulse of sorcery.

“Thank you-” Rika breathed shakily, her nerves shook by the incredibly close call, before starting and asking simply and worriedly “what about jr?”




(a few moments earlier)

”Wow wow wow waaaaaaa!” came the cry from the sky as the koopa prince came spiraling down out of it, leaving a trail of smoke bleeding behind it.

”Hold on jr, papa’s coming!” Bowser called up to him as he pumped his legs as hard as they could go as he ran after the path of the descent, before leaping the last several meters between him and his son, snatching him out of the air with the skill of an expert receiver and turning so that he landed on his back, which skidded through the sand and then rapidly came to a stop close to the back of the cove.

”See, I gotcha” Bowser said, as his son gave him a hug out of sheer relief, before coughing at the smoke leaking out of the clown car.

”Oh, sorry, let me get that” jr said, before shutting down the machine, but unfortunately that did not improve much of anything, ”gah, stupid-” jr growled , but stopped himself from doing even mild cussing infront of his dad and instead ”Thanks for the save, dad. But can you put me down so I can fix this?”

The king nodded as he lightly laid the vehicle onto the beach beside where he was lying, before pushing himself to his feet. As the king picked himself up off of the floor jr hopped out of the car, and then grimaced upon seeing the extent of the damage. ”Urg that… rotten jerk really did a number on it huh…” he said, before doing a calculation in his mind and then saying to his number one minion ”Hey, Mimi! Go with dad and give that that stupid ugly old fart a couple dozen claws in the face for this, yeah?”

“Mimi!” the mon replied with a little salute, before hopping off his shoulder and up onto Bowser’s own via climbing the mess of spikes, domes and tentacles that was the king’s shell.

”So how do I…?” Bowser started to ask, not actually knowing that much about how to best use Mimi, but his son was already on the case

”Kamek knows, just hand her over.” Jr insisted, before reassuring his old man ”Now go. I’ll be fine”

The King nodded, knowing that, most of the time, this was true, and started jogging back into the fray, heading specifically for where Rika and Kamek were in the midst of glancing back at him and jr and being relieved the young prince was OK. Right before the sand exploded behind them, causing them both to start back and away from the still far from neutralized threat that had brought both fliers down.

This was far from over, and the Troop were going to need to work together and pull another villainous tactic out of the (evil) bag if they didn't want every clash to end in the broken mess the first two methods had resulted in.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,112 (+6)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (149/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (162/80)
Kamek: Level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(93/90)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika


”What? No, I was just going to… do something way smarter than that. Obviously!” Bowser insisted when Geralt interrupted his attempt to initiate the fight via shoulder tap. The blustering from the king that the Witcher caused gave the heroes/professional monster hunters of the group time enough to put themselves in front of the Koopa King so they could put their expertise to work in handling the grotesque creature.

As Ace gave them some weather based support, Link cautiously edged into the boss’s line of view. The battle began with a howl of rage from the orphan, who charged forwards with monstrous speed as soon as he saw Link and in doing so leaping clear of the volley of fire from the ranged shooters, resulting in the team getting no kind of alpha strike on the boss.

”OH COME ON!” came a frustrated shout from jr, who, along with Rika and Kamek, were loosely spread out on and around the rocks on the far right of the beach. It was a deliberate attempt to try and get more angles of fire on the monster, the Troop to the side while others where more directly behind it, but despite their efforts the Orphan quickly thrust itself into the cover of the melee fighters, preventing much of any shooting from going on, at least from their current position, at least from the volume over accuracy strategy that the troop employed.

While them being in close proximity to the orphan stopped their allies from shooting, it was probably better this way, because if they had all been shooters the unflinching horror would have been on them and tearing them apart in moments. As it was, it first had to tear apart the brawlers, which, to be fair, it seemed to be more than capable of doing.

Its first blow with its horrid bioweapon rent the earth where Link had been standing, and though the hero dodged that first swing he was swiftly grabbed and hurled aside by its free hand with inconceivable strength. That was only the beginning. The monster began swinging its blade like a man possessed at Geralt and Bowser, both of them big obvious targets for its ire.

The King stepped a half step back, Ace’s rain giving the bit more speed that he needed to avoid the first wide sweep. Slow on the uptake and still arrogant as ever however, he used the motion to wind up a punch and then drove the strike forwards, only to get cleaved in the side by the Orphan’s back swing as his blow connected.

The flash of the Malow sticker boosting his punch's power was little consolation as the king’s eyes went wide as an almighty cracking resounded through the cove. As the King was physically hauled to the side by the remainder of the force behind the orphan’s swing there came a collective gasp from his family who could see that one quarter of the king’s shell was a labyrinth of fractures, the Koopa’s royal armor ruptured from that one blow alone, its guns and tendrils utterly crippled. A second segment joined its ruptured state a moment later as the Orphan swung a third time, cleaving the reeling King’s other side this time, and then came in for a third that might have been the end, only for magic to suddenly pulse through the king.

To the side, Kamek’s white mage doppelgangers had raised their wands and pulsed a burst of healing magic into the king. His shell stitched together just in time to be broken again, but this pulse gave the king just enough time to stumble back and for someone else to get the focus of the Orphan. The healing magics also had one more effect, which was that Bowser’s long ago acquired Spore Shroom Charm ate a little of the excess magical energy and pulsed out a burst of fungal spores in response, the resulting foe eating cloud acted a smoke bomb to cover the king’s retreat.

He stumbled back, clutching his side, as Bella came in and learned that the blows of the beast could not even be blocked, her hand being shattered for her efforts. Their only real consolation was that the Orphan wasn’t using its horrific speed to try and dodge, relying instead on its repulsive durability and sprays of blood gushing from its wounds acting like reactive armor and forcing away strikers and preventing them from comboing it or even sinking their hits in deep.

”Urgh, Ok, I take it back, this thing is worthy of being a boss” the king groaned between coughs as Kamek directed his white mages, who he was decking out all of his clones as after seeing just how bad things were going to be, to restore both the King and then any who Blazermate could not reach during the first few moments of the battle.

”All the power of that dragon packed into a small frame. Quite a dastardly foe this one” Kamek agreed, the mage much more calm than she had any right to be.

”Mmm.” Bowser agreed through clenched teeth, before getting a worried look and asking ”Wait, where are the others?” only to get a finger pointing up in reply

The Orphan’s strategy of carefully keeping the melee fighters between it and the shooters was a clever one, that was for sure, but despite being born of the sea it had failed to take in the vertical element in its scheme. So, as it swung its weapon around like a flail and forced the fighter’s to clear space around it, the young prince, his own little horror, and the mass produced mook gave it a lesson about looking up.

Look out below! Jr shouted as he hovered high above, well out of what he hoped was its jump height, alongside a Toadie carried Rika, before the fliers let rip. A quick burst of stinging, slowing goop from Jr’s freshly fueled spattershot hailed down alongside an electro ball from Mimi and a torrent of cannon and poison inflicting rifle fire from Rika. The shots showered down amidst the sweeping swing, and then again as it blasted people clear with the bloody sandy eruption, ensuring that even when it cleared itself some space, it was never truly safe from harm.

Down on the ground, Bowser was back in fighting shape, but at the urging of his advisor tried to play things a bit smarter, taking another moment to unfurl his shell back mounted turrets and raising them towards the moon, drinking in the eerie light of the cove so he could burn it all into the Orphan once he was good and ready.
Q-T Brackman


”The heck was that?” Q-T asked as she stood up to try and look in the direction of the roar, only to be blocked out by the taller humans doing the same. She sighed, and then digitally pinged a seismic monitor attached to the rover, which gave her a fairly good read on the source of the disturbance, though not really anything about what it was about.

Either way, it pushed the lax attitude of the crews outside the tent back to work or at least alertness. The roar had made the recording of the dragons they had been watching far more real, and no-one wanted to be caught flat footed if one was on its way with the anger of that roar in its heart.

Conveniently this meant they also weren't caught flat footed when the captain exited and started giving orders. About forming an expedition to rescue a human adventuring party of all things. Oh, and also they were going to be riding to their rescue on dragon back, in order to save the native humans from another dragon.

”Ride the dragon… oh right the dropships are borked and we don't have much else goes fast except for” she rationalised as she glanced towards the jet bikes, and noted that the one she’d used to initially meet the dragons wasn’t sitting there anymore, and instead had its owner mounted in its saddle and raring to go.

“I’ll give you an escort, yeah?” Neilsy said, her eyes glittering at the prospect of racing the dragon.

“An escort needs to be able to actually provide support now, rather than be a liability like you and that sport bike’ll be,” Came the southern drawled words of the ranking security officer in the impromptu camp. Her name was Bonnie and she’d already been on her way before Q-T pinged her, because they only let people with their finger on the pulse of things onto the security team.

“Nah, see that’s where you’re wrong” Neilsy retorted, fiddling around and then pulling out an equally sporty looking rail-rifle from a specialised compartment on the bike and hoisting it one handedly thanks to her suit “I’m fully qualified to use this, aaaand I’m one of the top 100 Bikathlon racers in the galaxy, thank you very much.”

”You might need something bigger than that for this,” Q-T pointed out, not in the mind to trust that small arms were going to cut it vs a dragon if it came down to that.

”Speaking of gear, if we are riding the dr- if we are getting transported by Miss Galmira, then I insist everyone wears a grav-drop harness. We’ve got a few, should keep us on her back and they’ll also make sure if anyone falls, they'll have a soft descent.” Q-T insisted, slipping into an ‘Astronaut babysitting specialists with no space legs’ routine to handle the absurdity of the situation, before popping into one of the larger rovers and retrieving said gear.

She came out hauling two megafauna pacification devices, which looked like what you’d get if a missile launcher and a harpoon gun had a baby. She had one held each of her upper sets of arms, leaving the bottom pair free for reloading using ammo which was magnetically attached to her body’s backpack like power supply or, in this moment, holding a bunch of harnesses covered in antigrav modules.

Highly adjustable, the harnesses easily fit over the armor of the small crew of security personnel Bonnie had assembled for captain escort duty, who had self christened themselves ‘dragon-rider squad’, and it just as easily fit onto Q-T herself as well, despite her inhuman frame.

That left the last person left to get one who probably should not be coming but, well, orders where orders ”So… this is the point that some is supposed to insist you don't go because you're too valuable to risk, right?” Q-T felt she had to say to the captain as she offered her one of the harnesses, which got a chuckle from Bonnie and her team. The captain clearly had something of a reputation, at least among the security teams, for maybe not being the most personal-safety conscious person onboard the ship.

As they did the other half of the rescue team/escort arrived, which was a small pack of jetbikes, lead by Riley, that fit somewhere between Nielsy’s bike and the captain’s bikes in terms of size and function, but these were all a lot more rugged, practical and standardized in appearance and make up when compared to those two machines.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 2,151 (+6)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (143/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (156/80)
Kamek: Level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(87/90)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika


Rika watched in slight horror as Link ate the lollipop in the most inhuman way imaginable, namely by biting the head clean off. She was 99% sure that was not how you were supposed to do that, and more importantly, fairly sure that teeth shouldn't snip through the stick material like that either. What in the world of light did that boy normally eat?

Bizarre eating habits aside, Link had more than just words to try and convince the princess. He had images of pretty landscapes that Rika had never seen to back up his pitch. Sakura, who had come with her, also had something to say, pouring out her endless well of enthusiasm in support of the notion that life was still worth living despite the horror that had been their former existence.

Nothing any of them said helped however.

Maybe they just made things worse.

New Southern launched into a tirade of bitterness in response to their good natured attempt of cheer. Much of the specifics of her grievances went over Rika’s head but the barbs directed at her specifically, that spiteful sympathy hailing down from on high, hit hard enough that the ship-girl had to take a step back. Her jaw worked, but she found no retort to come out with, even as Sakrua had to be held back from just punching the princess.

In the end her friend’s guiding away ended up being more of a drag away, Rika finding it difficult to just walk away from this battle of words. She might not be able to think of a retort now, but it was safe to say that this was going to stick with her till she did, a stubbornness in her mind refusing to be beaten and unable to simply dismiss New Southern’s words like Sakura. Despite her friend's efforts, the poison was already inside her mind.

Sakura’s words or reassurance were a comfort, and Rika returned them in kind, but in the end she needed another, more grumpy, fool to help start to set thing’s straight.




”That… makes sense I suppose…” Kamek was a touch embarrassed to have the nature of spirit’s exposited to him by peach, but then he snapped his fingers when he thought he had a counterpoint ”ah, but, you see, I did get magic from that Cia woman when I used it on my head” he flicked a hand and summoned a shadow clone of bowser from a portal ”see? How do you explain that?”

”I mean I guess it just modified the clone spell you already had to be better? It’s not like you can bring back the dead… properly… on your own so there was nothing to latch onto and give you more, ah, knowledge about how to do it better?” Jr suggested, from where he, having finished stretching, was taking a moment to fiddle with his gear, namly filling up his clown car’s splatter shot’s empty ink tank with goop from his magic paintbrush.

”I. Well. Perhaps? But then should this one have not also… well I suppose it was just down to luck of the draw, same as the items,” Kamek sighed, defeated and before complaining more generally ”It would be nice if Galeem didn't have such a human bias however. Where are all the other universes worth of Koopas? That’s what I want to know.”

”Well dad got his first set of cannons from a big turtle zombie, right? So that’s one. Maybe just keep an eye out for more?” Jr suggested as he slapped shut the splatter shot, which was now filled and ready for mess making once more.

”I suppose I must, I suppose I must” Kamek replied with another sigh.




Of course, it was one thing to find a creature who mostly fit your desired form, it was quite another to go about acquiring that spirit in a justifiable manner. Case and point the short, cute, scaled and robed Tonberries they found after everyone packed up and headed out would have been a fine counter to Kamek’s humanization. Unfortunately for him, attacking them and taking their spirits was somewhat out of the question, what with them being found among the vast congregation they found stretched out along the path towards the boss.

While they might have been passive now, most of everyone saw it best to leave them well alone for both safety and ethics reasons. Kamek might be a villain, but he was no Sephiroth, that was for sure, and so murdering the non-aggressive creatures wouldn’t have been on the table anyway, even if Galeem’s influence didn’t all but guarantee them getting absolutely mobbed by the others if they did do anything to provoke them. In theory anyway. Perhaps whatever enthrallment led them to bow down would make them obvious to each other's plight, but it wasn't like anyone was in a rush to test that hypothesis.

While Jr and Kamek hovered cautiously over the masses, Rika stuck very, very close to Bowser, as if getting separated even slightly from the troop would result in her bowing down like the other abyssals. It was a blessing that there were none of her specific kind among them. She wasn't sure what she would have done if she’d seen copies of herself among them.

The only one who wasn’t freaked out by all this was Bowser, who took one look at it all, said ”Huh. Weird.” and then promptly got over the strange sight and asked his mage ”Hey. Kamek. So do you know all about these plants now then?”

”uhhhh”

”Can I eat any of them? Because I could do with a snack after my nap.” Bowser clarified.

”I, ah, suppose the red looking ones” Kamek pointed at the bloopy fruits ”are probably edible” he suggested, an assessment mainly based on the fact that the worshipers’ mouths were sometimes smeared with the same cyan juice that several of the group, including Bowser, where trekking along the floor as they trampled the odd fruit on their way through. That and the fact that they looked like fruits, didn’t give off any “don't eat me” warnings as far as he could see and, after being prompted to take a sniff, didn't seem to have mind altering properties or poisonous stench ”hmm, yes. Fairly sure they aren't to blame for these one’s condition. So you could eat them if you feel like you must.”

”Great!” Bowser declared, before picking up the pace a bit to get to the head of the pack so he could get some untrampled ones, causing Rika to shout-whisper “Hey wait up!” and hurry after him.

”Hmm? Oh, sorry” Bowser apologized as he stood back up with a cluster of fruits held in one claw, before offering one to her as she rejoined his side, an offer to which she shook her head. She was pretty sure she’d be sick if she tried to eat anything right now.

”Suit yourself, more for me” He replied to her dismissal, before plopping the fruit into his mouth chewing it a few times and then swallowing and reporting that it was ”Pretty good. You sure you don't want one”

“No no I’m fine” Rika insisted

”You sure? I gotta say, you don't look fine” he asked, to which Rika responded by generally gesturing to everything they were passing by, but Bowser saw past that and pointed out that ”I mean even before that you looked a little upset.”

Rika sighed and, then after a moment, explained about New Southern’s whole deal.

”Huh. Yeah that sounds like some hyperfocusing right there. Real bad way of doing things, focusing on being a bad guy 24/7. I mean I am a bad guy 24/7, but you gotta take breaks and stuff. Even villains gotta go out shopping you know? or go karting. Go karting is great. Remind me to take you some time.” Bowser said, which got him a little nod but mostly confusion from Rika ”Look. That whole, made to be destroyed thing? I get that. Coz when it comes down to it, the good guys always win in the end. But you can't let that get to you, you know. You gotta keep on kicking no matter how many of your castles they blow up, because when you give up, that’s when you actually lose for real. Long as you keep fighting you still got a chance to come out on top. You feel me?”

“I. uh. Maybe? I guess I get not wanting to lose?” Rika replied hesitantly.

”And if you let that mopey crab get to you, that’s losing. So don’t. Live and be happy out of spite if you have to. Spite her and spite that princess you fought too, for having bad working conditions. I’d tell you to go kick her butt for putting you all through that, but hey, you already did!”

“Yeah, I guess did … but all these people are still being controlled by something, even if it’s just making them bow down and eat fruit all day. Shouldn't they be free now?” she asked.

”I mean the fruit ain't bad” Bowser told her, the king having already helped himself to seconds at this point. Him pausing his speech to eat while doing so had kind of put a damper on things. Or maybe it was just all part of an attempt at disarming charm. ”But anyway, pretty sure we know why this is happening. Big boss is that way, so this is all it’s fault and now we’re gonna deal with it”

”And then when we do you’ll be like, Rika: Liberator of the Abyss or something. And won't that be cool?” Jr chipped in.

“Huh. I. yeah that could work.” Rika said, getting a bit onboard with this. The title was a bit pretentious, but they had beaten the leader of the Abyssal fleet, something she had not been expecting to do at all, so maybe there was a future for all of them she hadn't even considered till now “I just hope they won't all be grumpy like New Southern” she added, mostly as an attempt at a joke.

”You might even say she was crabby, yeah! Yeah? Never mind. Look that's like, ⅓ of ya who were all gloomy and stuff… Or ok ⅔ but Bella came round, right? So uh, those are decent odds that they’ll be fine. Probably” Bowser said unconvincingly before looking up and asking his advisor ”Hey Kamek, those are good odds right”

Rather than answer, Kamek pointed out that ”Ah, sire, I think we’re here?”

”We are? Wait no we aren't, that's just a dirt wall you idiot” Bowser retorted, before glancing to and fro and seeing they were at a dead end. ”Hey, what’s the big idea huh?”

”Well this was the way they all are looking, and where the hand pointed. So. uh... I guess we get digging?” Jr suggested, before deploying a large drill from his clown car to do just that

”Maybe don't do that. I’d rather not disturb the, ah,” Kamek vaguely gestured to the enthralled worshipers ”let me do our part. Or. well. Let these ones do it” he said as he summoned a pair of shadow Bowsers, who quickly got to work with zero concern about getting unnecessarily dirty or tired, big clawed hands scratching through the dirt like mole paws.

Soon enough they broke through, out and into the strange otherworldly beach that had no right to be where it was, so far below where they knew sea level was.

”Eh it’s probably portals, or weird geometry or other dumb magic junk. Who cares. Where’s the Boss” Bowser said dismissively as he dumped the shrunken airship, which he had been carrying lashed to his back via tentacles, to one side of the entrance and prepared for a tussle.

As if stirred by their arrival, the Boss showed itself, via being expelled from the carcass of some great eldritch beast. Most of the metaphor/literal occurrence was lost on the Troop, none of whom had been born or even really knew what that meant. So instead it was just kinda gross.

That kinda applied to everything going on here, showing that ignorance really was the best shield against eldritch unearthly horror.

At least until it started trying to murder you.

Case and point, while the rest of the troop fanned out to one side, heading towards the water, and using the sobbing as an opportunity to prepare and position themselves Bowser matched right down the beach towards the thing (which he was somewhat insulted was considered to be on the same tier as him and the ender dragon) to go tap it on the shoulder and ask ”HEY, ARE WE DOING THIS OR WHAT?” if no-one stopped him and suggested an even slightly more intelligent idea of how to go about this.
@Dark Cloud

it was mao's sword. me dumb

wordcount: 3,364 (+4)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (25/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Baur’s Reach


Fortunately, the big frozen guy didn’t wake up, and Tora’s little insight about a certain master hand’s appearance being expected before any boss encounter put a stop to any thoughts that the frozen titan might be the guardian they sought. Of course, that did raise the concern of what, exactly, on this frozen mountain could be of greater power than the sealed titan.

They’d find out eventually, Midna supposed. For now, however, they still had a mountain to climb, or, to be more specific, a frigid catacomb to explore, as that was what lay beyond the precarious pathway set before the refrigerated giant.

Midna ended up scouting ahead of the main group, racing through the halls on her wolf-dran mount with such speed that she sped past many of the undead who by the time they rose from their tombs in response to her passing the princess was long gone. Instead she found the foes already up and on the march.

”Wait is that?” Midna said as she rounded a corner and came across a familiar foe, only to be forced to leap back when it hefted an icy spear and hurled it her way.

”Yep, that’s a chilfos.” she told her mount which was panting from the exertion of doing the rapid stop, turn and flight needed to keep its rider safe all in the time it took for the frozen undead to prep and hurl its weapon.

”Don't worry, we… I know how to deal with these'' she told it, before slipping off of her steeds back, taking a moment to pull the Clubba Club out of the twilight ream and then hauling it with her shadow hand. She got a wag of that spiky icy tail while doing a dragon dance for speed and then told the wolf-dran ”When I say, go,” before stepping back out round the corner.

The chilfos, which had been advancing after her, stopped and hefted it’s replacement spear to throw when it saw her.

”Yeah, that’s it, come on” Midna, who had slid to a halt as soon as she was in view, encouraged it and then, when the throw came, simply raised her shield and caught the thrown weapon on it.

”Ha!” she laughed before commanding her wolf-dran to ”Sick it!” and do so it did, bursting out around the corner, pelting up the corridor towards the chilfos as it was conjuring a new spear before leaping and grabbing its spear arm. With her target caught by the beast, all Midna had to do was step up, whip her head and hair around, swinging the Clubba club like a ball and chain and slamming the spiked mace’’s head into the frozen undead, shattering it to bits in a single blow.

”and done! Catch and smash, just like Link used to do!” she declared as the wolf-dran trotted back over to her, a frozen arm held in its mouth, ”ew. Spit that out”

It did so, and the princess remounted, popped the spirit away and declared ”If that’s all this place has to it this should be a cake walk compared to Snowpeak”

It wasn't




Midna’s scouting may have been fast, but unfortunately for her, wound up taking her deeper into the tomb, not towards the exit they sought. Still, she had speed on her side, a familiar foe to face and little propensity towards grave robbing to slow her down. Even the various pots did not call to her like they would have caught the eye, sword and/or combat roll of her old friend, but even the princess couldn't resist the call of a nice chest. Rather than stop and push them open however, Midna had a more rapid solution, which was to snatch chests off of shelves with a shadow hand as she passed, before reeling them in and then dump them to the twilight realm with a tap of her hand. This inadvertently worked as a convenient detection method for mimics, as normal chests didn't exactly have a tendency to mutate when exposed to the energies of her home realm.

As a result of her speed, she barely even knew the draugr were there. Not till she hit something awake that more dangerous than the lone chilfos, and that was a whole patrol of them moving through the halls, and at the center was a armored drugar with a one handed sword that seemed to be leading them, along with a handful of its shambling fellows bringing up the rear.

At least they were noisy, and so rather than running head first into them like she had some of the chilfos she instead slowed and merely peeked her head round a corner to get a look at them. Unfortunately this did her no good as the far too perceptive Scourge leading the patrol paused and start to glance her way almost as soon as she saw them.

She ducked back behind the corner, and sighed ”that was close” perhaps a bit too loudly.

The Scourge wordlessly halted his squad, and directed a trio of weaker drugar down the corridor to where it thought something that did not belong might be, while holding its better troops and ranged Chilfos in reserve. It turned out he had indeed seen something when the first of the three shambled round the corner and it was immediately slammed into the opposite wall by a giant glowing orange hand. If it still could feel it might have been shocked or surprised by the nature of the blow, but instead it simply ordered the other two regroup with him, at which point Midna sprung out on foot and performed a quick stab into the gut of one drugar using a silver dagger, which send a burst of lighting arching out though both it and the one just behind, but stopping short of the Scourge’s deployed troops.

”Sh-dang it!” Midna cursed at the lack of range, before bringing her shield up to catch the first spear and deciding to retreat as more of them started coming in, an exit that was partially helped by the two shocked drugar taking three of said spears in her stead before disintegrating

”Ok. Too close. We get the others and... wait what is that?” Midna said as she heard chanting and… felt magic coalescing. Cold and dark magic that should not be. She risked another peak around the corner and found a semi coherent formation consisting of of drugar at the front and chilfos at the back facing her, and behind it, the Scourge, in the mist of pulling something hulkling and horrible out of an infernal portal.

”Oh that’s bad” she rightly observed, and made a fool hardy split second decision.

A moment of charging a weapon later and Minda, shadow hopped into position. Then her shadow hand exploded out of a half closed sarcophagus next to the formation. With knife held in her teeth and shadow hand slamming into the formation of drugar in a downward slap Midna used the force of the slap to help her leap up and onto a chilfos, before gripped its handlebar like face with dragon clawed toes and then pushing herself further up to touch the low ceiling. A portal to the twilight realm formed, and dropped the clubba club out of it. The oversized metal spike ball on a stick slammed down onto the chilfos and then the mass of electrically charged metal went off like a bomb, blasting the squad with lighting.

As they disintegrated and/or stumbled the princess adjusted her jump with levitation in-order to get close to and kick off of the far wall and launch herself towards the Scourge to stop the summoning, only to find she already had when it turned its head towards her and, of all things, spoke.

“FUS” it shouted and the sheer force of the word foiled her wall jump attempt and caused her to smack lightly into the wall and then tumble back down towards the ground. As the abandoned summoning ritual faded behind it the Scourge approached, ancient enchanted blade in hand rising to strike her down. Then in came the cavalry as Midna’s wolf-dran came bursting through the recovering undead horde and caught the princess on its back, before dodging to the side of the Scourge’s sword swing.

The undead leader turned its free hand after them and blasted a stream of ice their way, against which the princess raised her Arctic Shield. The frozen buckler resisted the cold immaculately, and gave the princess time to direct a hand past the Scourge to outdo his summoning. Her only remaining unaltered wolfos burst from the twilight realm, size rivaling the ice archon the drugaur had failed to summon, and it used this size to plough through the other undead, scattering them yet again and destroying even more of their number.

As it raced forth she grabbed the knife from between her teeth and then barked ”You and me as- scraggly beard! Let's dance”

With the longer of her knives in one hand, shield in the other and wolf-dran as her steed it wasn't really a fair fight. She parried its sword swing with her shield, gabbed its attempt to spear her with a magical spike of ice using her shadow hand, her wolf-dran caught its leg to prevent it from kicking her and then she stabbed it in the chest with her knife, sending another blast of lightning spearing out along with her bow.

”That was too easy… Wait, why aren't you dead?” she asked the Scourge who was 14 times more durable than the weakest of his kind, right before his shouted “FUS!” right in her face.

Princes and wolf-dran stumbled away from the force, freeing the Scourge from her and its grip. He scythed his blade down again, which Midna barely caught on her shield and almost fell off of her mount as a result of the blow, discovering a problem with trying to fight with her arms while on wolf-dran back, which was was that she lacked any kind of saddle or stirrups to properly hold her there as thigh and tail grip could only do so much.

A problem she addressed in the moment by dismissing the wolf-dran from under her, causing an ice spike to wizz between the crests of her fused shadow.

Using dragon claws on her toes to reduce her slipping the princess dragon danced away from the while charging her long knife while the Scourge’s few remaining troops came to form up in front of their boss, all four of them Chilfos who had refused to shatter. For them she summoned her Vibrava. Scaled up it slammed into the ground, bulldozing the stone floor and unsettling and slowing both them and the Scourge before the princess herself came in again with a full powered blade.

She charged forwards and performed a dancing overhead with her sword, lighting cracking in it and causing two rows of electricity to strike on either side of her as she slipped through the ranks of the chilfos before bringing the sword down not on the Scourge but before him, prompting lighting to blast down on top of him and knocking him back. But she wasn't done yet. Instead the princess kept the sword blow going, spin stepping so that she and the sword did a 360 rotation and in doing so allowing her to perform another downward swing as part of the same motion, blasting the Scourge again. And again. And again. And then she was out of charge.

Having forced him back and gotten past the chilfos she darted to the side, grabbed the fallen clubba club from amidst the fallen spirits of his squad with her shadow hand. Then she hauled it around in a wrecking ball of a swing, smashing the last of the chilfos as they were recovering from shake and shock.

That left only the Scourge, and it was on its last legs already. She summoned her wolf-dran once more, but instead of riding it she and it ran in together, charging the undead leader side by side. He tried to chop her with an overhead swing which she blocked with her shield while her wolf-dran lept and caught its arm when it tried to use that to freeze blast her, and then she drove the knife up below its ribs and into his heart while she used a shadow hand to punch its head clean off.

And that was the end of that.




After her encounter Midna gathered up the fallen spirits and headed back towards the others. That had been more than enough solo adventuring in the tomb for her liking, and she said as much when she returned. When she did she found out Laharl was taking the drugar as minions and, not really wanting to fuse with them (unsurprisingly) and not expecting much from them from items she added hers to his horde.

That meant he got the scourge too, if he wanted it as a commander of his undead troops. If he didn't take it, she’d crush it using the mimic hat.

As for the chilfos, well, inspired a bit by Lahral she decided she’d also get herself some undead minions as well. She’d done it before after all, having briefly conjured an army of stalchildren, stalfos and darknuts to help her during that whole broken time debacle, but had quickly replaced them with the army of Hyrule after they proved much more effective. By beating her skeleton army during a misunderstanding involving a butterfly of all things. Now that did not bode well for the chilfos’s effectiveness, it was true, but she was sure she could make use of a spear volley or two to help mitigate her lack of ranged capabilities.

Once that was all out of the way, someone had at last found a way out, which took them through some underground tunnels full of obstacles that demanded deft jumps and platforming prowess. A demand she could happily ignore in favor of popping floating along opening her chest collection to take a peek at what was inside. Not that this was entirely unhelpful, as one of the first things she found was a odd bottle that allowed anyone who strapped it to their person to perform a double jump using a blast of freezing air.

This she tossed to Minamoto who she thought would need it most, what with the man having to jump around with wheels for feet and all, which likely needed a bunch of course correcting. Also as a minor repayment for the band of friendship she was wearing.

Another held an incense burner with plenty of packs of fuel to burn, which produced a scent that cleared the mind and she was fairly certain aided with mental magics. Razputin got that, and the unfortunate side effect of the smell reminding anyone who smelt it of a mime-like creature they had never met (and hopefully never would).

The final chest with items rather than treasure held hefty two bottles of something called Dwarven Gut Rot which nearly caused an incident when Midna popped open a cork and got herself and anyone nearby blasted with the unrestrained scent of mana infused alcohol. That was not exactly an ideal aroma to have assaulting your nostrils while platforming. In her analysis it might boost your mana regen, would probably make the Scout a very happy dwarf and would almost certainly kill anyone else who tried to drink it. The scout got one as a result, while she kept the other for dire emergencies. Maybe they could dilute it and make something less lethal

The rest of the chests held cash of varying value, from one bulging with five hundred solver coins shaped like lions, another with thirty odd futuristic gold coins, a third holding a single very large opal while the final one held dozens of pouches overflowing with gold coins!



drawn on playing cards.

Her final chest contained nothing but teeth, but unlike Tora she found that out after plonking it on a small outcropping surrounded by unjumpable bottomless pits. The chest that had been red had turned a telltale shadowy black when exposed to the darkness of the twilight realm and so, armed with the story of Tora’s encounter, she guessed what was in store. She reached out and tried to open it with a shadow hand’s finger, which prompted to pounce forwards with fangs bared, only to stop when it found its would be victim floating out of reach.

”Ha! Gotcha! You can’t fool me, and now you're stuck!” she told the chest, which started hopping about (interestingly enough doing so like it was a chess piece only able to move in cardinal directions in a set distance each hop) angrily, before seeming to realize its predicament. It paused. Saw that she wasn't killing it for some reason. And then resumed its disguise, thinking maybe it could lure some future fool up to this deathtrap of an outcropping.

”Ah ah ah, no you don't” she gave it a flick with her finger towards the edge of the cliff which prompted it to try and bite her again to no avail.

”See I’m wise to your trick, so I could just crush you if I wanted too, but feel this” she she held up a hand, tightened it and in so doing tightening a grip on the dark magic of her home infesting the monster before telling it that ”You. Are. Mine. I am the princess of twilight and you are now of my realm. So you will obey me or suffer the consequences. Understood?”

It really didn’t have much choice in the end, and so it ceased its attempted attack and instead sat there passively, mouth hinged slightly open as if to say “see I’m not trying to trick you again” in submission.

”Good chest,” she told it, giving it a pet as a reward. With her shadow hand. She wasn't trusting it quite yet.

”Now back home with you. And play nice with the others. I’ll know if you aren't, and even if I didn't, there’s more of them than you” she told it, before flicking a wrist and dismissing it back to the twilight realm.

With all that out of the way, Midna headed the rest of the way through the freezing caves along with the others. She ended up summoning her wolf-dran mount back and joining in the platforming for a fair bit of the rest of it, a bit to make up for her lack of comradely, but mainly because clinging to its winter adapted body let her steal some of its body heat.

It was upon its back that she rode out of the end of the cramped corridors and into the massive frozen mine that held the elevator they sought. Except it wasn't an elevator, it was instead some kind of clawed lifting mechanism, one who’s chain was frozen to the mast of a strange looking ship.

”How the f- how in Hyrule did that thing get all the way up here?” she had to ask. Ultimately that wasn't important however. What was important was that Rasputin and Therion both decided to climb up there when the group had people who could just fly up there present.

”I’ll go make sure they get up without getting into any trouble” she said, mostly to Sectonia, and then headed after them, letting her wolf-dran leap its way up the ice to the deck of the ship rather than floating up. No need to embarrass them in her opinion. Then she slipped off of her beast and left it on watchdog duty, keeping an eye on the rest of the ship, while she turned to face the climbers, shadow hand pulled out like a catcher's mitt just in case one of them fell. She also brought out the as of yet unused longsword she’d gotten from Mao, and set to charging it with electricity, readying it for battle with anything that wanted to mess with the two climbing lads.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,104 (+2)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (137/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (150/80)
Kamek: Level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(81/90)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika


Bowser didn’t hear any of Link’s mutterings about Ganondorf, which was the hero’s loss as if he’d been louder he could have learned a bit about one of his past selves and how he had also teamed up with the Garudo king in that very same adventure. To his credit, unlike a certain princess he didn't take to violence as soon as he learned that context-less information about someone teaming up with his universe's eternal arch evil and so the king was subsequently left to snooze, his sword in the gut free.

Well, after taking Blazermate to task for a bit for her “strategy” for dealing with being mind controlled.

”Oh yeah sure, let me just recognize I’m mind controlled and decide be mediocre. Why didn't I think about that half dozen times it’s happened?” Bowser replied sarcastically in response to her laziness strategy ”You know what you do when you get saddled with a pile of half useless schmucks? You carry them to victory, because if you're not gonna do it no one will.”

He tiredly jabbed a finger her way, before waving his hand once and letting the topic lie if she would. He needed all the rest he could get, especially for his throat. He really should not have swallowed that conch.

He got woken up again a bit later by his son’s raucous laughter, his brief annoyance at being awake in such a way being rapidly squashed by the thought of how nice it was to hear his dear boy’s mirth for the first time in what, thanks to the maw, felt like a long long time. Of course, this being Jr, the laughter was 100% at someone's expense, in this case, the freshly transformed Kamek.

”Really young master, it isn't that funny” Kamek was saying to the gawfing princling, who’s response was ”yeah it is! you look ridiculous!” followed by more giggling

Reptile (and Koopa) sexual dimorphism being what it was, namely basically non existent, meant it would take a while for most people to catch on to what had occurred. Even her voice was mostly the same. As a result Jr, and subsequently his dad once he caught onto what was happening, were mostly amused by the humanization of the wizard. That and the poofy tail out back. Actually it was basically all about the tail actually, it was very silly.

“It’s not that bad. You look kinda cute actually. But how come you changed so much when I’m mostly just me with new clothes?” Rika reassured him and then asked

”This system has something of a humanoid preference, it seems, on either the spirit or Galeem’s slide. Or both. Which, I’ll admit, is rather annoying for my koopa pride buuuut” the mage gave a stretch and then rolled her shoulders experimentally and was delighted to inform them ” I haven't felt this spry in near on a half dozen decades! Perhaps ever? If dropping a few scales is what it costs to be young again I can hardly complain.”

“So did it work? Can you bring people back?” Rika butted in to get them back to the point of all this.

”Hmm? Oh yes, that! Well let's find out shall we?” the mage said and then stepped over to one of the fallen crab spirits, picking it up and putting it on a rock before sweeping her arms out to clear some space. ''Stand back! And be ready!” she instructed before dramatically jabbing her fingers at the spirit in a wizardly fashion punctuating each subsequent flourish with ”Arise! Stand once more! Live!” to no avail. Then she strained her now very short beak and tensed her younger muscles with one last effort before giving up and breathlessly admitting ”ahhh, it's no good. I can feel something but… no. or maybe not yet? I did decipher more of Cia’s magic earlier, maybe I can do the same with this? Hmmm, what did I even get from this?”

“Oh. Well. Hopefully you’ll figure something out, or one of the others will” Rika replied, more than a little disappointed.

”Hmm, no I think that there's certainly something here that might be related. Something to do with herbs and…” the mage was racking his brains for newfound knowledge and then suddenly exclaimed ”Cooking? Really? How… stereotypical”

“Cooking?” she asked

”It seems I have learned an awful lot about living in and making use of the materials found in forests. Not something it would expect from a person dressed in white. Think of the stains, ech.” He shuddered at the thought before trying to reassure her friend ”I’ll keep at it however. I’m sure there's more to this woman than squatting in the woods”

“Oh. well. Good luck. I’ll, uh, go tell the other one that her friend isn't coming back any time soon while you do that?” Rika replied with a sigh, and then stepped away from the mage who was now being bothered about making a meal for the two royals, who then reminded them that the king had already eaten their one available cooking ingredient, only to find the crabby princess missing. “Oh. Huh. where did she go?” she asked herself and then, with her gauntlets strapped onto her back rather than primed and at the ready, set off to take a look, eventually coming across her speaking with Link further up the cave. Grimly too, based on the end of the conversation she heard involving her decrying life as not worth living.

“Wow, no hey wait! There’s way more to life than all that” she shouted as she hurried to join them “there’s friends! and fun! And forests! and food! and, um, well I’ve only been at this for a day but here. Here here here.” she dug around in her newly changed jacket, failing for a moment to find where her pockets had gone, and then pulled out one of her dwindling supply of lollipops and offered it to her fellow former abyssal “Try this. You put it in your mouth, like this” she got out one of her own to demonstrate, before pulling it out again to add “and then you lick it as it melts and it tastes so sweet and yummy” before popping the sweet back in for her own enjoyment.

Then she realized she was being rude and got out a third to offer to the hero of the wilds and saying “Right Link?” her words a touch muffled due to not being able to take out her own lolly as her her hands where busy offering the other two one of their own each.

The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 903 (+2) (kamek +13) (others + 9)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (135/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 8 EXP: /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (148/80)
Kamek: Level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(79/90)
Location: Bottomless Sea – Carcass Isle
Feat: Rika


”That. Was much to close” Kamek said, finally finding his breath after the incredibly close call they’d just had.

”Leave it up to the team with only heroes on it to leave things to the last possible second, huh?” Bowser replied with jovially, only to cough rather grimly and slump back down into a sitting position once more, the king having only been able to stand in the time it took for some of the others to rush forwards. Exhaustion and an eldritch conch in the gut really had done a number on the king

“So, uh, now that that’s all over, who or what even was that?” Rika asked the question that was probably on a few minds.

”Urgh, wont leave me a minute of rest will ya” Bowser complained

“Oh, sorry” she replied sheepishly, only for her apology to be waved off by the king.

”No, no, your fine. Ok look. So. That was the Master Hand… or just a master hand now I guess? Anyway, long story short hand guy was one of those spooky weirdo bosses where you show up at their house and they fight you for no reason. Then later me, Ganandorf and Wario worked with him to try and take over a bunch of worlds but it turned out that wasn't his plan, it was some guy called Tattoo or something who was pulling his strings. And now it looks like he’s just one of hundreds of identical floating hands that are all puppets of Galeem. Real villain decay kinda deal, poor guy” Bowser explained with general ignorance about and irreverence for the being who was something of a fundamental force of the universe.

“... what?” Rika had to ask, not getting Bowser’s rambling explanation one bit.

”Look. It doesn't matter who he was. Now he’s just a big floating hand who serves Galeem now and throws pre-area boss gauntlets at us now in order to be annoying. First time he threw some friends of some people who were with us at them, and then after that he had a bunch of shooty people, like Link and those two spirits Kamek has, to try and shoot us with guns that turned people into trophies in one hit.” Bowser explained some actually relevant information.

“So, uh, why did he phrase the whole thing as like, a test, to make sure we were ready for the boss or something?” She asked

”Eh. Some bad guys are just like that. Want a worthy opponent and all that baloney. Buncha idiots. Seriously, what I’d give for a nemesis who wasn't a worthy opponent, that’d make my life so much easier.” Bowser replied with a shrug before laying back against the cave wall and saying ”Now that’s enough explanations, because its its snoozing time” before closing his eyes eyes to do just that, the exhausted king finally getting some rest.

“I. Huh. ok?” Rika said, still a bit confused by the whole experience, before turning and asking the other two members of the Troop “Did you two get all of that?”

”Yeah. Hand is a jerk, so we’ll beat all his games and then beat him and finally his boss, no sweat,” was jr’s reply. The prince, having gotten out of the game the easiest out of all of them, was, in contrast to many, mostly taking the opportunity to stop sitting for a bit, hopping out of his clown car and pacing in-order to stretch his legs.

”You get used to it” Kamek informed her, aware that the king’s form of exposition could be a bit hard to parse for anyone who hadn’t grown up with it (like Jr).

It was at that point Nadia brought up the existence of the spirits by requesting the use of one of them. None of the troop had any objection to her claiming it, unaware of what it did as they were. Both the sleeping Bowser and the pacing Jr had any interest in the spirit’s from their area either but as for the trial of the abyss, now there was a treasure trove as far as Kamek was concerned.

”Despite the, ah, danger, of its game the Hand has delivered something of a boon into our hands, these” the amge said as he picked up the three spirit’s from their challenge to show them to the others ”all came from the Sun Princess, leader of the Abyssal fleet and the source of their endless resurrection.”

”Oh wow that’s big,” Jr said, now paying attention, before asking ”Wait, she was three people?”

”I assume she fused with the other two, which while it represents something of a new type of threat right to be aware of in the future, right now it’s worked in our favor, as with one of these three lies the power to bring back the dead,” there was a little glint in Kamek’s eye as he held up the trio ”all that remains is to find out which it is.”

“Do you. Do you think we’d be able to bring Pasific back?” Rika asked, “bring everyone we’re fused with back?”

”Only one way to find out” Kamek said, before plucking the white cloaked catwoman from the pile, banking on magical color theory where white = healing to pull off a win on the first pick, and palming it into his forehead with a ”Bet” before holding out the other two and asking ”who else wants to roll the dice on being the savior of the fading dead?”





wordcount: 656 (+1)
Midna: level 7 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (21/70)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Baur’s Reach


Midna’s spirit crushing had about the same result as crushing all of the Trapinch body parts, namely a pile of useless materials. Or that was her thought at first, till she slapped her forehead and remembered they had access to a town now, one where these might catch a high value on the market or, perhaps, be able to be made into something useful.

She had to guess that the vial contained giant wasp poison, which wasn't exactly her style but maybe it’d be worth a pretty penny. Now the hide, that she could see uses for right away. Armor, cold proof clothing, a nice fashionable pair of boots and more sprung to mind. Maybe even a nice set of sheaths for her new weapons or a saddle for her mount.

Considering the change it had undergone, it could probably do with one now. Though considering that change had occurred from a related species it was debatable if the hide could be used to improve the situation.

”Well you might be better suited to the environment” she told the wolf-dran as she tried to settle herself back on its back ”but your ability to act as a butt pillow have definitely gone down a bit.”

It still did have fur, true, but that coming out from under the scales ment there was a hard layer under the softness, which was worse than just a pure fur affair. Still, it had indeed gotten some improvements. First off, the wolf-dran was visibly more at home with the chilly temperature as they set off into the caves. It also handled the icy pathways in there better too. Certainly better than Yoshitsune, who was riding alongside her and supplying some convenient heat from his flaming sword, who still had his wheel situation going on.

”If Sec doesn't help you out I can lend you this one as a guide dog” Midna told him, petting the wolf-dran on the head to indicate to it, and causing it to wag its new stuck up tail full of ice spikes.

Midna raised an eyebrow behind her mask as she sensed a little bit of magic being produced by the wagging and experimentally put her hand in the way and got brushed by the tail spikes, resulting in a semi familiar surge of speed.

”Huh. As if I wasn't fast enough” she said with a smile.

All this dog lending offering and experimenting had distracted a touch from the elephant in the room, or rather the giant, who was frozen in the ice wall of the cave. Midna was of the opinion that if you had seen one giant man trapped in the cold you had seen them all, or at least that was what she told herself to avoid getting intimidated by the absolute titan staring down at them. Fortunately for them they probably didn’t need to deal with him due to him being iced, though that didn’t stop Midna doing as Big Band Suggested and keeping quiet as they went past.

Razputin suggested optimistically that the big man might be the boss and was already dealt with, but Midna put an end to that hope by telling him in a whisper that ”A suspicious hooded woman who’s part of a suspicious group who all wear black leather cloaks said it was at the top, so that's where we are going”

In hindsight that wasn't the most convincing, so she added ”Bosses dying also causes everything around them to get freed. That's how I and everyone back at Alcamoth got freed anyway, so if this big guy was dealt with, all those old guys would be free. Also he’s not ash so… ah, shit. Definitely not dead” that put a bit of a dampener on her dismissal of the titan, and so Midna was extra quiet after realizing that, unaware that bodies of the dead from before the world merger still stayed around.
Q-T Brackman


Q-T did her deputy and held the tablet out for the dragon to communicate with her captain, looking only a little agog that the captain didn't even need the translation software apparently, which added ‘secret conspiracy’ onto the list of possible reasons things were so messed up. Or it was just a coincidence that she spoke… Q-T managed to stop herself from spiraling any further by checking the captain’s history and realizing that her speaking Indonesian was accounted for in her background, and this was probably a coincidence. Probably. Probably…

Also as someone with a (newly downloaded) third form of understanding of the language, she could tell that the pair’s versions were fairly heavily mismatched, which pushed things further into the weird coincidence territory, though she wasn't ruling out anything. Anyway, while the bot was busy acting as a tablet nightstand and hypothesizing to herself, the captain and the dragon talked a fair bit and effectively bumps things up the dragon’s chain of command as well, resulting in the other two dragons leaving while Galmira stayed behind.

Then the Captain’s line dropped quite suddenly.

”um…” Q-T said as both of them became a touch confused as to what had happened. ”Let me just” Q-T said before pinging the com’s officer with questions again and being caught up to speed with the plan.

”oh, ok so we’re going to set up a meeting place for you” she informed the dragon, before glancing back and seeing some of the EVA crew hesitantly poking their heads out of an airlock to see if the dragon was gone, and then gesturing to each other while they decided where to set up the requested tent.

”So, ah, let's start heading over? I can ask them to bring you something to eat and/or drink if you want?” she asked, which got them into a very light conversation about their culture’s/world's various kinds of food and drink, one made a touch awkward by Q-T not being able to offer anything other than an academic understanding of such things when it came to anything other than Ai-lcohol, which carried them till they parted ways and the dragon stepped away to meet the captain in person.




A few minutes later they’d set up the outdoor meeting spot. As setting up reception areas for diplomatic events was not something they had proper equipment for, said meeting spot ended up being an rapid assembly emergency shelter gussied up with various furnishings salvaged from whatever they had on hand. So basically from the closest available beak room. Long story short, while the tent would probably keep them alive and warm even if the planet's atmosphere suddenly fell off, it wasn't exactly the most auspicious of locals for humanity's first interaction with the representatives of an alien society.

Q-T thought Ai kind’s first contact had had a much more fitting local frankly, and so she had that to be proud of and show off, something she got to do while the department heads had their slightly awkward meeting inside the tent.

Having done their job setting up the meeting spot a fair number of astronauts found themselves mostly left to their own devices for the first time since the crash. This spot of unscheduled downtime resulted in the various half suited crew-mates gathering together on top of one of the large rovers (while keeping a few tablets monitoring the various deployed equipment on hand just in case they needed to react to an emergency) where they could do some dragon watching. That involved both keeping an eye out for the return of the ones sent away as messengers, and also watching a replay of Q-T’s own meeting with Galmira, which got the undivided attention of each and every one of them.

Well all except Neilsy who kept taking envious glances at the captain’s jetbike, which was currently hovering next to her own bike. Or rather looming over it thanks to Almira’s heavily armed steed being two too three times the size of the Astronaut's own ride.
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