ERode

Re: Life

As he was happily giving photography lessons to Millie Alice (remember, the brunette), Katsuo suddenly sensed killing intent, a deadly threat blooming from his left. Whipping around, his eyes widened at the invisible power gathering within the palms of the...Yuni? Inu? Umi? girl, who looked so cute focusing on her inner ki that Katsuo forgot that she was trying to obliterate him with her superpowers. But it was already too late for him to do much else, not if he didn't want to get anyone else caught in the crossfire.

So he sighed, and decided that, hey, at least dying to a cute Harajuku-style girl was better than a truck.

But the demise never came, and after a couple more seconds, Katsuo opened his eyes and laughed. "Oh man, Yumi, you almost got me there! Thought you had some secret cheat all ready to go and all, but phew, good thing that wasn't the case, huh?"

What the so called 'blue-haired twink' didn't know, however, was that he was playing checkers and Umi was playing Go on the sixth dimension. While he had been busy playing along with the marshmallow girl's Dragonball fantasies, Alice was literally having an emotional breakdown over her inability to make Katsuo's phone speak when pictures were taken. Yare yare, she looked like a woman ten years older than him but had the emotional restraint of a kid ten years younger than him. While others stayed on their beds and asked basic questions that you'd expect every adult to ask about (you know, magical questions n all, just normal adult concerns), Katsuo hopped off his own bed and stuck his feet into his sneakers. The lightness of his body was a bit odd, and it felt like he was overshooting whenever he took a step forward, but he didn't pay too much attention to it, instead leaving the room to pursue the woman-child that took his goddamn phone.

It was easy enough, when she was stopping every once in a while to snap pictures, at least. Maybe she was insane as well, with her reptition of actions and her expectation of something to change. Before he properly engaged her, Katsuo took a deep breath, relaxed his facial features, and...

Remember, I got a Charm ability. Maybe if I do this...

...placed a hand on Alice's shoulder. With a steady, even tone (people sounded more credible when they spoke at a slightly slower speed than they usually did) and a lowered pitch for his voice (deeper voices were associated with more adults, after all), Katsuo looked the nurse in the eye and smiled. "Calm down, Alice, there's a very simple explanation for this," he said, "This 'smartphone' can only be fully used by the person who owns it, being myself. You will be able to create instant, hyperrealistic pictures, but many of the more complex functions, such as the text you read, won't function if I'm not the one taking the picture."

The youth allowed that to sink in for a moment, still trying to channel the sauve, seasoned, super smooth secret spy that he totally was, before continuing, "I apologize for making it seem as if you'd be able to do everything that my smartphone enables though, Alice. Can I do something to make it up to you?"

This was charming, right? Not just creepy and patronizing? Goddamnit, the line is so blurry.

Lostman Grafitti

@OwO@Savo@Asuras Hope y'all haven't forgotten that the deadline for posts is tomorrow.

Fate/Secondary Genesis

“Figured it wouldn’t be so easy.”

As gods in mortal shells sundered civilization with the aftershocks of their divine weaponry, Naoko holstered her handgun, the lead having done nothing more than get her opponent wet…with blood. Definitely just blood. Demonic vines that burst out of one’s flesh was definitely not a pleasing aesthetic to witness, and the grotesque nature of her opponent was only amplified by the sheer amount of power that seemed to be crammed into her form. It was like a damaged propane tank, highly pressurized fuel forced through a single nozzle to burn bright and blue, even though there was a chance of a flat-out explosion at any moment. If she had it her way, Naoko would be booking it until after Berserker’s Master burned out. If she had it her way, she’d still be eating pizza and watching her Netflix backlog. If she had it her way, Rider wouldn’t be stuck in her castle, up against a Berserker in close combat.

But life was life, and if she couldn’t even deal with someone so clearly, irritatingly, cartoonishly evil? Well, what even was the point of walking out of the apartment to begin with?

She affirmed her path, set her eyes upon her opponent, and breathed out.

The world around the two mages slowed. Falling debris accelerated towards the ground at quarter-speed. The blades of the chopper up above spun languidly enough that they could be seen rotating. Smoke and fire bloomed in slow-motion, while fragments of cement spun away from the impact of Katherine’s lunge, the aberrant mage’s facial muscles shifting like a wax sculpture near a flame. She had never perceived the world around her in such clarity before, and she had never felt her emotions melt away so easily, frost on a summer day.

This wasn’t exceptional speed, nor exceptional perception. It was simply the bare minimum one needed to become worthy of an empress’s approval.

And from there, Naoko struck.

Taking one step forward, she swept out with her cane, a flurry of blows that carried exactly the right amount of force to redirect the right amount of tendrils in a way that achieved maximum disruption. A domino effect of tangled greenery occurred, bloodthirsty thorns cannibalizing plantflesh and leaving only a single barbed mass for the costumed hero to dodge instead. She leaned hard to the right, sparing a second to dab on her thorny nemesis, before twisting her entire body and launching a whip-like low kick to Katherine’s knee, hoping to smash it right off.

How much of this was skill and how much of this was a blessing?

Who knows? Who cares?

Beyond the Looking Glass: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Betty Barton…man, people named their kids Betty still? What was this, the 70s?

Of course, Amaryllis wasn’t nearly brave enough to vocalize her snide remarks, and instead spent all her time hoping she could sink into the wall like a ghost, her head tilted away slightly by this weird anti-Mint girl who…somehow thought she was Mint? Without actually knowing who she was? Such overconfidence and audacity. She certainly wouldn’t be able to do something as embarrassing like that, especially not when a crowd was just passing by!

Thankfully, Betty stepped away, and Amaryllis relaxed slightly, the flush of her cheeks receding. Readjusting the collar of her sweater (not that it needed adjusting at all), she took a couple of seconds to stabilize her breathing, deep breaths causing her chest to rise and fall like a balloon being pumped while there was a small hole in it. “Okay, good. Start over, yes,” Amaryllis nodded, “I’m, uh, Amaryllis Evenings. Sorta wanted to check out that whole Cindy Ford thing…but what were you saying about Mint agents? And why’d you think I was one of them? I mean, like, you know…”

She tilted her head to the side, before quickly shaking her head, hands raised up.

“Oh, but like, no pressure or whatever. Just super curious cause I mean, I thought you only tackled people you loved…ehehe…not that I’m insinuating anything at all, nope.”

Huh, she felt like her Sword was trying to tell her something, but for now, Amaryllis was content with having a proper conversation with her less glamorous self.
@BrokenPromise

Re: Life

@OwO get cucked

Re: Life

Oops. Looked like flash was on. As the doctor stumbled back in shock, Katsuo stifled a half-laugh, switching the camera settings to Auto-Flash instead, before reading what little information he could gather from the Pictopedia. Too high-leveled, huh? Figured.

One phrase that Ferbius spoke of did catch the blue-haired youth’s attention though. An Adventurer’s Guild? If this was a normal isekai rather than an edgy one, the Guild was definitely going to be the first place they’d be hitting up, right? Sounded like a plan, for sure. Turning his head up again, he was about to launch into another question when Millie (remember, she’s the brunette) suddenly got way too close and curious. Her hands wrapped around his was enough to short-circuit his mind for just a moment, and Katsuo almost dropped his phone in the process.

Damn, he had heard girls’ hands were soft and smooth, but Millie’s was certainly nothing like that. Calloused and firm, but wonderfully cool despite it.

Leaning back slightly from the sheer brilliance of her child-like curiousity, Katsuo opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, but only to let out a half-sigh, half-laugh.

Wow, he felt a bit popular right now. Was this what it was like, to be a winner in life? Even if his smartphone was something literally everyone else had as well.

“Ah, uh, well, it’s not really magic,” he said, gesturing to the device, “More of a special item that only people with specific knowledge can use? Oh, but basically, you just need to…” As Katsuo rambled, he turned on the camera app again, this time reversing the camera so that a digital display of Millie and himself popped up on screen. “…press the white circle you see here. Just like…”

Click.

“…this.”

And with that, the first selfie in this fantasy land was taken.

A moment later, Katsuo switched the camera again to display what was in front of the phone, before handing it over to Millie and gesturing broadly towards the room. “Here, you try. Remember, just touch the white button once. And, like I said, it's not magic, it's just this item in particular, so you won't really be able to do anything else.”

Compared to learning about the new world, scoring friendship points with a magical healer nurse was way more important, right? Definitely.

Lostman Grafitti

@banjoanjo I'm free to shunt Miyane to Tamagakahara in my next post, yeah? Barring circumstances like the taxi getting ambushed by thugs with baseball bats and motorcycles?

Altera: Of Departures and Deliverance

Some ate. Some didn’t. The difference it made was marked.

With food in their stomachs, Ash and Matteo made good time as they followed after Ettamri, who, on horseback, was still the one that covered the most ground, the most easily. For all the dangers presented in their battle against the giant toad, the fight itself had been over almost immediately, with the few injuries accumulated wiped away by their priest. As they headed northwest through the plains, the thief and the hunter could even spare a bit of time to enjoy the heavy scenery, green grass contrasted to thick clouds. Behind them, Muu, with her muscles atrophied over seven days of unconsciousness and no substantial food to keep her engine going, marched at a slower pace. The pain was gone, but the memory of it remained like the afterimage of a lightning bolt, and the wind that blew over the plain seemed sharper than it used to be, slicing into freshly regenerated flesh. She was still able to keep up, however flagging her stamina was.

As the adventurers travelled in relative silence, however, the rising winds made it clear that the weather was not to last. The first drops of rain came unassumingly, bouncing off the tip of Gwyn’s mask, but from there, the deluge began, sheets of rain pouring from the heavens, followed by the unpleasant chill of damp clothing and mud, as the plains turned marshy from precipitation.

Really, it was a question, ultimately, of what they, no, of what Ettamri valued. Arriving at their destination faster, or keeping dry? At least, in such weather, starting a fire to dry off was going to be fairly unlikely.

The Fated World Defiance

"I mean, anyone can use water magic with time and all...so, sure?" Came Allereun's muffled voice from behind the door. Soon after, the sound of a fire being stoked could be heard, a constant crackling of fanned flames, followed by the sizzling of something splashing into the waters. This continued on for a good ten minutes, before the alchemist, apparently satisfied, came back out, his sleeves and pants rolled wet, forearms glistening in the warm candlelight.

"Think it's done now. If you want to heat it up, just add another hot rock or so? Oh, and your clothes can go in the basket." With that, he gestured towards the back. "The tub'll be in the back of the room, to the left. It's sorta outside, but I set up the covers, so you'll be fine...probably?"

Re: Life

Can't wait to see a bunch of adult men guffaw over the Phineas and Ferb name.