ERode

Cacophony Concord

As Ari silently stepped around the boxes, she caught a glimpse of what the boxes were obscuring: a dirty, beige curtain. If she pushed the boxes away, she would be able to enter this gambling den. But on the other hand, it wasn't exactly obvious how she could do this without notice. Further down the area beneath the bridge were just walls and puddles of filthy water, continuing along the side of the canal. Perhaps the Tsi-Lai Gang had other entrances leading to their lair, but the one that Fa Trung informed her about didn't offer any promising avenues for stealth.
_@Greengoat

---

Though they didn't appear on his quest tracker UI, perhaps due to the quest not yet being active or due to him not having met any of the possible employers yet, Lugh was certainly able to stuff a couple of the posters into his item bag before he strode off into the red-skinned oni's smithy once more. The forge was as hot as always, and so was she, the smoke of a quenched blade wafting like mist over her muscular features as she wiped the sweat off her brow with her forearm, affording Lugh a moment to see certain assets before she turned to face him properly.

"Oh, yer back. G-"

Whatever friendly discourse she had dried up when Lugh prostrated himself before her, offering up his two blades as tribute. The smile on her face faded, then turned into a frown. Not just a frown, but disdain. Her brow furrowed and her lips curled, the features only smoothing out slightly when she remembered that he was still a customer. Looking down upon the former warrior, she clicked her tongue and then raised up her foot to drop it inches away from Lugh's face. The force of the shockwave was enough to lift both blades up into the air and afford him an up-close look at her brawny feet, toe nails of impeccable size and quality, before she turned away. Three great strides brought her back to the weapons rack, where she returned the blades, and she dug through her apron's pockets to toss a bag over her shoulder. It landed right in front of Lugh's face, weighing twenty silver.

"One fight in and yer already given up the warrior's path for priesthood, huh?" She said, voice thrumming with restrained scorn. "The temple's three blocks up, to the west. Don't come back."
_{@Cu Chulainn}

---

The frogman's eyes widened at Magpie's movement, before a nigh-imperceptible smile crossed its wide, rubbery lips. Clenching one hand into a fist and forming a knife hand with the other, he placed the two together in a sign of respect, before bending his own knees as well, assuming a combat stance with his fist cocked behind like a hammer, while his open hand stretched out in front like a hammer.

If Magpie had not bowed, would this frogman had engaged anyways? There was certainly no way of knowing now.
_{@Searat@Psyker Landshark@Yankee@OwO@Shovel}

Cacophony Concord

As the adrenaline faded, so too did their sense of slowed time. While some experienced the change more than others, all could feel a slight change in the movement of the grass, the blowing of the wind. It seemed as if, unless they were in combat, the time dilation that their AGI granted them wouldn’t activate. It was a small thing, though, compared to the bigger problems that cropped up. Despite his participation in battle, and despite setting up the party for everyone else, Ames hadn’t received a single point of experience from the fight…a fact that didn’t initially stand out to the others, when Ari and Klein hadn’t either.

No one was particularly worried about the discrepancy in EXP gain though, and other than Raime’s adventures with testing out local herbs, a portion of the party scattered off back to town.

The ranger’s investigations, if it could be called such, didn’t last long enough to give him any obvious hints as to what exactly was edible, what was beneficial, and what was poisonous. The wilderness corndog that was the riverside cattails tasted about as cotton-y as he would have expected it to, but the rest all had a vaguely grass-like taste, in that it didn’t taste all that great or noticeable. Some stood out from the others though; a plant with rounded, white leaves about the size of his thumb felt cool to the touch when he rubbed it against his skin. His resources were at their max, so it was unknown what numerical benefits, if any, would come of this, but it was a promising result after foraging for all of five minutes.

After all, while Raime may be satisfied with tasting unknown plants in a virtual world, the remaining members of the party were here to grind levels and get swole!

Though they lost their main tank in the form of Lugh and their only melee weapon as a result of that, the party remained fairly solid as they fought more kappas down the length of the Pearl Bloom River. Magpie’s improvised weapon proficiency meant that she wasn’t ever completely unarmed, while Klein’s Nuclei ensured that he could safely tank even without a healer present, so long as he wasn’t in a situation where he would get hit again. As his own stats increased, so did the accuracy and fire rate of Raime’s shots, while Amulak remained a bolt-slinging mage in the backline, doubtlessly outperforming the others in DPS. They set a steady rhythm as their stats increased with further level-ups, and soon enough, kappa were just fodder for them to deal with. Magpie’s sandals, Raime’s bolts, Klein’s fists, and Amulak’s magic were enough to deal with any of those turtle-wrestler-freaks that popped up from the river.

And yet, even when his own participation, his own attacks, was not insignificant, Ames still could not seem to get a single level up. As a matter of fact, the party as a whole had their grinding slowed significantly due to how the red-haired warrior didn’t receive resource refills like the rest of them, and couldn’t regenerate resources in other ways like Klein could. Ames simply had to wait for his HP to slowly crawl back up at the end of every fight, while the others waited.

What was going on? Though the warrior wasn’t completely useless as he still had his talisman-boosted stats, the gap was closing rapidly. Was this a bug? In a game famed for not having any bugs? Or was something else at play here?

As Ames mused about this, their HP just about filled up once more, the party’s path down the Pearl Bloom River brought them to the apex of a hill, from which a small waterfall crashed down. In the frothing waters, within the pounding mist, the party could make out a silhouette. Something, someone was there.

“Gero gero.”

The silhouette in the waterfalls disappeared.

Behind them, they could all hear the dripping of water.

There was a frogman standing there, green-and-black skin glistening in the light of day. It towered over even Klein, its trunk-like leg muscles thrumming with each beat of its war drum heart. Wrapped in a reed-weaved robe, it stared down at them.

“Ribbit.”

And in that moment, the party knew.

Poorly equipped as they were, flight was not an option here.
_{@Searat@Psyker Landshark@Yankee@OwO@Shovel}

---

Statistics: “Damage Nullified by END”

12 Damage

Query: “Kekkaishi”

A class focused on creating a variety of static barriers to ward off attacks, manipulate terrain, or crush foes. Consecrate land to debilitate your foes while shielding your allies with talismans and battle chants. Specializes in using staves.

Though his grip on her had been solid, Lugh wasn’t vigilant all the time. While he had been distracted by checking up his stats and looking through new possible classes to pick up, Ari slipped out of his grasp and was gone in the teeming masses of other kookily-designed players. Yes, he perhaps could have gone around grabbing every cat-eared girl and checking to see if it was Ari, but that would have ended up worse than Magpie causing a commotion in front of the Keystone itself.

Anyways, Horogi may be known as the hardcore PvP nation, but it was also known as the nation of the degenerates. There were furries everywhere once he started looking for them.

With that, Lugh simply struck it out solo once more, his dark hair ruffled by Zephyrus’s grace as he strode through the crowds like a shadowy snake through a grove. The area were the Keystone was served as a natural gathering point for Immortals, and subsequently, the locals had set up a large message board up there as well, plastering it with quests, mundane jobs, or advertisements. The sheer amount of text caused him to blink a couple times, but after his vision cleared, Lugh found himself able to read the foreign script as if it was English.

Some points stood out to him. Caravan escort quests to the Mora-Sho looked absolutely lucrative, compared to requests for guards of caravans heading elsewhere. Monster extermination requests were plenty, offering what seemed to be decent monetary rewards, but requested parties to check-in at the Mora-Sho Gentlemen’s Society regularly. Other requests seemed almost insane, if not for how Immortals were, indeed, immortal. Apothecaries and medicinemen wishing to test new potions and poisons on live subjects. Mysterious organizations asking for healthy blood donors with a high tolerance to pain. Crazed arts wishing for models that had nearly inhuman proportions. It was all wild, but perhaps some craziness was to be expected.

After all, this was a crazy world.

A popcorn stall was also looking for new workers.
_{@Cu Chulainn}

---

Class Search: “Qi”

Low Rank

Monk
_{+10% SP | +5% STR | +15% DEX}

Requirements

• Max SP equal to or greater than 100. (Current: 50)
• 50% of total damage dealt to enemies comes from unarmed attacks. (Current: 0%)
• Receive training at the Gao Long Monastery.

Qi Gong
_{+20% SP | 10% END}

Requirements

• Max SP equal to or greater than 100. (Current: 50)
• Receive training at the Gao Long Monastery.
• Recover 200 HP passively, without resting. (Current: 6)

Dao Shi
_{+15% SP | +15% MP}

Requirements

• Max MP equal to or greater than 100. (Current: 30)
• Max MP equal to max SP.
• Meditate underneath the Pearl Bloom Falls.

Shinobi
_{+5% SP | +20% AGI | +5% DEX}

Requirements

• Perform 3 backstabs at the beginning of combat. (Current: 0)
• Defeat one monster solo without receiving damage.
• Receive training at ???

Sohei
_{+5% HP | +10% STR | +15% DEX}

Requirements

• Max STR equal to or greater than 10. (Current: 10)
• Light an Incense Stick at a shrine in the wilderness.
• Defeat, but do not slay, 5 humanoid monsters.

Though none of the “qi” classes appeared to be easily accessible to Ari in her current state, that didn’t deter the cat-eared girl at all from scrambling into the crowds and escaping her captor/teammate. The instructions that Fa Trung gave her for the hideout of the Tsi-Lai Gang were still fresh in her head, and with another improvised weapon in her hands, she scrambled for the location. Two blocks west of the southern gate, underneath a bridge!

The density of the amount of people in Nyu-Taro never seemed to change, no matter where one went, but the quality of the people certainly did. Whether by necessity or by aesthetic choice, the people who Ari slipped by around the southern side streets of the city-state definitely looked on the sketchy side of things, people who would scam a senior with a fake water purifier and then place a fake fly in a restaurant meal so they could bully the manager into giving them a free meal. Not murderous or violent, but assholes of a different kind.

And, like assholes wont to be, the bridge that the beggar man had mentioned before stood over a sluggish river of sewage, rotting garbage seeping down. The smell was horrendous, all wet and moldy, and just being nearby was enough to make her ears shudder in disgust. But the quest was a quest, and Ari would be remiss to give up here. She dropped down, approached the collection of crates that Fa Trung said would be hiding an entrance, and as she got close, she could hear the sounds of other human beings seeping through the cracks and gaps between the boxes.

Laughter, jazzy music, and the sounds of cards and dice being slapped on the table.

This wasn’t just a den of rogues she was planning on invading. This was a den of gambling
_@GreenGoat

My Hero Academia: Raw Potential

Sendachi, Kouki

Kouki Sendachi

^{Male | 15 y/o | 5'8 | 121/1165 lbs}

Personality

Though he has a resting bitch face and a cynic’s sneer for a smile, Kouki certainly wished he were more extroverted than he currently was. Having spent middle school with the unearned reputation of a truant delinquent who habitually stares down teachers and being subsequently ostracized by his peers as a result, his social skills are moot, and his friend circle exists only outside of school. He keeps quiet and keeps to himself, too shy to strike up conversation with a stranger but too self-conscious to admit to wanting to join up with a group in the off-chance that he is invited to anything. And even if he does accept an invitation somewhere, at some time, Kouki’s bad habit of overthinking everything often ends up with him just not showing up at the end, citing some bullshit excuse to not show up.

What’s worse though? That by the end of middle school, he’s become comfortable being with himself, and even though he wants to become more outgoing, more social, he’s also fine with not becoming so. With one exception, of course…

Background

A baby boy born with an extra hole above his butt would have been cause for concern in any other era except the era of mutants. As such, it was just an incredibly embarrassing fact to talk or even think about as he grew up. Having weird eyes or big hands was one thing, but having an extra butthole that leaked white stuff if he didn’t stay focused? Eugh, no please. Didn’t help that his parents were the loving, spoiling type either, seeing Kouki’s solemn, grim expression as reasons to excessively praise his “extra hole” in a bid to raise his self-esteem. He was mature as a child, as mature as a precocious, lonely brat could be, but even though he could understand why his parents were that way, Kouki wasn’t going to be any happier with that sorta praise too.

Thus, his frown grew. Thus, he withdrew further into himself. Thus, by the time he got to middle school, Kouki’s attitude was already fixed in place, staring down others with a cold expression, his scrambled thoughts never moving fast enough to actually formulate an answer before they assumed his disinterest or disgust and scampered off. Though no one bullied him, most people avoided him too. School festivals were painful. He would slip away from groups and squat at the back of the school buildings, waiting for it to end. School trips were even more so. If he went missing, everyone else in his group would get in trouble too, so he maintained a distance of twenty meters instead, plugging his ears with his headphones so they wouldn’t feel any obligation to converse.

His middle school life wasn’t devoid of social interaction though. Kouki found places and people who didn’t know of his baggage by slipping into the backdoors of night clubs. Though it rarely went beyond a couple of words, dancing was fun. He really got into it, even, clearing out the basement of his house so he had space to practice by himself. It was fun. It was enjoyable. It kept him alive.
But Kouki did not go to a high school with a dance club. He applied and was accepted into a hero course for a local high school instead. His parents questioned him about it, of course, and after twenty minutes of emotionlessly freaking out over how to answer, if he even could answer, the youth spoke two words.

“For love.”

Then he immediately self-combusted from embarrassment.

Quirk - Quicksilver _Mutant-Type

Kouki produces a silvery-white liquid metal within a hole positioned over his tailbone at a rate of about six milliliters per day. After being alive for fifteen years, he has about 35 liters of this curious metal, which, when kept inside his body, increases his weight by 474 kg (1044 lbs), exhibiting a density similar to that of mercury, though without any of the toxicity. Acting as an extension of his own body, Kouki’s Quicksilver can take an array of imagined forms and can alter itself to heat up, cool down, or become magnetic. Though it takes time to make these alterations upon his material, the movement of his Quicksilver itself is fairly effortless for Kouki: so long as it remains within twenty meters of himself, Quicksilver moves as fast as any other limb of his, floats in defiance of gravity, and appears to have enough ‘strength’ to sustain 40 kg for each 1 liter of Quicksilver used, capping out at 1400 kg. This speed lowers past the twenty meter point, until the metal becomes wholly inert at the fifty meter point. Though Kouki cannot feel through his Quicksilver, he is able to sense when others interact with it; if he’s not actively maintaining a form, the liquid metal has a consistency similar to putty.

Though Quicksilver cannot be destroyed, it can certainly be lost. Complex alterations will lead to headaches and nosebleeds, and potent disruptions will cause the Quicksilver to become a formless blob once more. Due to lack of opportunities to be rendered unconscious through violent means, it’s unknown how Quicksilver responds in such situations.

My Hero Academia rp: Underdogs

Sendachi, Kouki

Kouki Sendachi

^{Male | 15 y/o | 5'8 | 121/1165 lbs}

Personality

Though he has a resting bitch face and a cynic’s sneer for a smile, Kouki certainly wished he were more extroverted than he currently was. Having spent middle school with the unearned reputation of a truant delinquent who habitually stares down teachers and being subsequently ostracized by his peers as a result, his social skills are moot, and his friend circle exists only outside of school. He keeps quiet and keeps to himself, too shy to strike up conversation with a stranger but too self-conscious to admit to wanting to join up with a group in the off-chance that he is invited to anything. And even if he does accept an invitation somewhere, at some time, Kouki’s bad habit of overthinking everything often ends up with him just not showing up at the end, citing some bullshit excuse to not show up.

What’s worse though? That by the end of middle school, he’s become comfortable being with himself, and even though he wants to become more outgoing, more social, he’s also fine with not becoming so. With one exception, of course…

Background

A baby boy born with an extra hole above his butt would have been cause for concern in any other era except the era of mutants. As such, it was just an incredibly embarrassing fact to talk or even think about as he grew up. Having weird eyes or big hands was one thing, but having an extra butthole that leaked white stuff if he didn’t stay focused? Eugh, no please. Didn’t help that his parents were the loving, spoiling type either, seeing Kouki’s solemn, grim expression as reasons to excessively praise his “extra hole” in a bid to raise his self-esteem. He was mature as a child, as mature as a precocious, lonely brat could be, but even though he could understand why his parents were that way, Kouki wasn’t going to be any happier with that sorta praise too.

Thus, his frown grew. Thus, he withdrew further into himself. Thus, by the time he got to middle school, Kouki’s attitude was already fixed in place, staring down others with a cold expression, his scrambled thoughts never moving fast enough to actually formulate an answer before they assumed his disinterest or disgust and scampered off. Though no one bullied him, most people avoided him too. School festivals were painful. He would slip away from groups and squat at the back of the school buildings, waiting for it to end. School trips were even more so. If he went missing, everyone else in his group would get in trouble too, so he maintained a distance of twenty meters instead, plugging his ears with his headphones so they wouldn’t feel any obligation to converse.

His middle school life wasn’t devoid of social interaction though. Kouki found places and people who didn’t know of his baggage by slipping into the backdoors of night clubs. Though it rarely went beyond a couple of words, dancing was fun. He really got into it, even, clearing out the basement of his house so he had space to practice by himself. It was fun. It was enjoyable. It kept him alive.
But Kouki did not go to a high school with a dance club. He applied and was accepted into a hero course for a local high school instead. His parents questioned him about it, of course, and after twenty minutes of emotionlessly freaking out over how to answer, if he even could answer, the youth spoke two words.

“For love.”

Then he immediately self-combusted from embarrassment.

Quirk - Quicksilver _Mutant-Type

Kouki produces a silvery-white liquid metal within a hole positioned over his tailbone at a rate of about six milliliters per day. After being alive for fifteen years, he has about 35 liters of this curious metal, which, when kept inside his body, increases his weight by 474 kg (1044 lbs), exhibiting a density similar to that of mercury, though without any of the toxicity. Acting as an extension of his own body, Kouki’s Quicksilver can take an array of imagined forms and can alter itself to heat up, cool down, or become magnetic. Though it takes time to make these alterations upon his material, the movement of his Quicksilver itself is fairly effortless for Kouki: so long as it remains within twenty meters of himself, Quicksilver moves as fast as any other limb of his, floats in defiance of gravity, and appears to have enough ‘strength’ to sustain 40 kg for each 1 liter of Quicksilver used, capping out at 1400 kg. This speed lowers past the twenty meter point, until the metal becomes wholly inert at the fifty meter point. Though Kouki cannot feel through his Quicksilver, he is able to sense when others interact with it; if he’s not actively maintaining a form, the liquid metal has a consistency similar to putty.

Though Quicksilver cannot be destroyed, it can certainly be lost. Complex alterations will lead to headaches and nosebleeds, and potent disruptions will cause the Quicksilver to become a formless blob once more. Due to lack of opportunities to be rendered unconscious through violent means, it’s unknown how Quicksilver responds in such situations.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

Amaryllis and Oros

_{Cold and Hot}

Even shrouded by clouds and besieged by barbarians and beasts alike, Penrose shone with the light of a thousand stars, electricity crackling through them and shedding brilliance against the snow-draped city. Softly, the winds of winter whispered, filling the tense silence with their suggestions and their assumptions, their wordless view of the world below. Few men still dared travel the roads of the humble city; when monstrosities so boldly revealed themselves, what hope could one have of a peaceful life? Only the supernatural paraded these avenues now, and the city continued to fall into disrepair.

Still, still, the boon of geniuses from eras ago filled this dark world with light, and still, the darkness that surrounded the city, formless and endless, could not fully make the world of mankind their own.

For her kindred and herself stood, bastions still in this desolate winterland, and in her hand, she wielded a brand brimming with lunar light. So long as there were those who slew monsters, the light of civilization would not be snuffed. So long as she drew breath, Penrose would still have a protector.

“They yearn for purity, so that they may defile it.”

A corrupting light thrummed from her chest, base instincts rising up in her skin even the power of the Infectious Yearn expanded further outwards. Her Sword thrummed in her hands, excitement racing up her lungs in a vicious haze. The Knight of Rose had promised a mountain of monsters as recompense for the deaths she denied that night.

Now, she would fulfill her vows.

One step, and she descended, plummeting deep into the living shadows of the city.

---

Amaryllis would have no problem finding monsters. It hadn’t even been an hour and her sword had found many. It was working just as Brittany said it would. OR HOWEVER THAT PART OF THE COLLAB WENT I WASN’T THERE! WAS THERE EVEN A COLLAB GEE WIZ

In the late hour of the night, Amaryllis would come across another girl. Her style was so loud that Amaryllis could practically hear her outfit before she saw it. It looked like she went into a designer clothing store and put on the finest jacket she could get her hands on. While the coat was striking, it wasn’t really the best for the weather. Her legs were clad in nothing but a pantyhose, and her shorts couldn’t have done that much to ward off the cold. While her jacket looked thick and warm, it was open, revealing a tube sweater with such a low cut that would give most men whiplash and cause woman to blush. Despite her clothing choice, she did not have the demeanor of the sex goddess she was trying to dress up as. She was jogging with a piece of toast in her mouth. She would occasionally use her hand to make sure it didn’t fall out of her mouth. If it was earlier in the day, it wouldn’t be hard to picture a girl like this rushing off to get to the movies or some special outing like that. She didn’t have a flashlight, nor did she have anything else that would help her see at this hour of the day. Her gaze was locked on something straight ahead. Something that wasn’t Amaryllis.

As she ran past, she looked at the rose knight. The piece of buttered toast that bounced in her mouth slowed with the cadence of her feet. She had come to a complete stop behind Amaryllis, looking at her over her shoulder.

A flick of the wrist, and the viscera of the swordswoman’s latest kill slipped off her polished blade as she stopped as well, taking an instance of reprieve. Though the more intelligent monstrosities resisted the urge, culling the horde held meaning too in restoring order within Penrose. Slay the mindless and convince the intelligent to scamper off elsewhere. She glanced back at the skimpily-dressed girl, but spoke nothing.

Penrose was filled with magical girls, after all, and she wasn’t the Ascendancy. So long as the monster girl behind her could repress the disturbed urges brought forth by her mutations, the Knight had no quarrel. Closing her eyes to listen for areas of activity within the labyrinthine alleyways, Amaryllis strode off once more.

---

Amaryllis would have difficulty finding anything else in the area though. There were always some monsters around at this hour, but things had gotten really quiet. Had something killed them all? Had another monster called them away? The sword did not yet have its pile of corpses, and it would remind Amaryllis every now and again.

Then a young woman’s scream pierced the air.

Energy returned to Amaryllis’s legs as she sprinted towards the sound. Down a dark alley there was another magical girl. One with pink hair and a black outfit. She was trying to scream, but some monstrous appendage had coiled around her mouth. It also had a tentacle around both of her wrists, and a fourth one was dragging her Katana around a corner. She attempted to struggle against her attacker, which retaliated by slamming her against the wall. It shook the building, and she suddenly lost her strength. The blow had to be painful, or at least put her in a state of vertigo.

When the fourth tentacle returned, it had a fluted spear sticking out of it. Not unlike the appendage a mosquito uses to feed. Just as the girl started to recover, she took notice of the spear hovering over her chest. Her breathing became more erratic. She struggled, but her arms were already right where the monster wanted her. She closed her eyes as the tentacle pulled back before thrusting into her rib cage.

A flash of silver, and the tentacle split into four, streaming out on all sides of the pink-haired girl. Before she could be tainted by the spray of monstrous blood, silver coated the wounds and raced down further to encase the entire tentacle in a mold of metal. The Knight of Rose, heralded by rusted petals, had arrived. One step in, and she sliced through the appendage wrapped around the maiden’s right arm, clasping it in her left and leading the girl into a spin. The second appendage twisted as well, severed as she drew her Sword back in a reverse draw cut. The final, most intrusive one seemed to simply fall off her face, chains of ivy forming a lattice over it that restrained even the flow of fluids through the flesh.

Surrounded on all sides by the restrained monstrosity, the two ladies twirled in the moonlight, and stopped in a dip that brought the pink-haired girl almost perpendicular to the ground. Staring deep into her eyes, the swordswoman spoke. “I am Amaryllis Evenings, Knight of Rose. Shall I offer you the liberty of becoming your own avenger? Or do you desire I take that mantle and slay this creature in your stead?”

The girl blinked a few times. Then at last she grinned. Her sword levitated into the air and thrust at whatever was hiding behind the corner. The squirming tentacles went limp, only to dissipate into smoke as time progressed. It was almost anti-climatic, but not everyone could be as flashy as the knight of rose.

Her arms slid around Amaryllis’s back, and the pink haired maiden sniffed the air. The breach between their faces closing with each passing second. “I’m Oros, and I like flowers myself.” Her eyes darted down to the glow coming from Amaryllis’s chest. “Is that a unicorn horn in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

“Can one not be beholden to both?” Amaryllis responded. Gently but firmly, she pulled Oros up once more. “It warms my heart, having disarmed this foul beast before it could claim the life of a sister, and if more of these aberrations come, this facsimile of a purebeast’s horn, stained as it is in the blackest of magics, will ensnare them to my attention, rather than scramble for you.”

“So I gotta keep you close? Okay, I can do that.” Oros hugged Amaryllis tighter. She stood motionless and didn’t say anything for a time. “Thanks, Amy. I feel really safe like this. Can you feel my heartbeat? I’m still a little nervous.” She rested her head on Amaryllis’s shoulder. “Mmmm, so you just run around stabbing monsters and saving maidens? That’s pretty heroic.”

“Nay, merely my obligations.” Amaryllis twitched slightly as Oros embraced her, but forced her shoulders to relax after a steadying breath. “The night carries on, and my Sword thirsts for more, but if you wish, maiden, I shall safeguard you on your journey back to your abode.” Placing her offhand on her shoulder, she gently pushed the pink-haired girl back, creating some distance between the two again.

“If you lack any such abode, however, I’ve heard of a hotel run by a Lesser Force in the area.”

"Abode, you’re so frickin’ funny with your vocabulary. I’d pinch your cheek if I wasn’t bear hugging you! Haha!" She picked her head back up. "You know now that I’m holding you like this, I’ve kind of become aware of a tragic fact." She locked her eyes with Amaryllis. "Amy, you’re kinda large, aren’t you? You’re thicker than a DQ milkshake, more beef than a Big Mac. You know what I’m saying? It’s not my favorite body shape, but I can’t lie: You. Are. A. Snack." She stared at Amaryllis for a moment. Were those pink hearts in her eyes? Yet the rest of her face had contorted into a snarl. "What the shit are you even doing Amy?! You’re walking around in a winter wonderland late at night, wearing the equivalent monster perfume, rescuing girls and what not." As she spoke, her skin turned darker and darker shades of red. "And you’re so oblivious to my sexual innuendos it just makes me wana-" She threw back her head to scream, only to then throw her head forward into Amaryllis’s ‘pocket.’

That is to say the source of the dark glow.

Her body was faster than her mind.

As Oros swung her head in, Amaryllis caught her by the chin, holding her face back with the heel of her palm. Not enough force to strike, only to arrest the magical girl’s movements.

“I seek neither.”

The dark glow died, the debased horn losing its alluring hue. She maintained the tautness of her arm for a moment longer, her muscles almost looking as if carved out of marble, but still, the knight answered not to her blade’s call for bloodspilling. “My apologies,” Amaryllis spoke. “The broker had certainly elaborated upon this artifact’s influences over even those only partially steeped in impurity, but I had not recognized you as one of them, Oros. Have you reined your impulses in?”

"Yea I’m cool." Oros said, as if absolutely nothing had happened. Her chin was still resting on Amaryllis’s palm, and whatever was going on with her eyes seemed to have worn off. "Can’t believe I have to wait two whole seasons to get that swole. Better than the five seasons I’ll need to catch up to Penny. Am I even going to be alive that long? Shit that’s depressing." Oros hands slid further up Amaryllis’s back. "Though FYI, I could have undone your bra strap. But I’m going to date Mary so I don’t want to screw that up." Her arms slid off of Amaryllis and hung at her sides.

"Anyway, this is kind of a shitty way to end things." She tapped her foot. "You want to hunt monsters right?"

The Knight of Rose remained unmoved by Oros’s chatter, if only because she didn’t wear a bra to begin with. Still, seasons? Certainly, it was an interesting way to denote the passage of time, even though Amaryllis didn’t believe herself that she had been active for eight months yet. The talk of monsters drew her thoughts away from such topics though, and she nodded. “I’ve promised my Patron to deliver a mountain of monsters upon their banquet hall, yes, though it certainly wasn’t my intention to have you caught up in it either.”

"Of course you didn’t! But that’s because you thought I was a damsel that needed rescuing." The maiden set her hands on her hips and laughed. "Anyway, I know where the bigger ones like to hide. Usually with their shit-eating minions. Important question though, ice skating or hockey?"

Amaryllis raised a brow at the question. Wasn’t one just an extension of the other? Still, while she could admire the tenacity and physicality of hockey players, it was certainly an uncouth competition, when giving in to adrenaline and rage was ingrained in the spectacle of the sport. “Ice skating,” she replied. “However, my feet are much less accustomed to handling blades than my hands are.”

"Imagine not being as good at doing something with your feet that you can do with your hands." She shook her head. "An ice skater magical girl would be cool, pun intended. Too bad Penrose already has too many magical girls." Oros pulled out a pair of ice skates. "So if you’re not boring, you’ll put these on."

---

Oros had guided Amaryllis to the harbor. A very specific part of the harbor where there did not appear to be any boats. Oros had her ice skates on and was tracing figure eights and loops into the ice. At one point she wrote her name in cursive.

"Flip on your thing and hop down here. I promise they’ll come screaming outa here. It’ll be like you’re wearing lewd cosplay to an anime convention, only the monsters probably smell better."

Amaryllis gazed pensively at her companion. “And what of the influence the artifact has on yourself?”

"I’m just gunna hang back." Oros was skating backwards. "Wouldn’t wanna become part of your sword’s meal. Or ‘banquet’ if you wanna be pretentious." she reached behind her back and grabbed her heel, which she had raised behind herself. "If I scare you though, you can always turn it off once they show up. I could also pay you for it." She held up a gold coin. "This is worth eight silver right?" She squinted her eyes. "Unless the grand magistrates shifted the continuum to increase the value of silver and bronze coins. You’ve gone too far this time!"

“No, that’s quite alright. Though I know not who these Grand Magistrates are, it’s recompense enough for you to introduce new hunting grounds to me.” She sat down at the edge of the harbor, her heels hanging off in mid-air. Watching Oros skate for a moment, Amaryllis visualized the same blades that the pink-haired monster girl skated on, before weaving her Metal magic into her shoes. Polished blades extended out from the soles in a crystalline fashion, and she carefully hopped down onto the ice below. Amaryllis pushed off, glided for a couple feet, and then pushed off with her other feet, slowly getting into the rhythm of it now.

Her lines weren’t so crisp as Oros’s, but she maintained her balance. It would be harder to stop on a dime though, and she’d have to be careful about how much strength she put into her legs too, lest the ice crack underneath the force of legs strong enough to send a sedan ten meters into the air.

A challenge then.

An aurora of malevolent energies exuded from the Knight of Rose once more, magenta ethers seeping out from the defiled horn in waves as she fed her artifact. In her hand, her Silverlight flourished, slicing crisp lines in the frosty air.

Seconds ticked on.

Crack.

Amaryllis glided to the side, dropping low on the ice as a dark blur shot out. More shapes followed, riddling the skating rink with holes. Fast. Almost fast enough that her eyes couldn’t track them. The darkened silhouettes crashed into the ice once more, before worming themselves up onto their flippers. In the moonlight, their form, their nature was revealed in all its slippery, spiny beauty.

The porcupoises have arrived.

Oros continued to skate around, even as the creatures burrowed up all around her. "I forgot how ugly they were, little shit-prickers! But see? They just took a bath. They can’t smell bad after a bath!"

The monsters seemed to ignore Oros and instead crawled closer to Amaryllis. They placed their front flippers over their heads before bending over. Then with a hop, they seemed to spin in place before jetting towards Amaryllis at high speed.

And the Knight of Rose skated to meet them. The ice beneath their feet were becoming more unsteady now, the holes punched into it cracking under the weight of the porcupoises, but remained steady, positioning herself sideways as the creatures leapt at her. Their spines flared out of their body, layering upon each other to turn each porcupoise into living spears. With no weapons beyond what their body had, however, they had no way of fighting in any other way. She dug her skates deep into the ice, cut off the magic that supplied the Infectious Yearn, and cut them down.

There were no bodies of flesh and bone that could withstand the bite of her Sword.

“Oros, I’ll leave the ones that retreat to you!”

"Hmmm?" The shrine maiden turned her head. "I mean, yea! Sure, why not?" There weren’t many monsters left once Amaryllis was done attacking, but a few had turned to flee.

There were here to ice skate as well as fight, or at least Oros was. She leaned folward so that she could raise her hind leg behind herself. Then with all her might, she swung her leg forward while leaping into the air. Before completing her first rotation, her sword flew out of her sheathe and cut one of the creatures in two. A second creature was decapitated, and a third one was minced by an array of carefully positioned swings. She landed after performing a perfect quadruple axel, and her sword arm was covered in quills. The last porcupoise was prepared to dive back into the sea when the needles came flying out of Oros’s arm. The porcupoise was juggled in the air by a salvo of flying needles. The last needle hit the creature between the eyes before it was allowed to sink.

"He now has enough holes for all his friends. Am I right, ladies?"

But that was just the first wave. Off in the distance, A creature slightly larger than a porcupoise revealed itself. It had a black and white body, and its quills were even longer than before. The Hystricia had surfaced to see what became of its minions.

"Oh man oh god! Oh man, oh god!" Oros skated up to Amaryllis. "We should do a duet!"

“Ah.”

While Oros was excited, Amaryllis was very much not. This wasn’t a foe that was necessarily leagues above the porcupoises she had made sashimi out of moments ago, but rather, this was the foe that was just enough to become the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Or in this case, the mammal that broke the ice.

As the ice broke into bits, the dozens of holes connecting to each other with fractures, Amaryllis recalled a very different situation, during a much warmer day. Grabbing Oros, she hurled the monster girl skywards with the force of a baseball pitcher who could pitch sedans.

And then she hit the water.

"Huh." Oros said as her body soared through the air. "I just realized how absurd Keijo is." She continued to have her discussion with no one in particular. "Everyone wears a bathing suit, but the goal is to avoid touching the water. Everyone is dressing up like they’re going to lose." She placed a hand on her chest. "Meanwhile, I’m not wearing a bathing suit, and I’m all about getting wet." She winked before plunging head first into the depths.

---

Meanwhile, the porcupoises and hystricia were able to make use of their underwater mobility. Mobility that the magical girls present didn’t possess. The hystricia surged forward as its smaller counterparts spun underwater. Even below the waves, they were capable of spin dashing.

No, that wasn’t wholly correct. Below the waves, their spin dashes became even more potent, their quills extending outwards to form propellers that shot them up at increased speeds! Miniature tornados, the remaining pack of porcupoises and their hystricia leader zoomed towards the two humans who had plummeted into an alien battlefield.

In the shock of freezing water, Amaryllis bit into her lower lip just to keep herself conscious. Dark waters surged all around, her pale flesh turning white in the frigid temperatures. Had her muscles turned sluggish, or was it just the resistance of water, pulling at her whenever she tried to move? Too dark to see where her enemies were, only that above, chunks of ice still bobbed up and down in the choppy waters. Holding onto her breath, forcing her blood to pump faster through her veins and counteract the cold, the Knight of Rose began to kick her feet, swimming upwards.

A phantom pain hammered into her back, and Amaryllis turned around just in time to block a porcupoise with her Sword, the monster catching onto the blade with a tangle of quills. Underwater combat was their domain, and they could hold their breath longer than any normal magical girl too. With a powerful flex of their tailfin, they swam further away from the harbor, pushing Amaryllis horizontally to prevent any ascent.

Ten seconds. She had ten seconds of oxygen left, before things became even worse.

And Oros was nowhere in sight. Nowhere to be heard even, despite never shutting up. Then again, Amaryllis had thrown Oros into the air. If she landed in the water, she had probably been separated. Though a bull shark had shown up from the direction of the harbor. It swam right for the monsters without a care in the world.

As dangerous as the monsters appeared, even porcupines didn’t have quills everywhere. Their bellies and faces were exposed to their predators, who often attacked these areas when they could. The bull shark was no different. It charged straight for a porcupoise’s exposed stomach and bit into it. Rather than letting go, it used the creature as a battering ram and strike another. It seemed Amaryllis had a friend in the sea today.

She didn’t know where the shark had come from or why it had chosen to help her, but the split second it bought Amaryllis was enough for the Knight of Rose to regain her composure. If she couldn’t reach the surface, then she would simply have to bring the surface to her!

Sliding her Sword back to her side, Amaryllis let the final bubbles of air left in her lungs hiss out between clenched teeth. She watched the direction they floated and stabilized her footing with two bulbs of silvered buds. The water was cold. Her temperature was dropping. Her hair floated in and out of her eyes, obscuring her vision. And from above now, the hystricia descended, fully armored in quills.

The Knight of Rose unleashed her strike.

The hystricia went flying, and she took her second breath of air as the waters parted.

The shark sped off in the direction of the hystricia, which had likely been killed or weakened by the attack. The remaining porcupoise had lost interest in Amaryllis and swam away to join up with their leader. The water was already dark at this hour of the night, but now it was also clouded with blood. The knight of rose was still able to find the surface of the waves.

Once she surfaced, she could see several monster corpses. Amaryllis was far away from the harbor, so none of these had been killed by her. Not one of them had been killed by a blade. Some of them had their stomachs bitten open, while others had been decapitated. A few unlucky ones had simply been speared on each other. Their blood looked like spilled oil or gasoline on the surface of the water. Splotches of various colors leaking out of the strange monsters. It wasn’t clear which direction led back to the harbor, but Amaryllis wouldn’t have to wait more than a few seconds for someone to discover her.

"Amy!"

Oros was paddling an inflatable raft over to her position. She had a life vest on, and was drenched. She wiped something off of her mouth as she approached.

"That was frickin’ badass!" She tossed a life saver at the freezing magical girl. "You tossed me to safety, and then you took on all of those critters underwater." She laughed. "Anyway, get your ass in this boat."

The life saver had a rope attached to it, which Oros used to pull Amaryllis closer to the raft. Once she was safely inside, Oros held out a towel for her. Though Oros’s eyebrows flicked upwards at a sudden realization. "You were never wearing a bra to begin with?"

Amaryllis sighed with some small relief as she climbed aboard the lifeboat. She hugged herself close as she shivered, teeth chattering against the cold. Environmental Sealing was beginning to sound like an amazing perk at this moment.

“It doesn’t come with the outfit,” she said between chattering teeth. “But more importantly, there was a shark too. Helped me for some reason.”

She draped the towel over her body, but still, the night breeze and the dampness of her hair and skin sucked heat out of her body.

"Oh! Yea, that was me." Oros turned her arm into a shark fin and flapped it around. "You looked like you had it all well under control, so I just took care of the stragglers." Her arm turned back. "I’m a little disappointed in the monsters though. I mean first of all, they were just a mish-mash of existing creatures. Secondly, that spin dash move is really situational. I’d feel weird using it just because they weren’t hedgefins that were using it." She reclined backwards into the raft, letting her arms prop up her torso. "Well, you look kind of cold. It’s probably not a good idea to keep fighting like that." She grinned. "Do you have a preferred way of getting warm?"

“Ah, a wearer of a thousand skins,” Amaryllis nodded. “I thank you for your assistance then, Oros. As for recovering from this dreadful chill that has seeped into my very soul…”

She paused, remembering the warmth of a hot meal after three days out in the woods. The spiciness of fried chicken, the saltiness of the broth, the textures of minced garlic and spring onions, the melting of slow-cooked meat. She had been eating a lot ever since she became a magical girl, huh?

“...noodle soup would be a comfort unmatched by anything but the embrace of another human being.”

The maiden raised a single eyebrow. "Really? Didn’t figure you for the type to say something like that." Her grin widened. "I think I know of one thing that can make you even warmer." Oros shook off her arms until they were somewhat dry before embracing Amaryllis a second time. But this time something was different. Everything behind Oros started to disappear. The raft, the water, even the stars in the sky were being consumed by a shadow. Soon, darkness blanketed Amaryllis’s entire vision. She felt a brief chill and then…

Sunlight.

Amaryllis and Oros were still in the raft, but they had been transported to what looked like the beach dimension. The cold air of penrose had been replaced by the sweltering heat of Dan’s dimension. It felt like she had just been rolled out of a freezer. Oros no longer felt warm. If anything, she was doing more to prevent Amaryllis from overheating.

But when Oros lifted her head to meet Amaryllis’s gaze, she could see pink hearts in her eyes again.

"Turnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnitoff!"

“Oh.”

A flicker, and the horn became inert once more. Amaryllis gently pushed Oros off her and stood up to survey the location she had been transported to. She couldn’t feel the tug of Penrose’s barrier, that was for sure. So that would make it...Dan’s beach resort? The Knight of Rose slipped off her boots and let her feet into the warm, salty waters.

“Your Patron is Dan?”

Oros had simply allowed herself to fall onto her back with her arms crossed above her head. She was breathing deeply, like she had just run a marathon. "Nah, I just found this place in my travels." She picked up her sword and looked into the sheen. "This isn’t my first time in Penrose, I’ve been to that shit hole a few times. A bit more exciting than here I’ll admit." With a sigh, she lowered her sword back into the sand. "I didn’t entirely bring you here for the warmth. I have some business to conduct here too." Oros stood back up. She slid her arms out of her robes, which caused the top half of her outfit to fall around her waist. "Shouldn’t take me too long." A frilly bikini top appeared in her outstretched hand, which she started to put on. "You’re fine if I leave you alone for a bit right? I’ll be back in thirty tops."

“So long as your work does not add Penrose-esque excitement to this realm, feel free to,” Amaryllis waved. She took in a breath, enjoying the saltiness of the ocean waves and the gentle grittiness of the sand squeezing between her toes. “A moment of respite is never unwelcome the morn beyond a clash. Though this change in light and dark will doubtlessly befuddle my natural understanding of temporal cycles.”

"Heh!" With a tug, her bikini top was secured. Oros immediately set off towards her destination. "Tempura cycles? If you’re still cold when I get back, maybe we’ll get something to eat. Otherwise, we’ll hunt more monsters. The bestiary is a little empty at the moment."

Amaryllis smiled, and then turned her gaze back to the unending oceans, grateful for a moment without the haranguing of her Patron.

“Perhaps read a book or two as well.”

Lostman Graffiti

Alright, think it's time to put this to rest. It's been a pleasure, y'all.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

^{@Pyromania99@Rune_Alchemist@PaulHaynek}

Was she sensitive to pain, or were her ears abnormally sensitive? As the large-eared woman reacted rather childishly to her own ears, Isidore tugged on his own. It didn’t feel all that noteworthy for him, and now, he certainly had to wonder.

How would she respond to a gentler touch upon those ears of hers? Perhaps the Goddess’s prophecies and perspectives had some weight to them after all.

Though it was clear enough that this woman, Augusta, received a gift of sight, of knowledge, from the Lady of the Depths. Still, it would be uncouth to skip so many steps in pursuing a lady so picture-perfect as the one before him, regardless of their gothic surroundings. “I’ve no intention of doing so in our current situation,” he replied, brushing a strand of hair out of his eyes. “Good name, if ill-suited for our surroundings.”

A momentary pause, his dark gaze gliding towards their neighbor in the cell adjacent to them. Brown hair, blue eyes, and a boy-next-door look. How many humans had the Goddess plucked out from Death’s grasp anyhow? The lady deigned to respond though, so Isidore turned away from him after, grasping the shackles that extended out from the walls instead. He took a breath, then pulled at them, gradually increasing exertion until he could feel the rusted bolts and eroded stone give way. A bit more, and he wrenched two shackles out from the wall.

Wasn’t going to last, but it was comforting, nonetheless, having such a nostalgic weapon. Reminded him of the days when he was a snot-nosed brat, tying a combination lock to a handkerchief so he could break the jaw out of the fifteen year old who stole his backpack.
Good times, reckless times.

“I’ve no intent on staying here longer than necessary myself, Augusta. Seeing you understand my boon as well, I’m sure you aren’t against following my lead?” Isidore strode to the window, jerking his head off to the side. “We’ll be heading out. I’m Isidore, and the lady behind me is Augusta. Let’s acquaint ourselves properly once we meet outside.”

With that, he strode out casually, heading straight for the black stone walls that faced them. Inspecting them with some care, Isidore followed the carvings with his eyes, noting the patterns that the artistic carvings had. It flowed too regularly to be language, unless it repeated a single phrase constantly. Just art then.

“Fancy prison,” he muttered, and turned his attention further down the room, listening for the overweight warden as he proceeded through it.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Another pod seemed to have opened - And Abigail had the unfortunate circumstance to end up on the third floor this time. The aspiring hero was similarly launched from her pod like the others had been, except on the inaccessible third floor this time. As soon as she gathered her bearings, Abigail would notice this particular floor seemed spared from whatever happened to this place. Certainly everything was old, and any furniture had been smashed. The shelves lining the walls seemed to hold a few things however - books. They were old, faded, and definitely would have likely fallen apart at the slightest touch and even if they weren't, they were likely to have been unreadable after being exposed to the elements for so long.

You're in the last group. Feet pics. RPGuild doesn't notify everyone past a certain amount of mentions.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

@Ponn@twave Completion of killing kobolds with a physical manifestation of their literal worst nightmare will net ya'll 2 Silver or 8 Bronze.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

I'll update payouts probably at the end of the skip, to see if anyone else has gotten their goals up.