ERode

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

Yes, in Shopv1, the bonuses for weapons were meant to stack upon the original weapon stats.

I've clarified with Ari, who basically stated that you can't equip more than one weapon at a time. So no dual wielding n all.

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

@Majoras End
Eyo, just as a heads up, if Eliza is equipped with the Heavy Blade and the Mystic Dress that she purchased, she would have an extra +1 to STR, VIT, and MAG, because in the old shop, the bonuses were supposed to stack upon the baseline of being a Melee Weapon and an Elaborate Outfit. Basically, in total...

Heavy Blade: +3 STR, +3 VIT
Mystic Dress: +2 MAG and flight capability

EDIT: Also, to clarify, Eliza wouldn't be getting benefits from both her Fist/Mystic weapon and her Melee/Mystic weapon at the same time. Her stats will change depending on which one she's wielding at the moment.

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

Mini update, as we get ever closer to the next events.

Magical Buffs

While all magical specializations can, in the hands of a creative enough individual, be used to enhance one’s physical abilities further than what their transformations usually grant them, certain specializations can do so better than others. The extent to which one’s physical attributes can be increased is dependent on a portion of the buffer’s Magic stat, which signifies the total amount of ‘extra’ stats one can distribute between their Strength, Agility, and Vitality.

As an example, with a MAG of 20, 1/4th of which can be applied to buffs, you will be able to increase physical stats by 5 points, distributed as you wish, between yourself and your allies.

The amount of time that buffs can be sustained for will be left up to the player’s discretion, with the understanding that increasing your physical stats by the maximum possible amount would be considered a draining task, and this breakdown serves only to give a general idea of how potent one’s buffs are.

Rounding down:
Reinforcement – 1/2 your MAG score.

Lightning - 1/3 your MAG score.
Wood - 1/3 your MAG score.
Beast - 1/3 your MAG score.
Stone - 1/3 your MAG score.

Other Specializations – 1/5 your MAG score.

Gifted specializations may work around these limits as appropriate.

Shop Prices

Shop prices have received a revamp, with most prices being lowered and the description of some items being clarified. Furthermore, every time skip period will see the Powers and Perks in the shop be refreshed, changing up what's available for purchase. Later on in this coming week, there may even be new weapons and outfits to buy in the shop. Maybe.

Check it out here~!

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Mayhaps we can go for a double round this week?

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

^{@Pyromania99@Rune_Alchemist@PaulHaynek}

As the skull of the wretched creature gave way, Isidore grinded his sole into the slurry of brain matter and bone fragments for good measure before scraping his shoe against the floor. It left a grisly trail, but he didn’t mind so much. Augusta, showing more gumption than what he’d have expected out of such a fine lady, was the one to break off the creature’s fingers one by one, wrestling the sword out of its deadman’s grasp. Either the two of them were of the same ‘breed’ as himself, or the Goddess had done something to their minds to grant them tolerance towards such things.

Or perhaps video games have just become so graphic that such scenes as a creature with a caved-in skull is no longer worth commenting on? Isidore wouldn’t know.

“I’ve had practice,” he said, tilting his head in Nick’s direction. Picking up the chain that he threw, the man looped it around his left arm for the time being. There was a slight pressure from the constriction of the links against his flesh, but the sensation seemed muted too. His heart beat, but what blood did he bleed? Isidore closed his eyes, listening for that overweight warden who had failed so terribly at his job. Only silence now, however, and an obvious entrance in sight. “We leave then,” Isidore said. He extended out a hand towards Augusta, palm up. “If neither of you have a strong desire towards this sword, I will claim it then.”

Whether she changed her mind and decided to keep it for herself anyways or handed the sword over, Isidore wouldn’t wait too long. Through the archway, he could see both daylight and snowfall, opening up into what appeared to be a courtyard, and he strode on out, expecting the others to follow. The snow was a bit of a blessing, allowing him to scrape away the last bits of viscera that clung to his shoe, and it was promising too, that there were no tracks indicating the presence of something larger than perhaps a cat. Before the prison that they had just exited was a wall, while off to the left was another building built in the same fashion as the prison. It was the chunks of chunks of stone partially submerged in dirt and stone that caught his attention though, looking to predate the edifices surrounding them.

Approaching the cluster, Isidore brushed away some of the snow to reveal the carvings underneath. He motioned for Augusta.

“Do your eyes glean anything from these patterns?”

Cacophony Concord

The grate shuddered under the force of her kick, her palms grinding against corroded metal. She didn’t have any affect the first go around, but Ari wasn’t one to throw in the towel after one flip and kick. With a stylishly dextrous and agile body, she continued to go at the grate, and slowly, the catgirl could feel the stone begin to shift away from the metal. It had become loose! With some more effort, perhaps, she’d be able to pop it right open!

“Oi!” A male voice called out from above her, gruff and irritated. “This is city property, Immortal. Cease this instant.”

Looking up, Ari would see an individual who looked very much the part of an armed guard. Standing 5’9 in a conical helmet of lacquered wood and metal plates, with a heavy, dark coat over his body that was emblazoned with the symbol of a sakura blossom, each petal of a different color, the square-faced man looked sternly at her, his beady eyes narrowed into a squint while his hand rested comfortably on a sheathed dao.
_@Greengoat

---

As Lugh made his presence know, the priestess's face lit up, grateful to receive the out that the dark-haired warrior offered. "Oh," she said, making a step towards him, "our te-"

"Hey, c'mon," a portly, aristocratic-looking player said, "Don't just ignore us!"

"Yeah," the distractingly effeminate one bobbed his head. "We're interested in the faith too, y'know. Can you simply reject new believers? Is that how the Shin-Yu Temple is?"

The dark-skinned warrior with a mane of luscious locks wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go somewhere more private, darling. You can share your gospel with us all you want once those distractions are out of the way."
_{@Cu Chulainn}

---

The frogman descended, his fist slamming into the ground where Raime had been moments earlier. A shockwave, no, an eruption resounded, a three meter diameter crater forming where his hammer fist met the ground. Tremendous force, accompanied by displaced dirt and stone, sent the ranger even further away. He tumbled, rolled on the grassy field, 34 damage dealt even when the main attack hadn’t landed on his fragile body.

Then, the pain hit him.

His body screamed, aches shaking deep into his organs. Nothing felt like it had cracked or broken, but the nausea was intense, disorientation causing him to almost double over. Thoughts scrambling, ears ringing, Raime could hardly push himself up, and it was all he could do to keep a shaky grip on his weapon. At 100% pain sensitivity, the sensation of being flung away by an explosion, of being struck by stony shrapnel, was simply devastating.

From the crater, shrouded by dust, the silhouette of the frogman rose up once more. Crackling could be heard as he clenched and unclenched his fists, eyes shining in the smoke as he stared down Amulak. The next target was sighted.

But Ames would not let that be.

Guided by stylish intent, the red-haired warrior, Nuclei-less and unleveled, surged out through the smoke, right foot lashing out in a spinning roundhouse kick that caught the frogman on the back of the head. A heavy impact rebounded in Ames’s leg, and he pushed off with that same foot, doing a 360 degree body twist and landing on the ground with enough force to disperse the smoke.

The frogman, head forced forward by the kick, regained his posture slowly, gradually.

And once again resumed his spearfisher’s stance, this time facing Ames.
_{@Searat@Psyker Landshark@Yankee@OwO@Shovel}

Cacophony Concord

There wasn’t much room at all to maneuver down the narrow path, but Ari was flexible and agile enough that she didn’t have any trouble with exploring up and down the path. There were no rats that she could spot in broad daylight, however, while the ants that she saw crawling about went into crevices and cracks much too small for her to fit through. Something more promising appeared fifty meters away from the location of the hidden gambling den, however. An iron grate in the wall, four feet in height and diameter, leaked a trickle of water down into the stream before it. If she could wrestle the grate off and wasn’t feeling particularly claustrophobic, the catgirl could perhaps navigate into the tunnel system of Nyu-Taro and find herself another way into the Tsi-Lai Gang’s hideout that way?

As she entertained such thoughts, however, her human ears could pick up too, that the sound of squeaking vermin bounced through the small tunnels as well. If Cacophony Concord was the sort of word that would even count rats as monsters, she would definitely be disadvantaged, crawling through spaces so small that her min-maxed AGI/DEX build would be functionally useless.
_@Greengoat

---

Heading west, Lew forgot his heartbreak by taxing his legs instead, climbing up several flights of stairs as the layout of the city-state became far more vertical. He could see up above him several dozen superhuman individuals bounding up and down the roofs or racing upon the strings from which koi fish streamers or paper lanterns were suspended. It was the same frenetic atmosphere as the main streets of Nyu-Taro, however, there was a key difference. As he watched their movements up above, one player launched himself at a steepled building, yet landed not on the roofs, but rather upon the vertical surface of an invisible barrier that sparkled where his feet landed. He kicked off soon after, redirecting his travels southwards, but for the raven-haired Lugh, that was his first exposure to barriers in this virtual world. Not just as methods of protecting his allies, not just as methods of blocking off monsters, but as magically constructed obstacles that could be used in any manner, so long as one’s creativity was up to the task.

Three blocks later, he found himself standing in front of a squat, one story building, a stone wall doing little to deter visitors when the oaken doors were swung wide open. In the front courtyard was a Zen garden, gravel being raked into hypnotizing swirls by a bald-headed monk, while the building itself sported a bronze statue of robed man with twelve arms, each stretched out and splayed to form a knife-hand. His expression was serene as he sat cross-legged, but behind the statue, faded paper screens depicted the chaotic creation of the world, molten flame and crushing waves battling each other until the storming heavens split them apart. Further within, the chanting of dozens of acolytes could be heard, reciting mantras in a language that wasn’t translated by the system.

A few Immortals loitered about the grounds, while other fresh-faced newbies spoke to a blue-haired priestess in a long-sleeved kimono, white laced with silver threads. She stood by the offertory box, and judging by her strained expressions and the snatches of conversation Lugh heard, it definitely didn’t sound like those players were interested in any of the training offered by the Temple. Didn’t sound like they were going to go away any time soon, either.

Was Lugh a patient man though? Or was he an indulgently heroic one?
_{@Cu Chulainn}

---

Raime’s intentions were read, and the world slowed to a crawl as his Agility-enabled time dilation kicked in, every pounding droplet of water from the nearby falls visible to him. His hands moved, swift and certain, guided by the experience garnered from his fights as well as his attributes. Though Magpie was fast, his bolts were faster, four shots blasting out of his crossbow one after another. They crossed the distance to the frogman in mere moments.

And yet, in that slowed space, where even his allies moved half as fast as he did, the frogman was faster still. Snapping his head to the side, the monster pulled his knife hand back, dodging three bolts while catching the fourth. The ranger wasn’t fast enough to get a warning out; Amulak was already in the process of casting magic, and with both frontliners still rushing forwards, there once again was no one present to protect the backline.

With a flick of the wrist, the amphibious brawler redirected the bolt’s path, flinging it between Magpie and Klein to pierce right into Amulak’s mana-weaving hand. The force was tremendous, knocking his hand back and his Magic Bolt off-course as 27 points of damage was dealt. A numb pain pulsated in Amulak’s right hand, but more troubling was the fact that he seemed to have lost some of the functionality in his hand as a result. His fingers no longer responded to his commands so easily, and he couldn’t clench it at all.

The frog tightened his lips in the facsimile of a human smile, before springing to meet Magpie’s advance, left foot propelling him while the right foot slammed into her swinging fist, inflicting 22 points of damage. The shock ran through her entire body, but the brawler wouldn’t be repelled by such a kick, holding her ground. She had grown stronger. Her physical might was the greatest of them all. She could arm wrestle five men at once and come out ahead!

That same tremendous might, however, meant that her arm didn’t sway at all when the webbed foot gripped onto her fist and used it as a stepping stone. The frogman vaulted into the air, a dark silhouette against the sun. Klein could only watch as the monster flew over the second defensive line, straight towards Raime. The hammer fist, cocked back this entire time, finally surged forwards, a fiery light bursting from it as the frogman descended upon the ranger who had isolated himself from the party whilst repositioning.

If the blow landed, the results would be devastating.
_{@Searat@Psyker Landshark@Yankee@OwO@Shovel}

My Hero Academia: Raw Potential

There was a saying that for one to eat healthily, they must eat thirty different ingredients every day. Before him, however, Kouki could count forty, and all of this was just for breakfast. His mother, eyes bagged from an early morning but face beaming with an excitement that he couldn’t show as easily, patted him on the shoulder, encouraging him to eat.

So he did. It wasn’t like he was against good food anyways. He drank the miso, chewed on natto, flaked apart mackerel, cracked open an egg, tried an assortment of pickled vegetables, cleansed his palate with rice, tried out some porridge, mixed his sprouts with mayonnaise, soy sauce, and wasabi. And that was a quarter of the table. His father had his own breakfast of coffee and the newspaper, sipping quietly, while his mother continued to motion for Kouki to eat. “It’s your first day to high school, after all,” she beamed warmly. “I made you extra for lunch too, so make sure to share with your classmates, ok? Especially the girl you’re interested in!”

Kouki hunched his shoulders, his ears burning. He covered his thoughts in savory pudding instead, before grunting vaguely. Probably was a mistake to tell the truth, but it was worse to lie. Or maybe he was already pretty bad just for joining a hero class without heroic aspirations? He chewed on stir-fried tofu skin and crunched on julienned carrots. If the clock was accurate, there was another fifteen minutes before he would be late. Not nearly enough to clear the table, not when his stomach already felt half way through popping out. He looked up at his mother again, who had moved on to washing the gratuitous amount of dishes that such a breakfast would demand. She hadn’t eaten either yet. That made him feel slightly better to not finish his meal.

Someone else, however, didn't want such a defeatist attitude so early.

“C’mon and eat up, son.” His father, stubble-faced with a natural sneer, motioned. “Gonna need plenty of stamina if you wanna be a hero, yeah?”

Kouki looked at him, shook his head.

“Hey now, you can be a hero for just one special someone too, y’know?” The man drained his mug of coffee, before pushing away from the laden table and walking to his workplace, five meters away. “And if you ever need any advice, I’m always willing to lend an ear.”

“Mhm.”

“Of the romantic kind, of course. Can’t remember shit ‘bout high school sciences.” The man chortled, then plugged his headset in and began the hour-long process of replying to his e-mails.

“Nn.” Kouki continued to eat. Fifteen minutes passed, and he made it one-third of the way through the breakfast buffet. He had a good idea of what dinner was going to look like tonight, at least. The boy shrugged on his blazer, picked up his bag in one hand, and grabbed his lunch box with the other. The weight gave him pause; it looked like the amount one would pack for sports day. A whisper of a sigh seeped out from between his teeth. He could try at least. If others asked. They probably wouldn’t.

Sliding his chair back into the table, the gray-haired youth made off. He managed to open the door part way before he heard his mom speak up.

“Kouki, what do you say when you leave?”

“See you.” A pause. He should be thankful for the food. He was a first year high school student now. He could try making a more mature effort. “Have a good day.”

“You take care too,” she said, sliding over to give him a tight hug. “Make sure to take lotsa photos and show us later, ok?”

Better than having his parents show up like they had during middle school. Kouki nodded, then walked off. Down the apartment staircase, down three blocks, and there Matsubara High School was. Ten minutes away walking, a boring building that he had seen every day of his life here in this city. Other students filed into it, while salarymen headed the opposite direction, towards subways that would carry them into the business district, or perhaps an entirely different city. He slipped his headphones out of his bag, plugged them into his phone, put them over his ears, and continued walking to a remix.

The teacher manning the gates made a disapproving motion when Kouki passed by, but he couldn’t hear him, so he wasn’t going to stop for him either. Steps matching the beats of the song, he swapped his sneakers for slippers, strode into his classroom, nodded once at the teacher, beelined for a desk at the back, plopped his bag and lunchbox down on either side of him, as if erecting walls, and reclined on the chair.

It would be harder to see the board from the back of the class, but Kouki was willing to make the sacrifice this time around. He’d be able to see her from the back as well, after all.

The music continued to play, as the clock continued to tick down.

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

Amaryllis and Tetrad

_{Caught in the Crossfire}

Apocalypse or not, Starbucks was still open.

Sitting by the window, Amaryllis hunched her shoulders as she cradled a cup of hot chocolate, watching the glass steam up. Though the coffehouse was still open, the heater had long gone bad, and the only person who worked there was a seventeen year old currently lazing about in the backrooms. The radio that played just reeled out soft static, and the walls were decorated with the shadows of where paintings and pictures were once framed. Dressed in a puffy overcoat, the midnight-haired girl watched the mini-marshmallows bob up and down as she tilted her cup back and forth. It wasn’t that Tetrad was late, just that Amaryllis had showed up a bit too early out of fear of being late.

Which, in and of itself, was a bit of a problem.

Fortunately, Tetrad was also the punctual sort, and arrived early. She was wearing a long coat that had fur bursting out of every opening.

“Thrift shops rock!”

Tetrad tucked her hair into the hood before sitting down. “I’m sure this is a sin, but I’ve actually never ate at a starbucks. I heard they had retarded coffee sizes or something.” She plopped down across from Amaryllis. “I get the impression if I followed you around, I’d spend half of my time hunting monsters and the other half dining in random eateries. Man, that’s the life.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Oh well. Beats doing everything over the phone or coms. What’s up?”

“It’s expensive and plain, but the ingredients they use are pretty good for a franchise,” Amaryllis replied. She tried sipping at her cocoa, but retracted the tip of her tongue when it touched the hot liquid. Too hot to drink, still. “Sizes are weird yeah, but they usually get the idea when you use normal sizes. Unless they’re a franchise drone.”

Reclining on her seat, she set her drink down, a half-smile on her face. “Well, with most of Penrose down, there really isn’t much else to do. Not like theaters or arcades are open. And if we go out of town...well, might end up missing out on another world-ending threat.” Not that she could, anyhow. “Called you over to ask about that, actually. Uh, so Veronica’s like a Patron but she’s also a magical girl, right? Was wondering if the Cradle knew of any methods of, mm...improving or changing how some of our abilities functioned? Mainly because, well, there’s a lotta people that I don’t want to see dead, but I only have two Hero Tokens and one of them can’t even be used on people…”

“Hero tokens?” Tetrad tipped her head. “Wait! Yea, Trixy has something like that. You can respond to danger in time, right.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose before folding her hands behind the back of her head. “Eh, not really. There are some special girls that can do weird stuff, but it’s not exactly something you can just replicate.” She tapped her foot. “There are ways you can cheat though. Like as an example I can teleport to any of my green cards. So all I need to do is give someone one of my cards and I can teleport to them if they phone me. Kind of like what we did during that Keijo match where I blinked to your back. Haha! I should have lost that one.” Tetrad pulled her hood over her head.

“For less jerry-rigged choices, you can put everyone you want to protect in one area and then use that ‘other’ token you can’t put directly on them. The very best option is probably just to be a cradle agent. We all communicate telepathically, can see each other, etc etc. It’s probably the closest thing to what you’re talking about. But Cradle isn’t for everyone.” With a sigh, Tetrad lowered her arms. She seemed to be lost in thought, then she lifted her head. “B-but yea! Who are you trying to protect? And if that’s none of my business, how many? Might help to know.”

Resignation, rather than disappointment, surfaced over Amaryllis’s features, but it disappeared soon enough when she realized she could take a sip of cocoa without scalding her tongue. “It’s not really something that can be solved with everyone joining Scarlet’s group, yeah,” she said, her brow furrowing in thought. “Off the top of my head though...Violet, Sakura, Mariette, Sammy, Nuncio, Sophia, Alicia, Rina, Betty, Emily, Hilaria, and you. Not that, you know, I don’t think you’re unable to defend yourself, but like, in case things go crazy because they always do, y’know?”

“Yyyyyyyyyyeaaaaaaaaa.” Tetrad’s eyes closed to half mast. “Things tend to get crazy around me all the time.” She crossed her arms over the table. “Which is why I’m surprised Betty of all people is the one who could have used your help last.”

“Justine was at the rave. She’s back to her old crap again, turning girls and what not.” She pulled out her phone so that she could look at the Cradle discussion about it. “Veronica was personally trying to catch her, but she just disappeared, unable to be followed. Which is strange, because she has no problem tracking Cradle agents wherever they go.” She closed her phone with a shrug. “Well, I’m sure we’ll find her in time.”

“Maybe it’s an Overcity Shift sorta thing? Psychic powers don’t, y’know, go past dimensions and all.” Amaryllis took another sip of the bittersweet beverage. “I’m sure you will though, yeah. I mean, she can’t be that tough if she was already beaten once, right?”

“Depends which video game franchise she crawled out of. But we’re avid gamers at Cradle.” Tetrad grinned. She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a fan of cards. “Suppose I can make that list a bit shorter.” She tossed a green uno card to Amaryllis. “Best part is that I can just teleport to you whenever. Theoretically, even if you need help.” She laughed. “Though you strike me as the type who’d hold off as long as possible before calling for help.” She paused. “Wait, Violet, Sakura, and Mariette? You’re friends with the portal witch?”

“Uh, yeah? She helped me figure out a buncha stuff n all.”

“And the paladin...” Tetrad scratched her chin. She wasn’t smiling anymore. “You realize some of your friends want to kill each other right? Some of your friends want to kill me I’m pretty sure.”

“Wait, what?” Amaryllis set her cup down. It was almost empty anyways, and she was getting tired of the taste. “I mean, Mariette’s Patron is a Horror and everything, but she’s not even corrupted. Even if we set that aside, isn’t it, I dunno, normal to not go immediately for murder? Discounting fights with actual monster and all.”

Well, she certainly hoped that the Ascendancy’s ‘purge-on-sight’ motto wasn’t something that was reflected in basically every other magical girl in Penrose.

“They want. To kill. Each other.” Tetrad fret her brow. “Amaryllis, I can’t even. I literally cannot even right now.” She pointed at her cup with every finger she had available to her. “I literally cannot.” She pointed at the floor. “Even just a little bit.” Tetrad breathed. “H-how did you even get so many powerful connections? Just befriend Penny and you can take over Penrose!”

“Oh, uh...I think I am friends with Penny too.” Amaryllis scratched her cheek sheepishly. “Just, y’know, I think she’s actually the only person who I can trust not to like, need me to be around them?”

“Stop, STOP!” Tetrad threw up her hands. “Just stop!” After holding her hands in front of Amaryllis for a moment, she rocked back in her seat and sighed. “Okay.” She placed her hand on her forehead and began breathing slowly. “Okay.” she told herself before throwing back her hood. “Why come to me?”

“Because I trust you?”

Well, it was more complicated than that, but Amaryllis didn’t really think all that complicated stuff would matter too much.

“Okay.” Tetrad eventually stopped rubbing her forehead, at which point there was a red welt where she had been rubbing her eyebrow. “Sorry, things are just getting really crazy. I certainly didn’t expect you to have so many connections. You’re so unassuming for that.” She blinked a few times. “Just be careful. I wish I could help you out more with your problem, but I don’t have a working knowledge about how some of those people work. In terms of their magic. Short of getting their phone number and setting something up like my green card trick, I can’t offer much right now.” She sniffed. “I don’t have much more to say than be careful. The Mint would be really interested in you if they knew about your connections. ”

“Ah…haha…”

Amaryllis tapped the side of her beverage nervously like a disobedient child. Tetrad’s stress levels really were sorta high, huh? “That’s uh, probably already sorta...interesting? Cause while the rave was going on and all, I sorta ended up picking a fight with the Mint…Sorry?”

Tetrad had looked upset, but with her entire head trembling, she was starting to look furious. She turned to the counter. “You there with the hat! Get me your strongest drink, in your largest size! ”

”I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t serve-”

“Your strongest, drink. I don’t care if you have to raid your bosses office for his stash of Vodka. Just do, your, best.”

The counter person avoided eye contact with Tetrad, nodded, and started talking to another employee.

“Amaryllis Evenings.” Tetrad said with a tone befitting her mother. “Forging alliances between everyone? Pissing off the Mint? Do you think this is some kind of game?”

“It kinda is.” A pink haired girl said as she walked past their window.

“Quiet you!” She returned her attention to Amaryllis. “Do you understand why this is a problem? If the Mint learns about your extensive network, that’s all the more reason to attack people you’re close to. You’re already really selfless, so they know they can force your hand by doing things to your friends. Or worse, they’ll come for you directly with their strongest goons.” She clasped her hands over her head. “Your friends should be the ones giving you hero tokens. I hope you have Penny on speed dial because if you’re afraid I’ll get hurt, you at least don’t have to worry about her.”

Amaryllis didn’t respond. If the Mint came to her directly, that would be easy. Simple and direct, a decisive moment to strike them down. But if they went after those she cared about...if they played her friends against each other…

The table splintered and cracked as her fingers tensed.

“Tetrad, did you work for the Mint before?” Amaryllis asked in a quiet voice.

“Wa?” Tetraid raised an eyebrow. “No! I didn’t do anything like that!” She folded her arms and looked away from Amaryllis. “Though I guess I can understand why you might think I did. Everyone in Cradle has that shady person vibe. But that’s just the nature of our work.” She looked at Amaryllis out of the corner of her eye. “I know you never worked for the Mint.”

“Ah.” Amaryllis blinked, drained what remained of her cup, and tossed it over her shoulder. The paper cup landed perfectly into the recyclables bin. “Sorry, was just thinking that you, like, knew a lot about the Mint. And if you worked for them before, maybe you’d know more. Such as, y’know, how to make sure they never come to Penrose again.”

“Everything I know about the Mint is second hand. Doesn’t hurt that my boss was former Mint.” Tetrad shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what makes the Mint hard to deal with though. It’s a giant pyramid scheme, and nobody knows who sits at the top. That goes for Veronica too, and she was a coin broker.” She pretended to look at a wrist watch. “Well, this was a very, enlightening, discussion.” She rubbed her hands together. “Next get together should be less business orientated.”

“Mm, sorry about all this. Maybe next time we could do something fun together. Like…” Amaryllis scrunched up her face, going through the litany of things she did other than kill monsters these days. “...read Twelfth Night together?”

“Suuuuuuuure we can.”

The counter person looked at Tetrad. Then quickly looked away to avoid eye contact. Seemed even starbucks employees could be pushed too far.

“Couldn’t find anything?” The counter person only turned away further. “Ah well, it was worth a shot, take care.” Tetrad stepped out the door.

Amaryllis wave-

“Oh shit, wait!”

Practically leaping out of her stool, she ran to catch up to Tetrad once more.

“Right, this totally slipped my mind, but like, all I do is monster hunt, so do you know if the Cradle has, I don’t know, something like those Pokemon GO lures or whatever that you use for like, attracting more monsters? Travel time really cuts down on my sleep, so...yeah…”

“Hmmm.” It took Tetrad a moment to think. “Sort of. Veronica did have something like a monster lure, but it was a bit too dangerous to give to field agents. I can’t recall specifics, but it made monsters stronger when they ate it and even worked on monster girls.” She pointed down the road. “I think she traded it to Brittany, so you might be able to buy it if no one else claims it.” Tetrad turned to face Amaryllis. “Anything else?”

“Brittany...alright, got it. Thanks Tetrad!”

With that Amaryllis...awkwardly ended up walking in the same direction Tetrad had been heading as well. “And, like, I was serious about the whole reading thing, y’know? We could even bring Emily into it and have like, a whole reading night! Not that my books survived Penrose’s fire and earthquake though…”

“I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Tetrad waved before walking down one of Penrose’s side streets.

The response was non-committal enough that Amaryllis wanted to educate Tetrad then and there about the wonders of 16th century drama, but she opted to complete her wave instead. There would be plenty of time after solving all of Penrose’s problems for her to talk literature to her friends, after all.

Whenever that would be.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

^{@Pyromania99@Rune_Alchemist@PaulHaynek}

An average dude? The colloquialism caught him off-guard for a moment there, before a smile flickered over Isidore’s expression. The young ones in his employ rarely had the gumption of acting so casual before him, not unless they were well into their drinks, and those who did lost it after the first month or two. He had run a tight ship then. Perhaps he could loosen up. Just a little bit.

“A pleasure as well...” Isidore’s mouth twitched. “…dude.”

No, he may be in a body stronger and faster than he had ever been in his youth, but he certainly couldn’t act as such. The instance of mirth left him, and a cold, exacting serenity settled into his veins once more as they continued their way through the prison. Cells fell behind, iron bars ruptured or wholly missing, indications of individuals more monstrous than the ones that fell into step behind him. Isidore let his senses out, feeling with a nostalgic clarity the tingling of his skin, the prickling of his thumb. His intuition told him to stop moments before the sounds did, and the scraping of a blade against the ground warned his companions to do the same.

It was a monster, in the truest sense, inhuman and horrible, twisted beyond recognition, mutated beyond any of evolution’s more interesting mechanisms. Distended bones pushed out of skin, eyes shrivelled in sockets that went deep, deeper. The work of a sadist of a sculptor, discarded to rot within these blasted corridors. The raven-haired man felt his heartbeat pick up, a thrum of chemical energy trickling into his limbs.

He smiled, all teeth and restrained violence.

Augusta’s words trickled useful information into the ears of the ignorant, marking the creature as the worst sort of predator: an ambusher who used bursts of speed with no talent for stealth, a pack animal who could not survive alone yet wandered unaccompanied by others of its craven kind. A pathetic, cursed being, for whom death was more blessing than affliction.

“The world, it appears, seems to see it fit to balance your beauty with creatures of immense crudeness, Augusta. Such affront, I believe, should not be stood for.” As he spoke, Isidore wrapped one length of chain-and-shackle around his left arm, covering his forearm in coiled links. He hefted the other chain by the loose end, feeling the comforting weight of the cuffs on the other. The man turned to the others, eyes lightless in the dark corridors. “I ask you avert your eyes, if tolerance for base violence was not something you've built in your past life.”

He would certainly take a crack at it.

In his right hand, Isidore began to spin the chain, allowing centrifugal force to accelerate it as it whipped through the air in a perfect circle. Stepping out into the hallway, he regarded the creature in its entirety, watching as it turned to face him. A sword was long. His chains weren’t so long. The creature wielded that blade in its right hand; Isidore’s left arm, wrapped in chain, faced it. A fight was settled before the movements were made, in the gaps between frenzied exchanges. He had been a spitfire in his youth, vicious and relentless.

Isidore envisioned it.

It would lunge, trusting the length of its arm and sword versus a swirling chain.

He would throw it instead, release the chain that had built up so much dizzying force.

It would land. Disrupt. Give him the opportunity he needed to close in.

Swing his armored left against the extended blade, knock it away. Disarm. Stomp on the outer side of the knee. Unbalance. Reach with his right to grab the back of the skull and slam the monster into the ground. Debilitate. Stomp on its skull until it turned to paste until his heel.

The creature attacked.

Isidore acted.