Gentlemanvaultboy

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Oooooo, you could be like those musician assassins from Kung Fu Hustle except with a banjo and spaceships.

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Filk is the one that stumps me. Like, the definition of filk seems like

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Imagine a pyramid scheme, except instead of selling makeup or candy bars door to door you're doing crimes.

*edit*

In a silly outfit. You're doing crimes in a silly outfit they made you pay for.

World of Light

I meant to tag @Genon in that post.

World of Light

Linkle

Level 7 - (11/70) + 3

Location: The Devil's Casino
Word Count: 1847

Pirouletta began to dance across the table across the table at Linkle once again but this time Linkle didn't run away. Instead Linkle charged forward to meet her, crossbows raised. As she approached Pirouletta lashed out with a kick, but at was what Linkle had been watching for. Quick as a rabbid she ducked under the kick and jumped forward under her opponent, twirling under and shooting with reckless abandon. Just as many bolts went into the tabletop as went into Pirouletta's backside, but she was still sent jumping in pain as Linkle rolled with her landing and came back up behind her another herself for another run.

Pirouletta swung around, suppressing fury and pain as she assumed her stance in turn. The two charged one another again, but instead of attacking with a kick she did something Linkle couldn't have expected. She crouched, bending her legs and sending the noodly appendage sweeping across the table at her. This kneeless knee strike caught Linkle both completely off guard and right across the face, sending her sprawling across the table and skidding over a nearby pile of fallen chips.

Linkle hopped up, shaking her head. In front of her, in the pile, she saw a little white head pop out for just a moment before looking at her and slipping back between the fallen chips. Had the cucoo been biding its time in there ever since the dancer had kicked it into the pile? Smart little birdie, that one.

The dancer beyond was raising her hands above her head again, preparing to make the most of the distance she'd put between them to rain balls down on Linkle. Linkle considered grabbing one of those big poker chips herself, using that as an umbrella to whether the storm, when suddenly a tremor shot through. It threw Linkle only a little, but the dancer nearly tumbled to the floor and it was only with great effort that she was able to get her rubber hose limbs under her again.

For the moment both of them forgot that they were in a fight, looking around in confusion at what could have caused that. The audience of spectral hands that Linkle had before found so ominous seemed just as shocked as they did, and in a moment some even reached down to the table to scoop up a pile of chips before vanishing into the haze with the sound of pounding footfalls, and she could just barely make out voices that seemed to be coming from far away.

Linkle was only brought back to the situation when she heard a distinct rattling sound. She looked back down at Pirouletta, who didn't seem to think such things were any reason to stop her assault. Soon the balls were raining down all around them. Linkle dodged to the side as one crashed down right where she'd been standing, spinning to avoid another that bounced off the table and rolled away. She heard about this sort of thing happening on Death Mountain, the hero bravely moving forward amidst the anger of the Volcano itself. She supposed this was good training for if she ever had to go there, but right now she didn't have that kind of time. Something had clearly happened and she needed to end this.

Luckily the dancers flailing earlier gave Linkle an idea as to how. She rushed forward, over the chip pile, dodging between the falling balls to get just a little bit closer. Jumping forward her hair flashed blue as she landed in a kneeling position and willed the ground to freeze. A thin layer of ice began to spread across the surface of the table toward where the dancer spun.

She never stood a chance. The ice crept right under her shoe and quickly speed outward in a circle around her like a spotlight. Pirouletta foot swept right out from under her as she found herself dancing on a frozen stage. Her limbs flailed in wild ways, almost tying themselves in knots as she desperately tried to keep herself upright.

Linkle wasn't going to chance her succeeding. She jumped backwards, onto the chip pile, and stomped her foot. With a surprised "bawk!" the cucoo hiding in there jumped up, pushing the chip Linkle was on upward. She jumped with it, sending herself flying into the air toward Pirouletta with her for foot extended. She screamed as she shot down, her leg connecting right about the dancers big gold nose and leaving a chilly imprint as she kicked off. That was too much for the dancer. She was knocked completely off her feet and sent thundering to the table.

Linkle flew above her, pointing her crossbows down to deliver the final blow. The tips flashed a bright light, but instead of the red she had been expecting the tips flashed blue. She pulled the triggers and instead of bombs the bolts she fired were also tiled blue. They slammed into Pirouletta, letting out a wave of cold instead of heat and causing ice to encase the dancer's body and most of her left arm.

Linkle landed nearby as her opponent tried to get up, pushing against the surface of the table with her legs and remaining arm, but it was clear that she was frozen to the surface of the table. Frustrated, she let her limbs flop to the tabletop and sighed.

Linkle took a moment to marvel at her crossbows before holstering them. "Yes!" She shouted, jumping into the air in celebration. The one remaining pair of hands still watching the battle began to give a polite golf clap, which prompted Linkle to give a short bow as her Cucoos ran up to her. "Thank you!" She yelled up to it, before she reached up to her head and ran two fingers affectionately down one of her rabbit ears and through her hair. "And thank you." She said quietly, not just to the Cucoos.

Job done she eagerly looked around for the portal out of this place, but couldn't find it. She looked all around, tapping her foot, but it didn't seem to be showing up. Maybe it had something to do with that tremor earlier. Or maybe this fight would result in the Winny roll, and the guild master was pulling a fast one by pretending she hadn't won yet. Maybe he was even pulling more monsters out to fight her friends as she was just standing here.

She turned to the spectral hands. "Do you guys know what's taking so long?" That hands were gone though, having pulled away into the haze. She stamped her foot. "Hey, come back!" She yelled. "That better not have been you you big blockhead! We don't have time for you to cheat."

Linkle spent the next minute or so wandering around the edge of the table, wondering if maybe she could ride a cucoo over the edge and try to find her way around. There wasn't any fire here at least. As she focused on trying to make out any sort of floor she could reach she felt something tugging at her hair. "Girls, not now. I'm thin-"

She was suddenly jerked back though the air, letting out a yelp of pain before being slammed on the table top like a sack of grain. From where she was managed to open one eye and spot the long, thin arm of Pirouletta and the cheeky grin on the half frozen dancers face. While Linkle had been trying to find a way out Pirouletta had stretched out her arm like a snake and caught her. Her mind boggled! that was...this...what, had she never given up?

Oh. Ohhhhhhh.

Of all the no good dirty low down stall tactics in the history of the universe!

"Gyaahhh." Linkle said as she was lifted into the air again and slammed for a second time. "I want you to know something." Linkle said coldly, lifting her head from the table. The icy stare she gave the dancer seems to drop the temperature in the room for twenty degrees. "This is the worst decision you've ever made."

She was lifted up into the air again, but this time there was a lurching feeling as though she were flying up, up, up, into the air. When she came down she felt herself smash into the edge of something, then three fluffy things landed on and rolled clucking off onto the floor.

There was a floor now, Linkle realized as she got her breath back. She could feel solid ground under her feet as she pushed herself up off what she'd landed on. Below her she was surprised to see the green table that had just been her battleground, the still frozen and now considerably smaller dancer staring up at her with a few stands of Linkle's sparkling blue hair still clutched in her grip. Linkle leaned in, looming over her. "Well?"

The dancer released her. "When." She said.

Linkle nodded, then took Pirouletta around the midsection and wretched her off the table no real care of whether it was comfortable for her. "You're coming with me for now. Try to get away and I'll let Nayru and Farore eat you." She turned the dancer toward the two cucoo she had thrown and kicked around, and they puffed up their feathers in anticipation. It was more her tone that made Pirouletta give her new captor a nervous nod than anything. Linkle didn't even sound angry, just like she was stating a fact.

Only after these ground rules did Linkle start to look around and take stock of the situation. She was in a big flashy room full of tables and colorful machines, surrounded by a great many confused monsters and a bunch of people that were struggling to their feet. She recognized some of them, but there were a lot more here than when she'd left. She hopped up on the table to get a better look around. The Sheriff had shown up in force!, along with her companions she could see Din, Ryu, Agoston, Euden, that nice girl with the gun that had been rolling out to help them with the fish people, was that Four. Legendary. Heroes!?!

Linkle could feel her bad mood slipping away, her hair slowly fading back into its natural color as she looked over them. Rick had really come through. She jumped up and down a little on her table. "You all came to rescue us!" She shouted happily. "Oh man, Death? Is that you? Where have you been?" She suddenly gasped. "Mr. Lee!" She dove off the table, making sure to clutch Pirouletta tight to her chest as she picked her was through the crowd to reach Donovon. "You guys had me so worried. I was trying to come rescue you. Is everybody okay?"

"Face Claims" - do's, don'ts, resources?

I'm gonna have to second saving anything you come across online that you think you could use later to Imgur. My collection is pretty big at this point. Most of the time I brows with the skeleton of an idea in my head of what kind of character I want to play and wait for an image to jump out at me, then use the details of that image to fill out the character. Sometimes one grips me so tightly I throw out the skeleton and make up something new on the spot, so I'd say the image is a very important part of the creation process for me.

If you're looking for something real life, but still out there, look up fashion show photos. They're incredible.

Royal Rumble!

Looks all right to me.

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Right now we're kind of shaping up to be a book club.

Epithet Erased: Use Your Words

Penny - The King

Name: Penny Draconis

Age: 16

Appearance:

While not using her Epithet Penny actually tends to dress down, favoring long skirts and overly comfy looking sweaters. This non-ostentatious manner, however, is seemingly incompatible with her Epithet and her outfit is replaced whenever she draws her sword.

Personality: A scholarly sort at heart, Penny prefers snuggling up with a good book over basically any form of human interaction. This behavior has convinced her parents that she is a "smart kid," and as they have pushed her more and more to succeed her intelligence has sharpened from her constant efforts to get whatever club, after school activity, or contest they enter her in done quickly as possible (one way or the other) so she can go back to doing things she was actually interested in. This has led to her being very goal oriented, but left her with a distinct lack of respect for authority, the spirit of the rules, or any form of pageantry.

Despite her constant sour expression there is a good heart buried in there that's most apparent when she's managed to grasp a quiet moment in her claws. As could be expected she takes real issue with people that try to control or interfere in other peoples lives and she has a soft spot for people that have been obviously screwed over or are trying against impossible odds.

Background: Penny was a regular girl. At least, she tried to be in between all the classes and training she was pushed into. Her father and mother had always sensed something special in her, but even they weren't prepared for how exactly that would manifest.

One miserable raining day while Penny was waiting for the bus to cram school a hand slowly rose up from the depths of a nearby puddle. Clutched in its grip was a magnificent sword, with a shining blade and a hilt of gold beset with jewels. Penny stared at it, transfixed by its beauty. She had had a niggling little suspicion that there was something more to her for a while but this was basically confirmation. She put her foot on the crossguard and slowly pushed it back into the puddle.

The next day at breakfast the hand and its sword rose again out of her cereal. She took her spoon and shoved it back down before her mother and father could see.

Later that night the hand insistently shoved the sword up while she was in the bath. She screamed, grabbed the sword, and started beating at the hand with it. While she only succeeded in destroying the tub her parents were thrilled to discover something their little girl had been hiding from them; she obviously was one of the lucky people born with an Epithet, and after some soul searching and experimentation it seemed to be a pretty good one. This only intensified their already high expectations, which was exactly what Penny had wanted to avoid.

Motivation: Penny has convinced her parents to send her to Otterholt Point to take part in the annual sand-castle contest under the logic that it would help refine her Kingly skills, but in reality she just wants to enjoy three days of peace and leisure.

Assets:

• Sword Training: It turns out that hitting thing with a real ass god damn sword is super cathartic when you have a lot of pent up emotions, so her bi-weekly training sessions with Sensei Quixote are actually some of the only extracurriculars she reliably attends.
• Mythology Buff: By far her greatest area of interest. If there's an only myth, fairy tail, ghost story, or urban legend Penny is likely to have heard it before.
• Determination: Penny believes that you can solve any problem by applying enough thought or bodies to it. If you don't succeed one way, you come at it from another direction. You never just give up.

Flaws:

• Just A Kid: No matter how much she's studied Penny is still a child. She's not as smart as she thinks she is, and she doesn't have much worldly experience.
• Abrasive: Penny hasn't had much of a social life, and hasn't mastered social cues. This is compounded by her grumpy disposition.
• Four-eyes: Penny wears glasses. She needs them to see.

Epithet: Royal

• Excalibur, the Holy Sword of the Promised King: Penny can draw a magic sword from any body of liquid. This sword is sized for her, very light, beautifully crafted, and deadly sharp. It acts as a conduit through which all her powers flow, transforming her from a simple girl into a King. When she isn't holding the sword, all her other abilities deactivate. If broken it must be returned to the water so as to be repaired. No basis for a system of government
• Peasant Serf: The backbone of any monarchy, Penny can summon forth Peasant Serfs. Peasant Serfs are diminutive, gnomes like creatures about a fourth of Penny's size, either covered in or made of mud, and armed with various farmers tools. Though their combat prowess is negligible at best they are nonetheless hard and fast workers when assigned manual labor tasks such as digging ditches, sowing fields, building and fortifying shelter, and other such things provided they have sufficient materials. Their awareness and vocabulary are extremely limited, and Penny can only manage to summon a team of five at one time.
• Knights of the Kitchen Table: Where would any King be without her loyal cavalcade of knights? Though only slightly larger and more intelligent than the Peasant Serfs, these are far more sturdy and ready to throw themselves into battle to protect the King. Though they can fight alone their combat prowess is heightened should Penny fight alongside them. Knights take more stamina to manifest than Peasant Serfs. As such she can only manage two at any one time.

Royal Rumble!

@Hammerman

Katherine quirked her head to the side, looking at her Christine curiously. "Not gonna lie, that's a lot more standard than what I was expecting." Still, the classics were classic for a reason. She cupped her own chin. "As fun as it'd be to expose someone else for a change I'm pretty sure Andriem would crucify me for even thinking about it. Though maybe if I pull his pants down in front of Lise..."

She tried to imagine both of their reactions to that, and laughed to herself. Oh, she hoped at least one of them passed out. "Oh thank you so much." she said excitedly. "By the way," she asked, switching gears. "Do you do swim?"

This was a question partly because she needed to know if there were some people she had to add to her shit list. Anyone that would go around trying to steal her sisters only piece of modesty was someone that needed a stern talking to and maybe some third degree burns. There was another reason, though, and it was simply that Katherine had no idea that they even had a pool over there. She didn't really know anything about that place, or what Christine's life was like over there. "Like, are you in any extracurricular stuff? You're having fun, right?"

---

Mephisto's Mending

Normally, is a situation much like this, where the students were running rampant, Bak would try and go out to establish order. She could already tell that no student was going to be taking classes seriously with all these fliers covering the school grounds, and the teachers that usually ended up here didn't particularly care to stop them. It would basically be a free day now unless she did something about it.

But she just felt so defeated.

"This is all well then. Meeting adjourned." She said. Cel and the new girl where already getting ready to leave, Vernon was gone and Rurik was...sleeping, legs kicked up in that chair she'd slid him. At least that was comfortingly reliable.

In the end she hadn't been able to do much of anything after all and the situation turned out much worse than she'd thought judging from the fact St.Laurel's had helicopters circling them now.

She trudged back over to Luigi, and tried looking at the bright side. "At least now you have privacy to work, da?"

Yuuto crouched at his perch, silent as ever. He was very fortunate that his clan from a young age taught techniques for controlling one's breathing and other aides to prevent detection. While Yuuto didn't care to exactly use these techniques on his supposed allies, he also felt fit to play the role of loyal lackey to Clara until he had more solid evidence to present to Mephisto. And so, as Bak walked over to Luigi again, Yuuto sat and watched. He wasn't sure where his concern for the mechanical girl came from, but it was there. Perhaps it was that Yuuto saw her as too innocent for the darker dealings in the world and wanted to try and protect that as much as possible. Perhaps it was that he had grown to see her as a friend. Either way, he stayed and watched, like a guardian angel of sorts. Y'know, other than the fact that his angel was more like an Angel of Death, willing to kill to accomplish its goals.

uigi sighed deeply, and pulls over a chair for Bak to sit down in. "Please...sit...this will take a bit. The wound.....err......damage, worries me...." Luigi begins, as he starts to reach into his clothing, pulling out spools of wire, bits of metal plating, and other various tools of his trade. "It's disturbingly close to gangrene, how the metal in your launcher reacted to the trauma...liquefying like dead flesh. I'll clean it out and repair it, so healing can properly commence....and..if I may be so nosey, how did this happen?" Luigi asked as he started to clean off a wire brush.

Bak leaned herself gingerly onto the chair, careful to keep most of her weight on her legs so it didn't collapse under her weight. It was weird to hear that anything metal about her had reacted like flesh. Usually it was the other way around: a hurt spot got a little more metal.

"I am not sure." She said, concerned. "It was after to cult people appeared, in arena. The big man was coming to crush Rurik and there was this... What is word? Like an itch, but nice. It crawled up my back, and went into missile I think because when I shot missile to stop bad man instead of exploding there was... Bubble? It was nice bubble. I thought everything would be all right in bubble. And then missile pod threw up and has been strange ever since." She looked around the room to make sure no one was spying, listening keenly to the anarchy outside, then whispered. "Not as many missiles. Is why I have not been using them. Do not tell."

This was the first time she'd revisited this memory since it happened. It had been a weird incident. She wasn't sure exactly what the bubble had done even, but for all the world it felt like it had saved their lives. "Why did it hurt me then?" She wondered aloud. "It did not feel like it."

".......You've must of adapted a new ammo type for the situation, or maybe your blessing mutated under the stress. Either way, an exceptionally interesting thing." Luigi whispers as he worked. Slowly he begins to repair the launcher, patches of metal, wires, sparks move in a blur as his robotic tendrils worked in tandem to make this a quick procedure. "I do apologize my dear, I had tried to get to the arena when I smelled the insanity going on. I was delayed by a group of cultists, luckily a demonic woman came to my rescue after I had received a lethal wound. I managed to reduce one of the cultists to a pile of ground beef with a well placed grenade, but by that time the cultists were sent into a mass retreat. The demon girl, Mer, I believe her name was, took one of the cultists off like a hawk having snatched a mouse. Next time, I'll be prepared for such an event. Next time, I will be ready to cut a swath." Luigi grumbles, obviously unhappy.

"You what!?!" Bak said, craning her neck to see if she could spot where the machinist might have taken such a wound. "Where? Are you okay?|

Luigi sees Bak trying to twist her neck to see, and with a sigh he gently tugs on the collar of his shirt and leans, letting her see where a series of deep claw marks could be seen on his chest, intersecting right over where one would expect his heart to be. "The wound would of killed me in sixty seconds after the fight ended, as one of my blessing's powers allow my gear to function after critical damage, including me. However, she managed to use healing magic to restore me to working order before then. Had she not, my initial plan was to barrel through the arena towards where I thought the fighting was most intense." He explains, before he registers the last question. "........I'm ok."

"I had no idea." Bak said, her face visibly hardening as her eyes traced the marked left by some other cult monster. She hadn't even known that Luigi had been in danger. She tuned away regretfully. "We owe a lot to demon girl. If I had known I would have thanked her more."

She was silent for a bit, watching the tendrils go about their busy work, before she said, "My shoulder cameras are burnt out too. Brutus got me with a big zap, like last time. Knocked them out." She fidgeted uncomfortable for a bit, knocking her head slowly back and forth as though literally rolling what she was about to ask in her head. Finally some internal debate seemed to settle. "Luigi, how much of...this....," she waved her hand in a general way over her head, over the backpack, careful not to bump Luigi with one of her guns while he was working. "Could you make better? Better than it is?"

Luigi was a bit set back at Bak's request for upgrades, eyebrows raising in surprise. "Bak, you're a wonder. A perfect fusion of mechanical power and the human form. The only thing I could really do is help bypass your lethality curse." Luigi says, as he works on repairing the cameras now that their damages were made apparent. ".....Brutus needs to be more gentle with you. Seeing you in such disrepair pains me. You don't deserve this." Luigi says, in his exhaustion and stress forgetting to think rather than speak.

"Brutus should be hitting harder if he is wanting to keep monster like me down. You should have seen how I paid him back." Bak said, confidence briefly flaring up in an attempt to banish Luigi's worry while pointedly ignoring any notion of her being a wonder. "I was very mean to vigilantes. Monster can not complain about how sharp the heroes sword is, especially when monster is winner of battle. If I am not worrying so much about it you should not let it trouble you like that."

"....Monster, I never got why you called yourself that." Luigi mutters, more than loud enough for Bak to hear. He began to polish up his work, nearing the end of his repairs on Bak's damaged systems. "You're possibly the nicest person in this whole damned school. A lot nicer than me, by any stretch. Could you try moving this arm up?" Luigi asks, gently poking Bak's right arm. "I need to make sure I haven't buggered your range of movement with one of the repairs. If it starts to hurt, lower it slowly, don't jerk your arm down, it'll make it worse." He says, worried that some wiring might get pinched.

Bak obeyed, slowly raising up her arm just in case he felt anything hurt while looking questioningly at Luigi? Nicest person in the school? Her? Did he see what she did all day? "That is just not at all true. I have seen the way people will approach you. Students hate me. That is proof enough which of us is nicer."

"...Have you ever heard of Baba Yaga?" she asked thoughtfully. "Is legendary monster in my country. Ugly old woman, with bony legs and giant beak nose, bird talon hands and iron teeth. She flies around at night in the forest on mortar, pushing herself along with giant pestle and laughing." She tilted her head to the ceiling and cupped a hand around her mouth before letting out a quiet witchy cackle that quickly devolved into immature giggling. This was a subject she clearly enjoyed. "My Papa would tell me stories of her, how if you heard this laughing in the woods you hould stay inside for the night, because she was capricious and if you met her there was no telling what would happen. Sometimes she would whisk you away to boil your bones for broth, or throw flaming skull at you so all that would be left in morning was pile of ash. But other times she would help you, give you a cow skull that would do your housework in the night or tell you a secret that would destroy your enemies or make you rich. One time one of Papa's friends from revolution came to visit, and I heard him tell Papa that during the worst of the fighting he had met Baba Yaga while trapped in blown out building. In exchange for his left arm and three of his toes Baba Yaga gave him egg that made him invincible so long as it did not break."

"Is difficult to explain how the people think about her. She is strongest of all monsters. Everyone hates her, everyone is afraid of her, but you can not help but respect her. You can not help telling story about her. Children play games where one pretends to be her a and tries to get all the others. People sing songs about her. There is entire ballet dedicated to her, and I have seen it, and it is beautiful! You can hate her all you wish, but you can not just... just ignore her. To live in Yekateria is to live with Baba Yaga, and she does not even care! Nothing you do will ever hurt her. No matter how you feel about her she will always be there, grinning back at you!"

She suddenly realized just how loud she'd gotten in her excitement and clapped her free hand over her jaw, silencing herself with a metallic clang and looking down at Rurik to make sure she hadn't woken him up. Sighing with relief at him still apparently snoring away, she relaxed a little and continued more quietly, lowering her arm. "When I heard stories about Baba Yaga, with her bird hands and iron teeth, I could not help but think that once upon a time she was just village girl. Like me. It made me feel...better?"

Yuuto, at first, hadn't planned on staying this long. However, getting to see an interaction like this... well, he certainly had gained a new perspective on Bak Tsarevna, that was for sure. It was certainly not to be expected, nor was Luigi's protectiveness. Huh. Yuuto guessed that it was behind locked doors that people showed their weaker sides. Oh, sure, the seeming sadness of her story tugged at Yuuto's heart strings, but he shoved those feelings aside with practiced ease. Ninja like him weren't humans. They were tools, to be used by their superiors and tossed aside when they could no longer serve their purpose. And, unlike Bak, Yuuto had no fairy tale to make himself feel better.

Luigi went to speak, to rebuke the notion just because people went to Luigi for help, made him the nicer person. He wanted to tell her about what he did, that what he did no one else wanted to do. That he did horrible things that people paid for with money, metal, favors, weapons, or worse. He wanted to recount how he kidnapped a girl so their stoner alchemy teacher would give him something special, something hard to come across. However, he was silenced as Bak asked a question. Baba Yaga? Luigi had heard she was a witch, and hadn't given it more thought than that. Bak began to explain, even giving an example of the witch's cackle, but then she started to giggle. She was having fun with this explanation, and hearing Bak laugh, seeing someone delve into something they really care about, Luigi had to hold back a smile, and partially, tears.

As Bak continued to explain, Luigi understood better and better why she called herself a monster. Luigi's inward smile turned to a frown, and the warmth he felt from seeing someone he considered a friend so happy, turned cold and bitter. He looked down at Bak, and in her explanation he saw something he hated, something he despised. He gripped a robotic hand onto the back of the chair Bak was sitting in, and the more she explained the tighter his grip got, the harder he squeezed the wood until it began to bend, creak silently, until Bak clasped her hand over his own mouth to silent herself. Luigi slowly released his grasp, and felt pulped wood slip through his fingers. "I see...Your definition of a monster, and mine, is far different...But I do like that you find comfort in yours. I guess one day, there will be a Rhean legend of a mechanical knight who beats up evil witches, and blasts lazy louts who don't do their chores....."

"...But, as you've asked your question, and explained something, would you allow me to do the same?" Luigi asks, quietly.

Bak stretched out, rolling her neck from side to side and switching her vision modes on and off. "Nyet, perfect work as always."

She stood to her not so impressive full height, a gave Luigi a concerned look. It wasn't a look of judgement, more like a look you'd get if you told a coworker another employess was having you run drugs out of the mail room like that wasn't odd. "Luigi, you are member of St. Mephisto's student council. Our benefactor is most powerful man in all Rhea. You are genius. You should not have to do the nasty work if you do not wish too. If you are in need of resources you should make your desires known to Mr. Mephisto. If you should work under someone it should be a man smart enough to see your worth."

Kidnapping someone? The nerve! That was a Bak job. Someone like Luigi was wasted doing things like that when he could be creating marvels from e safety of a fully stocked laboratory. The thought of it was offensive, not the least because she couldn't remember the student council approving any kidnapping plots.

"I will never need to look for you under bridge." She said, leaning forward emphatically. "Because you are destined for something so much greater than being stupid stinking troll."

"....If I have to ask him for help, I'm not the genius you claim me to be. I...do this whole thing so I can protect people on my own. Get things on my own. Doing those jobs for people? That's me gathering. Talking to the benefactor, it's like getting a handout one way or another. It disgusts me deep inside to be reliant on someone like that, never again." Luigi began, before remembering just how he groveled for Cel's help earlier in the week. His own hypocracy made him feel disgust, and then he realized just how much of an edgy fuckwad he was being. He sighed, deeply, drawn out, exaggerated, before he starts to walk off. He takes a moment, noticing the sleeping slacker, and reaching into his pocket manages to produce a blanket for Rurik. He gently drapes the blanket onto the guy, figuring if he could sleep through all that, he needed the rest, before he walks out of the room.

"...If you need anything else, or even if it's just to talk, you know how to find me, Bak."

"Same to you." Bak said as he disappeared out the door. "If you ever need anything I am here." Oh they would be having that talk all right. Right after she had a little talk with Mr. Kanzeal about overstepping his authority. She didn't get Luigi. Why would they be a group if they weren't supposed to rely on one another? Why have a benefactor if you never went to him for help?

At this point, Yuuto felt he had seen enough. Besides, his Void Energy was nearing half capacity. So, he steadily made his way over to one of the walls of the room, carefully making his way down. Soon, he was on the floor once more. He righted himself and stepped back into the real world, as it were. "Greetings, Bak-san." Yuuto greeted her, as if he hadn't just appeared out of nowhere.

She was shaken from her train of thought by the sudden greeting from a familiar voice. "Yuuto!" She said, turning to find the ninja in the room. It wasn't surprising he'd come in without her seeing him, she'd seen enough movies to know he could do that. "Is better late than never." If anyone else had said that it would have sounded like a passive aggressive put down, but Back somehow did the impossible and used the phrase entirely genuinely. Based on what he had said about his punishment Bak had assumed the worst, but seeing as the boy wasn't a walking ball of scabs and calluses he was doing much better than he had in her imagination. "Is just as well, meeting did not go so well. I did not even have the chance to ask Miss Celestine if she could take look at you. Are you doing well?

Yuuto nodded, as if in understanding as Bak mentioned the meeting. "Am well. Still sore, but is nothing I cannot handle. Tousan would not permit me to see any medic, anyway." What he didn't mention was that he still had a hairline fracture in his left ulna from the training, nor the cracked ribs that had only recently healed. No, Bak didn't need to be exposed to the evils and harsh realities of the world. "What was meeting for? Am sorry I was busy with... other business." He had to keep appearances up., after all. Besides, Bak might know more than was mentioned at the meeting.

Bak frowned at what Yuuto's Father would and would not allow. They were bad guys anyway, they had their own rules. "I made agenda." She said, reaching over and handing the crudely penned agenda to him. "We did not make very much progress. If Mr. Kanzeal has been doing kidnappings without our approval that may be how our location was leaked, but many people are still missing. If Tovarisch were around she could find them but..."

She suddenly pulled out the cell phone the Ward boy had found for them. "You are like spy, da? Expert at gathering information." She turned the phone toward him. "Do you think you could get information from this?"

Yuuto eyed the poorly-penned agenda that Bak had handed over to him. To be honest, he could barely make out what it said. However, he pocketed it. "Arigatou, Bak-san. As for location, am sure that Clara-dono return soon." However, it was then that she asked him a question he hadn't been expecting. He eyed the cell phone, taking in the details. "Hai, I specialize in gathering intel. However, I am not knowing how long it might take. Give me couple days, should be able to get you basic information."

"You do not need to if you are feeling unwell, but thank you. The sooner we find her the better." She said, gratitude radiating off her. "And if..." She hesitated, as though speaking sacrilege in church. "I do not need to know everything, but...if you find anything that could help me understand her, please let me know."

Yuuto nodded. "No worry, Bak-san. Will do job." As Bak continued, Yuuto frowned beneath his face mask. Hesitation? From Bak? [color=lavender]"Bak-san? Daijōbu?

Bak tilted her head at the new word. It was obviously a question. Was he asking if she wanted him to kill something? "What does that one mean?" She asked curiously.

Yuuto shook his head. "Apologies, Bak-san. I forget you not know Jubanese. I asked if you are okay."

Bak's eyes shifted nervously, as though expecting the commissars bullet for even entertaining such heresy. "It just feels as though I am doing something wrong. I do not enjoy looking in on Tovarisch without her permission. I owe so much to her. I have always put my trust in her. But she is student like rest of us, da? She can make mistake. Maybe if I knew more about her I could steer her away from making such mistakes in the future."

Yuuto had to suppress a chuckle. "Hai, Clara-dono is indeed capable of making mistake. Is human thing to do. Do not worry, Bak-san, I am sure Clara-dono is fine." Yuuto fully believed that, too. Say what he would about her, she was the daughter of Mephisto. She had shown herself to be capable of handling herself.

"I hope so." Bak said. "Thank you very much. Take this time to rest, please. Class will not be resuming today I think. Use teachers lounge, or my room if you would like privacy. If you need anything at all," she raised up her chaingun and spun the barrel. "I will be doing stress testing, so follow booms." With that, she turned and stomped her way out the door, toward the alchemical lab.

After she left, Yuuto couldn't help but chuckle. Truly, despite how monstrous Bak saw herself, she was too kind and innocent for the world. Well, if Clara wouldn't be resuming her duties today... Yuuto mentally went through what the possibilities were. Perhaps a report to Mephisto was in order. His mind made up, Yuuto discretely left the school, using his training and his powers to evade notice.