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Calling out from Scatman's world
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Bio

Current GM of World of Light. When it comes to writing, there's nothing I love more than imagination, engagement, and commitment. I'm always open to talk, suggestion, criticism, and collaboration. While I try to be as obliging, helpful, and courteous as possible, I have very little sympathy for ghosts, and anyone who'd like to string me along. Straightforwardness is all I ask for.

Looking for more personal details? I'm just some dude from the American south; software development is my job but games, writing, and trying to help others enjoy life are my passions. Been RPing for over a decade, starting waaaay back with humble beginnings on the Spore forum, so I know a thing or two, though I won't pretend to be an expert. If you're down for some fun, let's make something spectacular together.

Most Recent Posts

Gathering in the Guild

Location: Lumbridge, the Land of Adventure


A few at a time, heroes gathered in the Guild Hall. Hat Kid popped up out of the hole thanks to her grappling hook and made a beeline for the in-house bar, where she thankfully procured her own spirits to enjoy in her newfound free time. Banjo and Kazooie, who emerged from the Casino not long after, got up using limbs made heavy by hours of exertion without rest, and straight away left to crash in the Great Ton Pu Inn, which always accommodated heroes.

Blazermate and Sectonia remained nearby to exchange words, with the medabot in particular chatting up anyone who’d listen -however reluctantly- about her new upgrades and her time in the Dead Zone. They were joined in short order by Tora, Poppi, and Din, whose condition needed no explanation. Still, the Nopon greeted her anyway. “Hi-hi, Blaze-Blaze! Friend Din here hit head, need pick-me-up, meh.” Blazermate doled out healing dutifully, restoring the dancer to peak condition. As her punch-induced daze and bleariness faded away, she stretched her arms with a yawn, as though waking up from a dream.

“Oh...hey there! Blazermate, Courier, Bowser.” She treated the others to a warm smile. More seemed to be on the way still, with Linkle appearing over the rim of the hole a moment later and Peach right behind. Seeing them, Din perked up to wave, but she found herself interrupted by someone who’d ascended just before them.

“Diiiiiin!” A purple blur shot between Sectonia and Blazermate to wrap itself around the redhead. It turned out to be Menat, the fortune teller some of the heroes met just yesterday, and she hugged her fellow dancer tight. “It’s so nice to see you again! And you’re back with your friends! I heard you were giving up your quest.”

Din looked sheepish. “...Yeah.” She turned to address the heroes, eyebrows furrowed. “I’m sorry for leaving. It just all...came to a head, you know? But you all have been kind to me, helped me when I needed it, and appreciated what I could do in return. My place is with you all.” Linkle punctuated that by running up and wrapping her arms around the both her and Menat, peeved a little that the fortune teller had gotten there first.

”New friend?” Blazermate asked, pointing at Menat who had barged past her and Sectonia. Since she was in the Dead Zone, Blazermate was unaware of Din giving into Galeem’s light earlier.

“We made a bunch of new friends here.” Linkle said, squeezing the both of them while looking around at the unfamiliar faces in the room. “You guys made some friends too, huh?”

Nearby, Cuphead fumbled with the lock, his attempt to pick it a failure. Instead he resorted to blasting it, which did the trick. Hardly the sturdiest of its kind, the lock fell away to permit access to the contents of its box, and the Guildmarm picked it up while clearing her throat. “The G-rank hunt. ‘Fight to the Bitter End’. At the most southeastern part of the Land of Adventure there looms a giant purple bubble, a zone of distortion awash in uncanny light. Nothing sent in has ever recovered. Even the land outside this cursed space is twisted and evil, and dangerous foes roam there. As an adventurer of the highest caliber, it falls to you to enter, find the entity whose power sustains the distortion, and strike it down--for the sake of us all.”

A stunned silence reigned momentarily. The Guildmarm blinked twice. “Whoa. That sounds pretty serious.”

“- and exciting,” Cadet chimed in. He scratched the back of his head trying to think where exactly this area could be, he hadn’t seen it during his time in the Land of Adventure. Southeast huh?

“Sounds like it’ll get us all killed if we go in thinking like that,” Geralt mumbled, rolling his eyes. “Enthusiasm’s good, kid, but something like this? Never a good idea to go in expecting anything but the worst when you’re going in blind.” He smirked at the Cadet, trying to show it was all in good faith. “Still, I WOULD like to see what the hell is going on. They only just told me about...everything.” He sounded weary. He was too old for this shit. Even Vesemir only had to deal with a few worlds maybe getting destroyed, not...all of them.

“I agree,” Donnie said, “Knowing is half the battle, as they say.”

”Wowzers!” exclaimed Cuphead. ”You’re a real bring-down sort of guy, ain’t ya?” He slapped Geralt on the back with a chuckle. The Cadet laughed along with him, making sure to turn his grin toward the Witcher to let the other man know no offense was taken. ”I love this lil’ guy.”

Tora flapped his wings. “Everyone in high spirits after weird boss fight, meh! Ready for more!”

”Y’all should take this more seriously,” the Courier chimed in. ”We already lost some good, tough hombres. Some real badasses.”

”And if its anything like Peach’s Castle… You’ll for sure need me there.” Blazermate said, remembering the previous zone fight with MegaDragonBowser.

“If we want to know more about this place, why not ask Menat?” Linkle said. The idea came easy, the girl was right there after all. Linkle leaned her head toward the fortune-teller, not breaking the hold. “She told us our fortunes yesterday.”

“Oh!” The girl stood up straight and separated from Din, trying to adopt a serious composure. She cleared her throat and raised her hands in ceremonious fashion, then remembered something, coughed, and spoke without a whole lot of mystique. “Uh...every time I try to scry that place, I get the same weird visions that don’t make much sense. I see islands made of cheese, freaky black stretchy things, and a lot of TV static.” She winced. “I haven’t been doing scouting missions regularly, either. Sorry!”

A familiar head of blonde hair pushed through the hustle and bustle of people to intrude upon the gathering of heroes. “I might be able to help with that,” Euden said. “It’s very far to the southeast, across the plains. About twice as far as to the Hamlet, I’d guess. The land starts sloping upward, turning jaggy and mountainous. Eventually it’s mostly canyons and cliffs. There’s weird stuff like places where the ground is corrupted, giant skulls, and lots of monsters. Even some fiends from my world.” He nodded sagaciously, his arms crossed.

”And there’s some kind of bubble too? Have you seen it, Euden? Is it on the top of one of the mountains?” Cadet asked, trying to wrap his brain around the image the shapeshifter was attempting to paint for them. Maybe it was similar to the weird way the hilltop from the night before shifted?

“Sort of, it’s right in the middle of the mountain range,” the young prince assured him. “The web of canyons and such lead right into it. Can’t miss it.”

“Could it be from your world?” Linkle asked. “Fiends are monsters from your world, right? If they’re helping to guard it then maybe it’s part of home.” That was a long shot. After all, fish monsters didn’t live in the waters of Hyrule. Well they did, but not fish monsters she had seen.

Euden shook his head. “I doubt it. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

Ever a wealth of questions, Ace Cadet butted back in. ”What are fiends anyway? And what are the other monsters like? Probably nothing we can’t handle, but we’re gonna need the right kind of gear.”

The question left Euden looking thoughtful. “Fiends are monsters that can come in all sorts of forms. Anything from evil-looking wolves, rats, and slimes to giant or humanoid forms. As for other enemies...there are things that look like giant floating helmets, bird people, lion wheels, giants, you name it.”

”Oh. So a bunch of stuff huh? Just groovios.” The red head folded his arms behind his head, his tone teetering on sarcasm, but he didn’t actually seem concerned.

The Courier shrugged, though he remained contemplative. ”Long as I can put holes in’em, I can kill’em.”

Donnie, ever the odd one out in his weird armor, took all of this in with unusual calm before interjecting. “There’s another possibility…” he said. “An Old God. A manifestation of pure Void, prone to driving mortals to insanity with an idle glance, only able to force pieces of itself into our reality at a time. We’ve only ever killed weak ones, their heralds, or driven off parts of their bodies. Basically, imagine a giant flesh monster that’s all tentacles, eyes, and teeth, and likes to rape minds, and you’re on the right track. We’d need a team at least twice the size to go up against one of those, so I’m hoping it’s not that.”

“Then our timing couldn’t have been better,” came from a voice on approach. “We just came here with a full team, with one already here,” Fox reminded the monk, as well as stating the fact to the others, “Looks like we already have twice the team.” Of course, he wasn’t so much rationalizing as he was simply projecting calm confidence.

Tora and Poppi exchanged a worried look. “Monsters Tora and Poppi can handle,” the Nopon declared. “But if crazy old voidy things out there like Thing from last night...mehmehmeh…” Nobody, he felt sure, wanted to run into any more insanity-inducing horrors anytime soon. Or ever.

That made the monk do a double take. “Wait, what the fuck happened while I was in the Dead Zone?!” Donnie asked incredulously, his previous Zen-like calm shattered instantly.

Peach, after giving Donnie a pointed glare for his swearing, pulled him aside so that his outburst wouldn’t disrupt the meeting. “We spent most of the day doing various quests, and by nighttime we could take the hardest one on offer. It was a hunt for a dinosaur called a Brachydios, but the place we found it was a cursed farmstead. It had been infected by this...color. Like nothing I’d ever seen. It burned just to look at it. And there was this..Thing. From beyond the stars. Twisted flesh and vile crystal. Fighting it just about drove us insane.” She shivered despite the warmth of the populous hall on a warm day.

”Sounds like you guys had the worst of it. We just had to run from zombies and demons and stuff.” Blazermate said, shrugging. Sectonia, much like Peach, wasn’t too pleased with the ornately dressed human either, but since the other princess beat her to it, she just hovered there, listening.

”Having battled in both zones I can confirm that the Thing was... Well it was definitely something else.” Kamek agreed ”Completely unexpected too, everything else up till that point was rather bright and breezy by comparison to both it and the dead zone.”

“...By Xuen, I’m glad you all got out alive and kept your sanity.” Donnie replied. “I don’t remember any Old Gods with a color motif, but just the fact that there are things like them in this world...well, we need to be very, very careful if one shows up again. Anyway…” he turned back to the meeting. “Yeah Fox, I guess we do have twice the team, but like I said to Peach, we need to take these things seriously. It’s good to be confident, but confidence alone will get us nowhere.”

The pilot smirked with a lidded half nod. “I plan to take more than that with me,” he retorted in a casually assuring manner. “Even a good few we can manage with, but we’ll take all we can get.” As always, even knowing as little as they all did about what they would be up against, he felt good about their chances. A little better than usual, actually… It gave him somewhere better to direct his attention, lest he think too hard for too long about the events leading up to here…

”Just be careful. I can only heal one person at a time. Blazermate said. Unlike Medafights, which were 3 v 3 for the most part, this would be a large form fight with many people, and as far as Blazermate knew, only her and Din could actually heal people. ”...Unless you guys don’t mind sitting next to a Dispenser. Speaking of which...” Blazermate interjected, summoning Dell and asking him to make a dispenser only, dismissing the engineer when he made the building and upgraded it all the way. Courier had asked for one of these earlier, but Blazermate was a bit too preoccupied with the current chatter previously to make it.

”These clones of mine can also provide healing, though they aren't as potent as your’s Blazermate” Kamk added, jabing a thumb at his two idling white mage doppelgangers hanging around the Guild.

Geralt nodded, and patted his side. “I’ve got some healing potions, but...well, if you’re not me, the big boss, or some kind of inhuman monster, and I mean that literally, it will kill you.”

Then Donnie had an idea. “You know, the first step in any serious operation is scouting, right? Do you think we can try and get some more info on what we’re going up against? I have a flying machine and a flying disc, and I’d happily use one of them and donate the other. Any other fliers here willing to run recon?”

A certain artificial blade raised a hand, jumping up and down a little. “Poppi can fly and sees good.” Tora frowned, pretty sure that he knew how he felt about letting Poppi wander into unknown territory without him.

”I can also fly and I am capable of teleporting myself long distances. However my eyesight has seen better days” kamek said as he adjusted his spectacles

“I can fly… pilot, I mean,” he emphasized for clarity.

”If you need a Pilot then I’m your cup!” Cuphead added. ”I’m a real whizz in a plane, y’know!”

“Wait, right,” Donnie remembered, putting a hand to his chin. “Its territory is a giant bubble. There’s no guarantee it’ll let us out once we enter, so running recon might just divide our forces and make it easier for it to kill us. Not a good idea, now that I think about it. But running in, swords raised, doesn’t sit well with me either. Still though, if it’s a choice between letting it divide and conquer us and making it deal with all of us at once, I’ll pick the latter.”

”We’ve pretty much got a whole fleet to fight this bubble making thing, but…” Ace Cadet glanced at the Courier, the man having mentioned that the group had lost people before now. ”...as long as we all stick together and keep an eye out for each other, we should be fine! Right?”

“A fair point. Still, before we all go in, everyone that was in the Dead Zone needs sleep.” He took off his helmet, revealing the gray bags under his eyes from sleep deprivation. “We stayed up all night. Everyone else should probably use that time to prepare and stock up. There’s a good smithy run by three sisters here in Lumbridge. I got my armor repaired there, they do good work and will fix it up in minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a good magic or potions shop around here too, though I’m sure Geralt and Cadet know more than I on that front. They’ve been here longer.” He turned to the Ace Cadet. “You mind playing tour guide, by the way?”

”Of course not!”

“Excellent.”

“He’s right,” concurred the vulpine, “We still have the day. Use it!" His tone had shifted subtly to one more assertive. “Gather whatever you need, and whoever you can. I'm sure some of you already know each other; what you're capable of; what you need. Prepare accordingly. If you have any last minute affairs, settle them before dusk. If you need rest, get it. We'll meet back here before sundown before we move out.” With that, Fox quietly made his leave to go take his own advice, seeking out Howard, Leon, and the rest to inform them of the mission before looking for a place to lay his head down for the afternoon. It was unlikely that the relatively primitive setting would be able to accommodate him the way he was used to, but for no more than he needed, it would more than suffice.

”Agreed,” the Courier said, moseying on over to the ammo dispenser. ”I’ll be cooking up a bunch of chems and experimenting with the new ingredients Kamek got me from the Dead Zone. Takin’ requests.”

Almost as if right on cue, his new robot companion Gaige-Tron emerged from the hole leading down into the Devil’s Casino by way of the Cadet’s slinger. It approached its master and opened a chest compartment, revealing a bunch of plastic chips, tobacco, alcohol, fabrics, and all manner of other stuff pilfered from the casino.

”Oh Courier, know how to make anything that might make someone stronger from your chems? I can’t use it, but giving someone something like that then making them invincible sounds really interesting!” Blazermate said, thinking as to how useful that would be when dealing with hordes or large creatures.

The Courier's offer to mix up some “Chems” also piqued Linkle’s interest. She remembered the feeling of the stuff he’d spread around earlier fixing her up. For the first time she let go of Din. “Could you make some of that stuff from before for everybody? You know, the stuff you spit out with your funny hat.” She thought about it for a moment, shifting from foot to foot, the weight of Din’s wallet shifting uncomfortable with her. It reminded her of what she’d intended to buy with it. “Can you make anything that’s, like, green? There was this green potion back home that let me go really crazy when I drank enough of it.”

Seeing as the others were requesting things of this ‘courier’, Sectonia had a request of her own. ”If you have the know how, I will request something to make everyone beautiful. Paints, cosmetics, and their ilk will do fine.” She said, figuring she could pretty a few of these faces up. At least the ones that showed some promise.

Next in line, the Cadet made his voice heard again. ”If I’ll be showing people around Lumbridge, I might have a request too! Uh, she - ” he gestured towards Blazermate, realizing he didn’t quite learn her name yet, but introductions could wait for a little longer, ”- mentioned demons or something which reminded me, where I come from we’ve got this thing called a demondrug, it makes you super strong for a little bit after you drink it. Or it can be made into a powder! You usually make it with berries but maybe something like that could get whipped up with whatever you got from the Dead Zone…?”

He didn’t sound completely sure, but maybe it was worth a shot… and speaking of Blazermate, the red headed hunter turned back to her with a smile. “I can back you up with healing items too, I’m not stingy with my lifepowders. If I have the stuff I can make potions, or more lifepowders, or recover ammo…” he counted the items off with his fingers.

”I’ve got ammo covered. This dispenser is amazing for that!” Blazermate said to Cadet. ”But yeah, healing is nice.”

The Courier chuckled. All these requests! The last time he offered his services nobody took him up, now all of a sudden after seeing how useful his chems were they were lining up in droves. He accepted the challenge for them all, though he noted that Sectonia’s cosmetics would be of a… lessened priority. Probably wouldn’t get to it, really. Ok, he straight up ignored the request on the grounds that it was fucking stupid. But the others he happily agreed to.

Tora looked more than a little put out that the Courier was getting all the attention. He started bouncing up and down, waving his wings. "Meh meh! Tora can help too! Fix stuff, make it better, make new stuff! Tora top-of-line inventor! Just look at Poppi!"

He slid over to her and spread his wings like a showman. Poppi jumped into an energetic pose, smiling but with a slight wince. "Masterpon exhibit startling lack of humility, but not wrong. If friends need more advanced tech than smithy give, we are happy to help."

Peach, of all people, looked interested. She spoke up with crossed arms. "Could you make me a new scatterblaster? Mine got melted in the fight with Wheezy. I could use some grenaducks as well...actually, now that I think about it, regular grenades would be fine. No need to dumb it down."

Nopon and blade nodded emphatically, and in unison. "Easy-peasy!"

Geralt also chimed in to that request, “I should make some Grapeshot bombs, myself. Maybe get a hold of more ingredients too. Little things are downright nasty.”

Tapping Sectonia on her abdomen to get her attention, Blazermate said ”You might want to ask Tora there to help with your crown problem there. I’m sure he can figure something out with it!” Sectonia thought for a moment about this, as her plans were to just paint it herself and wear it, but someone who would willingly do all the leg work did appeal to her. ”Tora? Is it in your skill set to combine magical and non magical items and decorate them?” Sectonia asked the, rather odd looking onion bird thing. While his speech was odd, she had known stranger looking things under her command, and his roundness was oddly comforting.

Tora stared at her blankly. "What magical?"

Sectonia looked at Tora with a sigh, pointing at Poppi. ””Isn’t she made out of something magical?”

The Nopon shook his head. "No magical in Poppi." He didn't even know who this bug-person he was talking to was, but he kept that to himself for now.

“I can enchant equipment,” Donnie added. “If anyone minds staying here for a few extra hours after I rest up, I could work on your stuff. Make necklaces spawn rains of arrows that fall from the sky, enchant a pair of gloves to make you a bit smarter, that kind of thing.”

Sectonia sighed again at Tora, clearly there was more she needed to know about how this world worked. Surprisingly the ornate looking human that looked like he just wanted to punch stuff piped up offering his aid. ”That will work. I will come to see you soon then.” Sectonia said, curious as to what this man was talking about.

"So this is where everyone went." Joker spoke up, the trio of thieves walking into the hall and to the others. Though since there were no threats in the area, the thieves' outfits had shifted back into their Shujin uniforms. In their place was Ryuji, Ann, and Ren, the leader thief clearly worn out now that he was without his mask at the moment. "So, what's going on?" Ren asked.

“We’re gonna kill the worst monster in the land.” Linkle said, looking the newcomers up and down. She didn’t know who these people were, but they didn’t really fit the aesthetic of the Land of Adventure. She assumed they must have come from the other side of the party. In fact, there were a few people interested in going that Linkle had never seen before, like the fox and the giant bee. “I think this is an open adventure, if you don’t mind some danger. When they...” she gestured vaguely around the room at whoever she could spot, to Bowser, the Courier, Gaige-Tron, back to Din, “...Beat the big monster back in the Mushroom Kingdom something really cool happened.”

“I was born 4 hours ago,” Gaige-Tron inserted.

“Wait.” Linkle said, staring at her in confusion. Yeah, no, she would have remembered a big robot. “I swear I’ve seen you before.”

”Didn’t Courier take the spirit of that robot tank thing? Guess he upgraded them. Did you help Tora?” Blazermate said, scratching her head. She then turned to Joker. ”Oh yeah, you were in the dead zone too! These are our friends. You’ll like them!” Blazermate said to Joker, gesturing to the Land of Adventure group.

”YOU HEROES CAN'T HELP PICKING UP NEW STRAYS WHEREVER YOU GO, CAN YOU HUH?” Bowser said as he rejoined the party, followed by Jr. ”NOT THAT I’M COMPLAINING. A BIGGER ARMY’S A BETTER ARMY!”

The pair had been over by the bar while the others had been talking. While there Jr. had drunk the Guild dry of child friendly beverages and was now thoroughly rehydrated.

”Welcome back Sire, do you need a recap?”

”Nahh. You found the Boss’s spooky monster-infested castle and then there was a bunch of blabbering about doing stuff before going.” Bowser summarised.

”Indeed. Personally I was intending to pop back to her majesty's castle. I have some questions for the Master of Masters, seeing as I believe he knows a bit about the portal used by Gneidxick and his bullying companion used to flee. Also he mentioned something called a “Nobody” last time. Could be that these imposters are related to whatever a nobody is based on the diatribe the woman went off on. Any info on the powers and abilities of these hooded menaces might be most helpful, don’t you agree?”

Bowser shrugged while Jr pipped up excitedly: ”Oh Oh. Can you check if that Steven guy has more pokemon stuff yet?”

“Any chance of setting up a teleporter over there? I’ve been planning to set my Hearthstone--a one-way teleportation device--to Peach’s Castle, but I forgot to do it before we left,” Donnie added.

”I don’t see why not. It would let you see the man’s stock yourself Jr.” Kamek said before asking Blazermate and the Dead Zone team in general, ”Unless the teleporter needs to stay pointed back at the deadzone? Is the other end safe? If so I can pop through, pick it up and then move the other end back and forth.”

”Well, we were being chased by a giant horde before this guy in green armor came out of the tower we hid in to fight said horde. I left a sentry gun there to guard it but its up in the air if its safe or not.” Blazermate said. ”I could always just make a new exit if needed. It just takes me a minute or so.”

”Really it’s just a matter of how desperately you want to get back there. If you can't guarantee the safety of that end then maybe not going is for the best?” Kamek replied, clearly not feeling up to taking that risk.

”I’m sure we could hike back and not lose much time. We had to destroy these tree root things and well, yeah, not sure how close we were to one before we hid and got all those police station survivors out.” Blazermate said, shrugging. ”Put it to a vote maybe?

"Actually, the tower should be safe now. Well, safe-ish." Ren said, adjusting his glasses. "When I stayed behind to find these two, the horde was cleared away." He motioned to his friends. "But there's no way in hell we're heading back to that place any time soon." Ryuji added.

Sectonia let out a light laugh at hearing of this ‘master of masters’ ”Master of Masters? That sounds absolutely pretentious.” She said, mostly at Kamek.

”True, but he’s a rather interesting mage to talk to, so it balances out.” Kamek replied

“Oh, and Tora,” the monk said, turning to the Nopon. Any chance you could soup up the Dwarven Flying Machine? I have some upgrades I’ve been meaning to get done, but since Galeem took away my engineering skill I haven’t really been able to work on it. Oh, also, can I sit in on your tinkering sessions for a few minutes before I go to bed? I think that’ll be everything I need to get my memory back, just like with cooking back at the castle.”

Everyone talking seemed to have the Nopon a little overwhelmed. "Muh, sure," he said.

”I would like to get back some of my magic. You know the method to regain the memories this ‘Galeem’ took?” Sectonia asked Donnie, Donnie having her attention having just complained about what she had been annoyed with the past hour or so.

“No, in my case I lost most of my trade skills. The only way to get them back has been to sit in on someone else doing that trade for a few minutes. When it comes to magic though, it usually comes back on its own, but it’s slow as a tortoise and you don’t know what you’ll get back and when. It seems to only get slower over time too.”

Sectonia momentarily balled one of her hands in anger before releasing it and saying. ”A shame then.”

”I think I’ve been lucky on the remembering front. I ‘think’ I remembered all my medabot stuff in like a few days? But we’re not that complicated. And even if I forgot something, you can get cool parts like making people invincible! No medabot has anything close to that!” Blazermate said, not really helping matters, but hopefully reassuring the two of them since she had been in this Galeem hunting party longer than the two of them. ”Although there WAS that medachange thing the Blazer Multis had, but they were so bulky and ugly…” Blazermate muttered to herself.

"We can't really afford to forget our personas though." Ann shrugged at what Blazermate said. "For some reason they've been weakened, but that seems to be- She stopped herself mid-sentence to look at Ren. 'Wait, Ren, you lost most of your personas, didn't you?" With a nod from the leader thief, she sighed. "Guess you got it worse than us."

"It's fine, Ann. I managed to work my way around it, haven't I? Ren reassured Ann. "Kinda sucks Arsene wasn't able to help much, but at least I'm okay now."

The thieves' added conversation, just one of many talking around and over one another, ended up tipping the balance of the situation. It was getting chaotic. "Hold it!" Peach shouted over the hubbub. "We're going on too many tangents. Let's sum up before we all get lost and stand around for hours." Taking command of the meeting, she held up her hand and started listing things off one by one, using a finger for each. "We're going on the G-rank hunt, likely for this region's champion. Those who went to the Dead Zone need to recover, so we'll go in eight hours or so, around 4 o'clock. 6 and Tora are offering their services to help prepare. Kamek and Blazermate are going to try and set up a way to return to my castle. The rest of us should make preparations, resupply, do some training maybe. Ask around to see who's going. Does that sound alright?" She looked over the gathered heroes expectantly.

”Yessir Ms. Peach! I’ll see what I can do, and if anyone needs to know where anything is around here, I’m your man!” the Cadet said with a salute. Linkle mimicked him, also throwing out an enthusiastic salute.

Sectonia appreciated this Peach putting everyone in place, although she wasn’t sure how she felt about being ‘commanded’ like that, even if Peach was being nice about it. ”I could use some rest. Being stuck in a tube isn’t becoming of a Queen.” she said. She doubted this place had any rooms that would match her concept of beauty though, which did irritate her.

”I think that works. Donnie, are you ok with hiking it back to the Dead Zone after we’re done with the G rank hunt?” Blazermate asked, fine with flying back to Peach’s Castle with Kamek.

“I mean, yes I can fly over there, but it’s probably going to take hours, hours that we don’t have.”

”All I need to do is go through the teleporter to the dead zone, grab it, and then transport that end back to the castle in a flash,” Kamek pointed out ”So there will be no need for long journeys.”

”Then I can have Dell just make another side here and you can teleport that instead. It’d be safer.” Blazermate interjected. ”Just give me a little bit. I already summoned Dell earlier to make that dispenser, he needs time to rest.”

At that point someone else stepped in. The devil hunter known as Nero approached Donnie and Blazermate with a request. “Hey, if you’re gonna be moving that thing, could you wait a bit? V and I have unfinished business there. Nadia, too. Once we catch our breath, we’ll be on our way.”

”I mean sure? We’ll be going back there after this G rated mission and maybe rest after that, so at worst if you stick with us you’ll be back tomorrow. But you guys know how to survive there, so you should be fine waiting a day for us. You’ll know when we’re there, with the whole zombie horde following my commands and all~.”

Nero nodded, satisfied. His inquiry marked the end of the overall discussion, and people began to disperse. Whether to work, to rest, or simply to explore, they possessed a few hours to do with what they willed before the plan swung into motion at four.
@Lugubrious Alright. Sorry. I made the post right before I went to sleep. I'll make the edits when I get off work tonight. What all is happening right now?


Thank you. Reading the other posts would be the best way to find out, but I did include a short summary in my previous OOC post. In addition to that, the kids club's swimming challenge is underway.
@Rockin Strings you're a little late to be jumping in on the sand-castle incident. A good bit has happened since then. Also, autohitting is not permitted. It's even a bad idea IC, since while bashing sandcastles is cruel, assault is illegal, especially on a girl several feet shorter than the attacker, and I mentioned security was watching. I'd like you to rethink the latter half of your post. Right now, the sandcastle just got rebuilt, the kid (just the one) is with Penny, and two more guys just approached to accost Jess and Penny respectively, those being yellow-eyes and Jude. If you do not change things, security is going to arrest Mark.
Pretty much as Rosco expected, his attempts to settle his new acquaintance down resulted in the opposite outcome. The various arguments he'd had over the course of his life, whether with his mother, his sister, or a girlfriend, gave him firsthand experience that telling an angry woman to calm down worked about as well as water on a grease fire. This particular girl launched into a tirade about epithets, letting slip in the process that her powers extended beyond merely shifting position. One thing she said, though, tickled him. “Well, people get upset at misuse of arms all the time,” he pointed out. “It's called assault?”

Of course, she then went and turned things around all him, slapping him in the face with a pretty laughable question. Rosco laughed at it. “Heheh, that's my secret, little missy. Like I said: a private matter,” he said, jokingly. Now that he sensed the situation had deescalated from dangerous, and Aurora's mood from pissed to ornery, he felt pretty good about taking his leave. He grew serious to make an assurance. “I'll be more careful, 'kay?” He gave a polite nod before turning to go. “See ya.”

As he went, headed in the direction of the surf he'd just been deposited in and withdrawn from like an offshore bank account, Rosco couldn't help but glance to the left. It looked like he wasn't the only one making a scene, and the accident paled in comparison to this. Two blonde teenagers up by the dune railing, beyond the spot where the garrulous Texans and friends played volleyball and behind where the rows of beach chairs ran, were engaged in some sort of argument. Rosco shook his head and ignored it, making for the waves. A few onlookers, however, weren't so quick to avert their gaze. They watched with interest and raised eyebrows as the fluffy-haired one with glasses pulled an opulent-ass sword from the mucky sand and abruptly transformed from ordinary to royalty.

One in particular, the young pink-haired girl in green whose own royal abode had been reduced to ruins, stared at Penny with sparkling eyes. She gasped in awe as the teenager summoned forth a handful of adorable gnomes and then commanded them to begin rebuilding the castle. Squealing in delight, little Magnolia (Maggy to her friends, which was everyone except Jessica) raced over and slid to a stop on her knees by the construction sight. She started helping out the workers, who did not mind the extra pair of hands, by pulling up extra sand and packing it tight. Jessica remained nearby, but Maggy didn't seem to notice her getting chewed out by Penny at all. Only when a new castle stood, larger and more magnificent than the last, did Maggy get to her feet, wearing a lot of sand and a wide smile. She ran over to Penny and hugged her leg, saying, “That was so awesome! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! Who are you? You're so cool and pretty!”

Another onlooker approached. A teenager himself, lanky and lean, with short but spiky gray hair, a smattering of dark brown freckles, yellow eyes, and a lopsided grin, he looked like he stepped straight out of a high school detention room in Siberia. Sauntering up with his hands in the pockets of his black cargo shorts, he looked the new sandcastle over before his eyes landed on Penny. “Yeah, pretty...” He flashed Jessica a sly glance before smirking. “Pretty stupid! Who builds a sand castle out of spite? That's, like, a total dork move.”

Despite how he looked, he sounded like a surfer dude, and he rounded on Jessica with a conspiratorial look—the look that close friends might give one another. “C'mon, sis. Let's ditch these lame-o's.” He nodded his head pointedly over his shoulder. A few hundred feet away, one of the resort's security guards, all in white save for his black aviators and thick black beard, was watching. Whether drawn by the whisper of a bully terrorizing sand castles and disrupting the peace, or the flagrant use of an epithet or two, he observed the beachfront in menacing stillness and silence. A number of hotel visitors were also watching, either annoyed, concerned, or both.

The guy took a step in the direction of the southern end of the beach, where waves lapped against a rocky spit that extended a ways into the sea. Signs discouraged climbing on the rocks, but neither the dude nor Jessica were the type to take such warnings seriously. More importantly, there weren't a lot of people there, which would allow Jessica to escape the less-than-desirable attention now fixed on her. Even if she was dying for attention, after all, getting thrown out of the place where she wanted to take a load off would do her no good. All this, the yellow-eyed stranger seemed to understand.
@Kafka Komedy Jude is good to go. Paste him into the characters tab and post at will.
Wanted to check and see if these epithet abilities were cool before moving forwards with the sheet?


Seems good to me! Imaginative but reasonably well-defined.
Is this still accepting? I decided to get back into textual roleplay and this seemed a nice way to ease back in. If it is, I'd like to be furnished with my requisite 5 words Mr. GM Sir.


Sure is. Here you are.


Instead of a a girl ready to play the victim, Rosco Lafayette found fire. The girl snatched her notebook, batted away his offered hand, and snapped at him while scribbling in the journal. For a moment Rosco met her with a look of confusion, but just as the word 'accident' came to his lips, he found himself forcefully moved. Suddenly the surf lapped around his calves, and a moment later a -rather small- wave crashed into him. Though even more confused he did not seem bothered, and in fact barely moved or even flinched as the water hit him. Rather, he seemed comfortable, amused, and even relieved. This sort of revenge he could handle, versus the sort a girl screaming accusations and howling for police could bring down upon him. A few onlookers even tittered. The situation was defused.

Obviously, she'd used her epithet to do this to him. No other explanation. The fact that she'd whip it out on a whim like that was equal parts intriguing and worrisome. Rosco turned back to see if the girl had stormed off or needed some sort of additional response to be satisfied. Maybe, he thought, he should have let himself be bowled over, and sealed the deal with a little humiliation. It wasn't like he cared, after all. Unfortunately the girl stuck around, and after a brief pause, shifted him back out of the water. At full height, not stooping down to lend a hand, Rosco towered over her, but clearly the girl didn't lack for spirit. And still with the unfair questions, trying to make the situation into more than what it was. And a threat, too. Did this kid think that her epithet made her invincible? Schools had therapy for that sort of thing. It appeared that it would take a little more to let bygones be bygones.

He held up his hands helplessly, trying to placate her. “Take it easy, little lady. Just an accident. Neither of us were payin' attention. It happens.” Using one hand he took off his shades so that the other could wipe some saltwater off. His eyes were big, a glistening swirl of blue and green, bright as the sea itself. He replaced the shades, put one hand on his waist, and pointed the other at her. “You know, you've got some guts to throw around your epithet like that. Lot of people think it's a private matter, and take usin' it personally. Like a concealed carry, 'cept nobody knows what the gun does.” Rosco wondered about the girl's perspective, and why she acted the way she did. The next man who crossed her might not have her best interests at heart, after all, so if he could leave her with some parting advice he figured it'd be worth a try.

Not too far away, atop the wooden barrier, Penny could get a good look at just about all the beach had to offer, from the fledgling foam pit to the market stalls to the couple of folks floating on their backs a hundred feet or so out from he shore, peacefully soaking up the warm sun in the cool water. The strident voice of Jessica, however, cut into the pleasant scene and grabbed at her attention.

Jessica, wearing a cruelly gleeful smile that showed off sharp teeth, rounded on the teacher lady with remarkable spirit to rebuke her. The woman looked not-at-all affronted by the teenager's choice of insult, and listened with a stony expression until her turn came around to speak. “What you're doing isn't evil,” Noelle told the self-proclaimed evildoer. “It's just sad. You're acting like a middle schooler who's watched too many cartoons. I'm sure security would be glad to escort you off the premises if they learned you were bullying little kids. But I bet your parents wouldn't like that, hm?”

With a knowing smile, Noelle pushed up her glasses. “From the way you talk you sound like you think you're important. You act mean and tough, but what you are is small and soft, clearly well cared-for. Your parents must be big-timers, but I don't see them around. If they were, you could be held accountable. I don't see any friends, either.” Noelle, having been working her way on a progressive line of thought, suddenly shot straight to the conclusion. Her expression took a turn for the sad. “Oh. I see.” She knelt down, wiped the little kid's eyes, and started brushing sand off her. “There you go, sweetie. Let's get you cleaned up. You should go find your mommy and daddy and play near them.”

The child nodded, and after a moment stood up before heading off. Noelle stood up herself, and brushed sand from her legs. A final glance was spared for Jessica, more pitying than anything. “Well, you should stop being a nuisance before security notices. There's plenty to enjoy without bothering anyone.” With that she took her leave, making for the shoreline to join Heath. As she approached she noticed a concerned look haunting him. “What is it?”

“Just...Tucker's not a great swimmer, you know?”

Noelle wrapped an arm around her husband's shoulder. “Relax. He has arm floats on, right? And the lifeguard's watching, too. No reason to worry.” She looked out across the water. The flock of children were nearing the buoy where Lydia clapped and cheered.
An invasion already, and from a much stronger force at that. How exciting.
For a moment it seemed like it might take a herculean effort to extract Harry from his conversation with a tourist about a board game called Chance Lords, but barely had the question left Penny's mouth than the bearded shopkeeper rounded on her with a gleam in his eye. “Seven ninety-nine!” He declared after just seeing the book's cover. Evidently he knew his wares well; maybe he kept tabs on all potential customers just so he could answer any inquiries the moment they hit the air. “You know, that's a great choice, miss. Really digs up all the hidden depths of this place. They say every land has its secrets, and there's definitely more to this region than meets the eye! Like the Murkmen, or Captain Volantes and the Forever Seabeast. My favorite's the tale of Moving Pictures, which started about thirty years ago in the heart of Sweet Jazz City. I mean, can you picture it? Living graffiti that follows people around at night! Had me looking over my shoulder for years.”

The man had the gift of gab, and he was quite the giver. No matter who it might be, Harry looked overjoyed to be chatting, even if it ended up being pretty one-sided. “So, can I ring it up for you? If there's anything else I can getcha, just lemme know!” He span back toward the other prospective customer and picked up right where he left off, operating the cash register with one hand should Penny go through with the transaction. Harry spared only a glance to count the amount, which he did in remarkable speed, before proceeding to outline the special abilities of every player character in Chance Lords for its interested buyer.

Nearby, happenstance led to a number of new arrivals to the beach at about the same time, which created something of a foot-traffic jam at the main stairs, owed in part to a short, black-haired teenager standing there and staring out at the sea with a notebook. Most of the vacationers got through it just fine, but one man bumped into Aurora as he was putting on a pair of sunglasses. The impact practically bowled the unguarded girl over, and when she looked at the offender, she found a most imposing figure. Standing at six foot ten and weighing three hundred pounds at least, built like a pro wrestler, with skin the color of mahogany and a face like an Easter Island head, he stared down at Aurora with a look of surprise. A half-dozen worried people looked on. “Oh?” he grunted in a deep bass, pulling the shades off again.

His expression turned into one of nervous panic. “Oh God, I'm so sorry, miss. I just didn't see you there. Are you okay? Here.” He stooped, scooped up her notebook with one massive mitt to hold out for her, and offered his other hand to help her up.

The incident, not too far away from the volleyball setup, had drawn Noelle's attention. From her point of view, though, it looked like a perfectly ordinary accident. Even if it wasn't there were a couple dozen people better poised to do something than she, and it wasn't her business. Still, she hoped the knocked-over girl was okay. Her viewing of the event came to a halt when a ringtone sounded out from her bag. Noelle slipped her phone from it, frowned at the unfamiliar number visible on its face, and put it against her ear. On a true tropical vacation there would be no service, or at least none without paying exorbitant fees, but a place like this still in mainland America offered it for free.

“Hello?” She answered cheerily. “Oh, Mrs. Rutherford. Um...that's right, I'm not at the school, in fact. I'm on vacation...what do you mean, 'why?' Everyone deserves a break now and again, right? ...Now, I'm sure if you check the system, you'll see my time off request was approved weeks ago. No, it's just today. The weekend plus yesterday's PTA conferences plus today is my whole trip.” Her smile grew strained. “Yes, yes. take all the time you need.” A few moments went by, which Noelle passed by looking around the beach. She spotted a teenage girl with blonde twintails repeatedly trying to kick a little kid's sandcastle. Noelle frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. What a cruel thing to do, she thought, and after another second the voice of Mrs. Rutherford buzzed in her ear again. “Ah, I'm glad you found it,” she remarked, trying to sound upbeat. The teenager finally succeeded in kicking over the sandcastle -or rather, a small part of it-, gloated uproariously and proceeded to dust the child with sand, too. “Now, is it really my job to secure a substitute? I...it...it is? I thought...the office handled that stuff? …Last month, hm? Well, I'm sorry....alright, I'll see you then.” Noelle laid the phone down on the beach chair and heaved a heavy sigh. After inhaling, she got to her feet and headed for the scene of destruction. Adults could handle their own affairs, but children Noelle could deal with.

She walked right up to where Jessica towered over the crying kid, put her hands on her hips, and said, “What do you think you're doing, tormenting that poor girl? You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Meanwhile, the kids' club had assembled at the water's edge. The little ones watched with excited eyes as a small wave carried a rising star their way. None other than Lydia Forthing, a new but prominent actress, surfed toward a buoy anchored a short distance offshore. “Hey, kids!” she called, waving, as she came to a stop and knelt on her board. With her famous bright green hair, long enough to reach her lower back, snow-white two-piece, and radiant smile, she commandeered the limelight to seize onlookers' attention. The kids cheered, bouncing up and down. Among them were both Lucy and Tucker, the latter of whom looked happy to see her despite being uncommonly familiar with her thanks to their roles in Shadow Boxer. She shouted across the water, “You ready to show you have what it takes to be a superhero like me? All you have to do is swim out around this buoy and back to prove you have real superhero grit! Now, hold up your floaties!”

The children raised their arms, showing off the brightly-striped flotation devices secured around their upper arms. Lydia grinned at the lifeguard on duty, holding up a thumbs-up. The bored-looking man just gave a brief nod, but it was enough to start the show. Lydia raised her arms. “Okay, get ready...go!”

All at once the kids sprinted into the water, splashing up a storm until the sand sank away beneath their feet and they could start doggy-paddling for the buoy. Kneeling on her board, Lydia encouraged them. “Yeah, that's it! Whoo! You've got this!” Noelle spotted Heath among the parents looking on, so while she wanted to watch her children go, she figured she could leave them to Heath while she sorted out this little miscreant. She resumed her stern gaze on Jessica, wordlessly demanding that she try to explain her indefensible actions.
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