Lugubrious

Infactorium: A New 4Xpansion (Overlord RP) [DISCONTINUED]

Since making a simple meal such as this required neither much effort nor concentration on Mae's part, the headless horror could focus on soaking up every word that issues from Riny, like a heel of bread mopping up the leftover dregs of a stew. Though no expert storyteller, the huntress painted a picture of her life well enough. Being the perennial pariah from this region's communities she couldn't describe many things in great detail, but she could describe a lot from a distance, and with approximately zero knowledge about this new area, Mae wanted broad strokes first and foremost anyway.

So, this place was called Anzelgard. In an odd parallel with the current state of Infactorium itself, this kingdom was in a sorry state, only a shadow of its former self. Made vassal to the reigning Nyll Empire, the former nation had at some point been reduced to little more than a mining colony, its strongest sons and daughters laboring day by day in the dusty darkness of the aluminum mines to sustain the treaty made by a royal wedding, all in hopes that Nyll wouldn't finally decide to snuff the smoldering embers out. Personally speaking, politics interested Mae less than the valuable news about it being breeding season in the woodlands, but even she knew that wherever there was turmoil, there was opportunity.

While Mae harbored no real ambitions beyond restoring her restaurant -which would, to be fair, require quality materials and helping hands- she had no doubt that her boss could make the most of this situation. Just thinking about what Faetalis would do, and how her head chef might be able to help out even beyond her official capacity, filled Mae with excitement. No matter what she picked, though, a confrontation with the locals seemed inevitable at some point. Even once people caught wind of the indescribable horrors that came down the mountain, they couldn't give up on the resource that kept their kingdom afloat. They'd be back with more men, better weapons, and in broad daylight, Mae bet. And if the Guild routed that party, too, and Anzelgard went kaput, Nyll might very well drop by to take care of things themselves. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Infactorium needed a strategy, and since Mae made better flans than plans, she knew just who to call.

But first it was mealtime, and that wasn't something Mae took lightly. With the food done, she ladled a bowlful for Riny. Tired and hollowed out by the events of the night, and not well-fed to begin with, the huntress accepted it gladly. The moment she laid hands on the bowl she seemed captivated by the simple dish. "W-what is this?" she stammered, taken by surprise. "It smells...unreal."

The nearby Maneaters flinched, and Riny looked around with a start, wondering if she made some mistake. The abominable cook had crossed her arms under her chest, and even without a head looked annoyed. "Hmph! Feelin' kinda rude all of a sudden, huh? I know I ain't got the best ingredients right now, but I put my heart in everythin' I make! Woulda figured a li'l gratitude'd be in order..."

Riny waved her free hand in a panic, eyes wide and fearful, nearly spilling brother on herself. "Nonono, I'm sorry, ma'am! I meant 'unreal' as in, uh, too good to be true. It smells better than anythin' I've ever had--better than the king's feast I delivered some game to, a while back!"

In an instant Mae's mood changed, turning from irate to pleased. "Oh-hoho? That's more like it! Well then, hurry up an' give it a try!"

Riny quickly obliged Mae's request. A moment after the spoon went in, she froze solid. Mae kept still, surprised and confused by the lack of reaction, her blindsight detecting nothing. Until, that was, Riny's eyes squeezed shut, and tears began to roll down her face. Mae was taken aghast until she realized exactly what was going on. "It's...so good!" the huntress wept, her shoulders shaking. "I've never...in all my years, never...tasted the like! It's like heaven!"

Embarrassed by what she saw as undeserved praise, Mae raised one arm behind her head to scratch at the base of her neck, jiggling her underarm folds in the process. The thought that Riny might be faking crossed her mind, but those tears seemed totally genuine. "Aw, geez," the headless horror chuckled. "I guess the ingredients we salvaged were pretty high-class. But still, I'm ashamed to call what I did here cookin'. Just you wait an' see what I can really do!"

Her words seemed lost on Riny, however, as the starved huntress wolfed down her meal at breakneck pace. Nothing else in the world seemed to matter, and when she finished she barely stopped herself leaping at the stewpot. "P-please, can I have another?"

Mae gave a thumbs-up, seemingly pleased. "Be my guest. Just don't make yourself sick, bahaha!" With some effort Mae hauled herself to her feet. "Alright, I'm gonna go an' let the boss know what we're lookin' at. Sit tight." The master of the Gorging Trough left the newcomer to her staff's care and began her hunt for Faetalis.

Infactorium: A New 4Xpansion (Overlord RP) [DISCONTINUED]

Lots of interesting stuff to process. Will have a post out soon.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Just as an extra couple words to the wise, there's no posting order, so feel free to fire off your posts whenever you feel like it. And since it won't be that many rounds before we get to the meat and potatoes of the Persona side of things, if you guys want your characters to chat and interact while at the school, once a week won't avail you much. You're totally fine to put out multiple smaller, conversational posts, or to collaborate using something like Google Docs or etherpad. Either way, as we launch into week two, I'll look forward to what everyone has in store!

World of Light

Team Mao

Location: Al Mamoon Northeast - Rocket Inc.
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Mao’s @Potemking, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Joker, Fox, Necronomicon, Braum

The lines of battle had been drawn, and the two lines of opponents faced one another, the air between them fraught with tension. Seekers versus Resistance, nine against nine, although Ciella’s presence added a little extra spice to the mix. If not for the death of Amara and Jinx’s recruitment, Joker mused, his side would be outnumbered. While the rabbit lady issued her ultimatum and received her opposite number’s curt dismissal, Joker turned to address his team as quickly as he could.

“With these powers and numbers, this is going to be wild. We need to try and separate them to prevent total chaos. You know, crossfire, interference, so forth. Since Necro’s not gonna fight and hopefully their boss won’t either, it’ll probably go to four two-on-twos, so find someone you work well with. We should be careful until Mona gets here. ‘Til then, all we have is Necro for healing.” He rounded on the flying saucer. “You told him about the way down after the other Fox called, right? Anyway, we need you to observe and find out what their powers are. Weaknesses to, if you can. Shout ‘em out when targets change. Otherwise, support whoever’s got it roughest. Fox, with me!”

“O-okay!”

“Right.”

Joker whipped around, his coattails flying dramatically. “Okay.” In a flash his knife appeared in one hand, and his new pistol in the other. “Let’s do this!”

The battle began with a furious opening salvo. Ciella unleashed an arrow of water that carved through the air, a flying riptide, Fox unleashed a few rifle rounds, and from the realm of Twilight Midna conjured a handful of potted projectiles to hurl into the Resistance crowd. Already, however, the silhouette of the giant man in armor was moving to intercept. “Hah!” The mighty Reinhardt deployed his energy shield, covering almost half of his team in one move, and though Ciella and Midna’s attacks crashed against it the barrier held firm. Fuse and Mordecai stayed behind his shield to return fire, but Orendi scampered off to the guardian’s left and Shadow floated upward. Before Reinhardt could remind his allies to get behind him, Jesse readied something else to send his way--or more accurately, Nastasia’s. And it was no ordinary projectile.

That wouldn’t do. “Sven!” Reinhardt yelled. “Bounce me!” To his right, the rotund old potion master chuckled as he pulled a flask of blue liquid at his teammate’s feet. Reinhardt jumped, and the moment he landed on the puddle of elastic ooze he soared skyward, high enough to intercept Jesse’s spun spear just in the nick of time. The impact cracked but did not destroy his barrier, and he came down a moment later to protect his team. By that time, however, most of his team had scattered.

Shadow rose into the air above him, dodging bullet after bullet from Jesse. Rather than strike back immediately he manifested a pair of Chaos Spears that he hurled toward the grouped-up Seekers, forcing them to break their ranks. The move meant that both groups had broken formation, and soon chaos would ensue. Shadow smirked, watching the situation unfold from above. Chaos, after all, was just his thing. He waited and watched for an opening to pick off an unlucky target, ready should anyone try to challenge him directly.

If the FBC director meant to try him again, though, he quickly found herself with problems of her own. With a maniacal giggle the impish varimorph Orendi scampered off toward the same side that Jesse took, a crimson magic swirling around all four hands. At her beckoning a circle of low-lying barbs appeared around Jesse’s position, while a tower of three spike-lined rings appeared above her. “Hey, lookupandopenyourmouthsoitbakesyourintestines!” she jittered with glee, and scarcely a moment later a pillar of magenta power burst up from the ground to shoot through the rings. If Jesse evaded, as she was wont to do, Orendi leaped behind cover to avoid retaliatory fire.

Having been momentarily exposed by Reinhardt’s stunt, the sniper, Mordecai, went the same direction. He let loose his Bloodwing companion as he fled, and at blistering speed the avian shot out to seek and gouge the nearest Seeker. He then settled down to provide support from way in the back of the arena, which for the moment meant keeping Jesse’s head down with near-misses from his precision rifle. Once granted an opportunity, Orendi kept up the mayhem by summoning a trio of rings in front of her and firing a magenta beam Jesse’s way. Together the barrage of bullets and magic kept up a deadly and near constant offense; Jesse needed help. “Yikes!” Necronomicon exclaimed, taking notice. “Here! Speed, up!” A green aura surrounded Jesse, boosting both agility and evasion, but a little extra speed wouldn’t be enough against this onslaught. From the shadows, Midna was positioned well to both see the problem and lend a hand.

At the same time, the Dragonborn roared and charged toward Mao, filled with rage by the power of Ara Mitama. Though his grievous wounds had yet to fully heal, his fighting spirit would not die, and as he ran he conjured a spirit bow with which to fire arrows as he moved in. He sent shot after shot, but by the time he reached melee range he’d already swapped to a heavy metal-banded shield of solid wood and a trusty steel longsword. The sight of his stolen axe in the cur’s grip filled him with fury. He swung at Mao, not in blind recklessness, but with countless hours of expertise given strength by rage.

Behind him followed the demonic duo, Shayne and Aurox. Together teenager and terror followed their fearsome ally into the thick of the fighting, but well before they reached the front lines they disappeared. A scant few seconds later the two reappeared in dynamic fashion, leaping down toward Mao from the side as he scrapped with the Dragonborn. “Heads up!” Shayne yelled, her boomerang readied alongside her companion’s claws, but their stealth attack never hit its mark. “What the f-AGH!”

“Stand behind me!” With surprising speed Braum leaped in the way, placing himself between his friend and his foe. He smashed into the headlong duo before they could defend themselves, stunning them momentarily. The manliest of yells resounded across the battlefield as Braum pulled his shield arm back and bodily punched the creature armoring Shayne with its heft. He moved to assist Mao, but Braum’s adversary returned just a moment later with a hurled boomerang, itching to get her hands dirty. The two stood together against tenacious foes.

Even as fighting erupted to his left and right, Reinhardt focused on the task ahead. Fuse, Shadow, and Sven remained near him, while an irritated Nastasia picked herself off the ground where she’d thrown herself in a desperate bid to avoid Jesse’s targeted assault. “Hmph!” she groused. “Yeah, that was a little close. You all know what you need to do. I’m clocking out early. Shadow, take me.”

Ciella gnashed her teeth. “You’re not getting away!” He lifted a hand to her mask, then swept it sideways with a flourish. “Feral Shroud, expand!”

Instantly a barrier of darkness formed around the arena, walling off every escape from the great dome with swirling, nebulous magic. When Shadow grabbed his boss and tried to warp out, he found to his great frustration that he could not. Nastasia’s eyebrow twitched as her minion set her back down behind Reinhardt’s shield, unfazed even as the combined efforts of Ciella, Sectonia, Joker, and Shadow beat against it. “Okay then, new business plan. Get her.”

A moment later Reinhardt’s shield shattered. He swung his hammer to let loose a fire strike that hurtled the heroes’ way, then followed behind it in a rocket-powered charge. Sven ran behind him a lot faster than his little legs and round body would imply, and after splitting up to avoid Reinhardt, Joker and Fox let him go right by. That left the Thieves against just Shadow, Fuse, and Nastasia herself, but as they watched the Hedgehog warped away to appear right behind Ciella and kick her back into the path of Reinhardt’s charge. The old knight pinned and brought her right to the back of the arena where he smashed her against the far pillar, eliciting a shout of pain.

Joker and Fox turned to run back and help, but a spatter of bullets hit the ground at their feet. They whirled around in anger to see Fuse standing alongside his boss, assault rifle at the ready and a grin on his face. “Hey now, don’t count me out. I’ll show you kids a thing or two!”

With a bored expression, Nastasia flipped open a phone. “Hello, hello? I needed you Vandals here yesterday. Hustle already!” Joker’s gun flew into position, and without an ounce of hesitation she fired. His revolver round never hit; instead, it melted against a green barrier around her as the device at her hip flared to life. “Um, yeah. Thought it’d be that easy? Gotta get through the overshield first.” As a quartet of four-armed fighters teleported in around her, she flexed her fingers. “Now if you don’t mind, I’ll just put you under new management. Don’t you move now~” She stepped forward, impervious, and from the minions all around her the hailstorm of projectiles began.

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Level 9 Tora (37/90) Level 8 Poppi (107/80) Level 3 Big Band (27/30)
Location: Al Mamoon Northwest - Obelisk Temple
Primrose’s @Yankee, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Yoshitsune’s @Rockin Strings
Word Count: 1826

Now that everyone knew what to look for, they searched with purpose. Even the Grimleal lieutenants lent a helping hand as they paced around on the hunt for crystal scarabs. Only Yoshitsune remained idle, too annoyed at the resolution of his last fight and pumped up about the chance of a rematch to do anything but kick rocks. Though he didn’t persist for long in the search, Fox did think to take the moment of relative peace that his team currently enjoyed to establish some communication with the contingent that marauded the Resistance’s main base even now. It took just a couple seconds after his hail before Necronomicon responded.

“Hey there! Well, it’s been pretty exciting over here. The second we stepped we were fighting for our lives. More people with strong weapons and varied powers, but we managed to take a couple down. The rest got away using these magic bones but we’re on our way to finish the job right now. Riding an elevator way underground, although it’s already stopped twice so that some trash mobs can try their luck. Considering how deep we are I’m kinda surprised we got a signal. Good thing comms work ‘cause we expect ‘em to in the Metaverse, huh? Anyway, Mona got warped away but is hurrying back fast as he can, and Laharl was pissed about something or other and stayed up top, so we’re technically down two but nobody’s dead or anything. So I guess we’re pretty good here. How about you guys?”

Not long after the conversation finished, Tora and Poppi returned from their outing down the side tunnel. A little rocket power brought them back over to the main floor, and though they looked a little dustier, neither seemed any worse for wear. “Diddly squat,” he announced, shrugging as best he could without shoulders. “Just rocks, sand, and torches. Maybe tunnel cave in while back or something, meh.”

Poppi took note of the glowing part of the scarab door. “Did Poppi and Masterpon miss anything?”

Once filled in, Tora and Poppi joined the search in dramatic fashion. At her Masterpon’s behest the artificial Blade swapped to her wind core and started launching air-infused missiles around the room. Whenever one struck sand piled up on the ruined structure it got blown away, uncovering anything buried beneath, and after a good salvo most of the stone in the room had been swept clean. Of course, all the sand that got kicked up in the first place wasn’t very pleasant, as Tora quickly realized. “Meh, meh!” he groaned, dusting sand from his hair. “All this sand get stuck in poor Tora’s wet clothes!”

“Tell me about it,” Skull agreed, scratching at the inside of his collar. “Our guys ran all the way to this giant pool. I mean, it was cool and all, but of course we got totally friggin’ soaked when we fought ‘em. How’d you get wet?”

Poppi answered that one as she searched by the edges of the sand pits. “Poppi hose Masterpon off after Poppi use him like bowling ball to smash spiders summoned by half-naked witch lady.”

“F-for real?” Skull muttered, blinking. “Wait, you said she summoned spiders? That’s super messed up! Were they poisonous?”

“Venomous!” Panther corrected for the second time.

Now it was Tora’s turn to scratch his head. “Meh...don’t know. Got bit couple times, but feel okay now.”

As the group’s discussion went on Kan-Ra thought of something. “While we’re all here, why not run through everyone we fought and compare notes? If your opponents escaped as well, we’ll need to fight them again before we leave.”

“Hey, good idea!” Skull called. He paused as Primrose uncovered another scarab with Makami’s help and watched while Panther blasted it with fire. The third symbol on the door lit up, which meant only one remained. “Well, we fought two guys. One was this dwarf dude, like straight out of Lord of the Rings, with a hammer. But he could use freakin’ magic, too! He zapped the water with his hands, and pacified me just by touching me!”

Panther sighed. “He means ‘putrefied’, like turned to stone.” She blinked, eyebrows furrowed. “Wait...was that it?”

“That ain’t right either!”

With a less than confident smile Panther continued. “Uh, heheh, anyway, there was also this dragon dude I saw while he was fighting Yoshitsune. He just used a lot of fire spells. Fireballs, flamethrowing, fire rain, and so on. He also did that meteor right at the start, I think.”

Eager to go next, Tora took the floor. “We fought pretty witch and annoying jerkypon! Witch summon bugs and bats and broggs and explodypons but not really fight on own. But other guy have loads of weapons, meh! Guns, sword, axe, scythe, everything. Not slouch with weapons, either. Also swear whole bunch, so good thing little friend Hattypon not here. Tora think we need teach jerkypon lesson out first!” He curled the end of one wing like a fist and smacked it into the ‘palm’ of the other.

With Primrose already done more than her fair share of sleuthing, Band allowed her to reply for his team while he doubled down on the search. Once she finished Azwel rounded out the overall report with a blasé response. “The girl who opposed me is of no particular note. She possessed some speed and strength, as well as proficiency with the blade, but paled in comparison to my Practical Application of Martial Philosophy and Theory,” he boasted, name-dropping his fighting style.

Just then Band’s magnifying glass picked up an important detail. “Aha!” He stood in front of one of the pillars, eyeing a stone brick nestled in loose mortar. In pristine ruins never marred by the erosion of wind and rain, it stood out thanks to its edges, more worn than they had any right being. With a padded claw the detective slipped the brick out from its hole and revealed the final scarab. He allowed himself a moment to take in a few impressed looks. “What can I say? I got rhythm.” Using his claw he flicked the scarab until it lit up. The sound of sliding stone brought everyone’s eyes to the doorway as it opened wide, granting access to the staircase below.

The team descended one by one. Before long it emptied into a square chamber, dark and severe, with barred doors on either side that to Tora suggested nothing less than a dungeon. Only the left-hand one appeared to be occupied, and within it sat a knight in shining bronze armor. He only lifted his head when he didn’t recognize the makers of the noise that signalled their arrival. “Oh? Maybe I’m in luck. Could you help me? As you can see I am stuck, without recourse.”

Azwel sneered at him while Kan-Ra kept his focus dead ahead. “We’ll deal with you later.”

“Please, I have duties to fulfill, and I will reward you handsomely.” The knight looked at each Seeker as they went past. “Well? I am certain you stand to benefit.”

Tora gave him a pleading look. ‘Ssh! We on mission! Tora sorry you locked up, but like foppypon say, we come back after not in danger!” Even if this wasn’t a trap and this strange knight was an upstanding individual, his team could not afford to be distracted right now. He followed along as everyone proceeded onward.

Up ahead lay a much bigger underground dungeon. Filthy, run-down, poorly lit, and with a pervasive green tinge, it offered little in the way of welcome. In the center of the spacious hall a great column connected floor and ceiling, and the furnace built in blazed with light and warmth. In front of it lay a large rug, and from atop it three sets of eyes stared at the incoming intruders. Sitting in a backward-facing chair on that rug, the grandmaster tactician Robin looked a little different than he did in the photo on Validar’s desk, aside from his grim expression. By him was a weary-eyed blonde woman in an outfit like a dancer’s. She knelt over the unconscious form of Charnok, having managed to stabilize the mortally wounded sorcerer but not restore him much more than that. This must be where the others had all been teleported to, which meant the Resistance’s full strength lurked somewhere nearby. On Robin’s other side stood a strange little fellow with a lantern that dangled from his nose and a book held in his hands. Tora stared at him in particular, the somewhat familiar shape of the stranger’s bringing to mind a mutant Nopon.

“I see you had no trouble reaching our sanctum,” Robin observed, his tone almost lifeless. “You have us backed into a wall, and though we’re not quite spent yet, there need not be further bloodshed. Just please, hear me out.”

Azwel crossed his arms. “The one in charge of this rabble, I presume? Your peons have already attempted to kill us. No doubt they wait in the wings even now. Don’t you think time for diplomacy has passed?”

“I know that there is no convincing the Grimleal. For the sake of their vision, they cannot allow any insurrection to stand. But I am not talking to the Grimleal.” Robin’s eyes drifted over Tora, Poppi, Big Band, Primrose, Fox, Yoshitsune, Skull, and Panther. “I am talking to you. What I have to tell you is absolute proof of foul play on the part of Validar and his underlings. Proof that his regime is built on a lie--that what happened to the queen is no accident, but his own doing.”

“A preposterous accusation!” Azwel blew him off with a sweep of his arm. “And one we won’t hear. This proof you speak of is nothing more than a blatant attempt to sow distrust among our ranks.”

Wearing his ever-present grin, Kan-Ra clasped his hands behind his back. “Come now, lieutenant. Nonsense it may be, but since we represent the city’s law and have nothing to hide, what harm could it be to hear them out? I for one am interested to hear this absolute proof.” He glanced back at the others. “What do you think?”

Band stepped through the group, grumbling. “Mister Magic, you’ve got a whole lotta nerve to try an’ talk your way out after choosin’ violence.” He stared down at Robin with a solemn scowl. “That said...one truth prevails, and I’m here to find it. We beat your crew like drums already, and we can do it again if you pull anythin’. So I’m down to lend an ear.”

Tora, Poppi, Skull, and Panther kept quiet. All typically left decisions like this to their respective team leaders, so they didn’t feel qualified to lend an opinion, but they considered the situation all the same. Azwel crossed his arms impatiently, but something his comrade said clearly made him hesitate. Like the Resistance members present, he awaited a decision.

Ms Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (80/40)
Location: The Maw - the Depths
Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Bowser's @DracoLunaris, Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Mirage’s @Potemking, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy
Word Count: 919

Despite the heebie-jeebies the abominable sight and sounds of the Proxy filled them with, the kids put their makeshift plan into action. Mirage’s noise-making efforts held the vile thing more or less captive right in front of the Command Center’s pit, while his friends overcame their trembles and nerves to get into position.

First, the formerly submarine-hoisting apparatus descended to where the Proxy lurched, its pneumatic arms extended to offer it an express ticket to the Depths’ lowest floor. Unfortunately, it became clear all too soon that the malformed horror wouldn’t be defeated so easily. The machine ran at just one speed: slow. With its arms turned inward to create a single wall of metal the apparatus bumped into the Proxy’s upper body, but rather than be sent into open space the creature reacted violently to the unexpected touch. Its pendulous mess swayed to the side and whipped back around with far greater strength, like a souped-up speed bag. The Proxy struck the arms strong enough to wrench both sideways, knocking them permanently out of whack.

Even so, the kids were determined to have the last laugh. From her position between the cage entrance and the pilot seat Rika clenched her teeth and leveled her gauntlets at the monstrosity before her. In this form her weapons were little more than pea shooters, but right now they might be enough. As she prepared to fire, a white shape filled her peripheral vision to the right, and when Rika looked she saw none other than Bella standing beside her. Though the tiny Water Princess couldn’t wipe the fear from her heart, her face right now was one of anger. How dare this wretched slime terrorize MY Sakura, it was saying. She looked daggers at the Proxy from a back stance, her miniature leviathan tail primed and ready with its maw agape. Never in their lives as Abyssals had either Bella or Rika known or cared about the other, simply acting their roles as unknown master and unknown minion, but this crisis had brought them together. United at last, the little monsters fired, and the pop of their triple blast filled the Command Center.

Their shells exploded against the Proxy, wobbling it perilously. It fought to steady itself on logs without feet, teetering on the brink. Bella’s eyes went wide as her grimace turned into a snarl. How could this thing not fall? Was it unbeatable? Unsinkable? Given the smallest chance, was it destined to turn the tables and mash her into oblivion just as it did Peach? The sound of jets, however, crushed that chance.

In a blaze of glory Blazermate zoomed in from the direction of the Command Center’s entrance. She went around the cage and came to a stop against the wall above the pilot seat, which she used as a springboard to propel herself toward the Proxy. A moment later her scrap shield slammed into the twisted bulk, and with a final despondent scream the nightmare plunged into the abyss below it. Its howls echoed up from below until they came to an abrupt, sticky end.

A collective sigh of relief filled the Command Center. Peach received some much-needed heeling and the other kids could shake off the terror that gripped their hearts. Peace at last. The bellows of Moreau, however, told them that they weren’t out of the woods just yet.

---

Nadia reached the Depth’s second floor amidst a scene of wanton destruction. Sure, Link got Moreau’s attention easily enough, but unlike earlier where the feral and the monster hunter could enjoy taunting the fish freak from platforms out of his reach, Moreau could easily smash, undermine, and otherwise wreck these walkways. If this kept up for too much longer, there wouldn’t be a second floor, and the Seekers needed it to reach the elevator on the opposite side. Nadia’s skin crawled. If the situation before had been tense, with every moment spent wondering if Moreau’s next jump would take him high enough, this one was pure chaos. A tumult of gnashing teeth, bloodshot eyes, exhaustion, and flying hunks of scrap, all to the hideous cacophony of rended metal and low-pitched wails.

In this fresh hell the last thing Nadia expected was negotiation, but Kamek tried it anyway. He shouted down from a safe vantage point, trying to convince Moreau to reconsider his actions. The young magikoopa clearly sought to reach out to the human element that clearly still existed inside the monster, the part of him that sparked cries of anguish that rendered him pitiable and even pathetic. And to Nadia’s shock, it brooked a response.

After a few of Kamek’s sentences Moreau slowed his roll for a moment. The tooth-lined flaps of his grotesque maw opened, and from within issued a humanoid upper half, with white flesh as cold and clammy as a waterlogged corpse. Nadia spotted the recognizably disfigured face of the stooped invalid that the team found watching ‘television’ in the Command Center as Moreau looked up to the source of the noise. “Muh?” he groaned, listening. “W-what are you...I can, I can win it! I’ll make her proud. A-and then…” He trailed off as Kamek suggested an alternative, but the koopa’s question seemed to push his buttons. “I can’t leave!” he cried. “A-and even if I could...there’s nothing else! Nowhere else for me!” His body receded for a moment as the fish threw up a stream of globular acid, covering part of the floor. Then the upper body re-emerged. “Uugh! It hurts, ohh...every day, torture! She’s the...the only one who ever gave me anything! Everyone else drove me away!” Moreau’s human body clutched his head in his hands. “A safe place to live, drugs for the pain, something she trusts me to do...it’s all I could ever have! So I gotta...even if it hurts, I gotta…!” His fish arms and head smashed into the floor over and over in rage and despair.

While he went on, Ace arrived alongside Nadia to set forth a quick plan of action. The kitten nodded her immediate assent. “Okay, goin’!” As her friend went down to look for the cutters, she made a beeline for the Depth’s north side. If she could rescue Junior while the others kept Moreau busy at the south side, the two of them could get to the exit unimpeded, using mostly intact walkways on the second floor. She just needed to be fast. Problem was, her body wasn’t listening. No matter how much she willed herself onward, her muscles weren’t responding. Halfway through her trip Nadia was flagging, her throat ragged from the breaths tearing through it. “D-damn it,” she gasped, tearing up. She’d gone too hard too soon, telling herself that a scrappy little stray could push through the hardship, but at the end of the day she was a four-year-old child. A pitiful, underfed whelp. She’d been wrong to look back on these formative years and see a hardy survivor, who got through the worst of things by gritting her teeth. This sucked absolutely.

Somehow, though, she made it to the walkway above flow control. In the drab surroundings Junior’s bright yellow, green, and red were easy to spot, and beside him Nadia could see his faithful Mimikyu. Just the ticket. “Junior!” she called down after collapsing onto her stomach above him. “Up here! You still have my fan, right?” She pointed down to a section of floor just beyond the walkway’s edge. “Turn it on and lay it down, like I did in the other area! Use it to bounce up here, then have your pet reach down and grab it!”

She extended a hand off the catwalk out into empty space to encourage Junior to soar up and take it, although she hoped the fan was strong enough he’d just go up and over. If he actually grabbed her she figured the heavier koopa would just pull her down instead. She had neither the staying power nor the stamina to resist.

At that time, Ace got snippy. Using his recovered bolt cutters he clipped a couple flailing tendrils off Moreau’s back. “Ow!” His human face glared upward. “You talk too much,” Moreau growled at Kamek. “I know what you’re up to...just give it UP!” Heedless of the wounded eyes on his back, the monster rolled over so that his arms could reach upward. With just a couple weighty blows he smashed up an entire section of walkway and sent the Cadet flying.

Nadia’s eyes went wide. “Ace!”

“There’s no way out for me,” Moreau declared, resigned to his fate. “I gotta do my job, best I can. Or I’m done.” As his mouth-body receded again, his tone dropped to a rumbling murmur. “And if my best...isn’t good enough...that’s fine. I can still say I tried.” The monster rolled back over and reared back with a bellow. “So...gimme your best shot! Grooooaaaaaagh!”

Goat Village

Location: Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline
Linkle’s @Gentlemanvaultboy

The race was on. Linkle took off like greased lightning, zooming left toward a springboard that launched her up and onto a nearby house. All this Albedo gleaned from his peripheral vision, and as he had a trail of his own to blaze, he couldn’t afford to track his friend’s progress any further. The Skullgirl’s seemingly boundless energy plus her natural agility made an actual competition look pretty bleak from the start, but Albedo had a few tricks of his own up his sleeve.

He veered toward the right, chain in hand and trusting in the villager’s testimony, toward a flagline leading upward. Though he went out on a limb, his experiment quickly bore fruit, and against the laws of nature he zipped up the line and around the right side of the village. After picking up a few floating pons on the way the line deposited him on a decently large plateau blanketed by dirt and grass, dominated by a central farm plot that a handful of homes surrounded. Goats lent their strength to till and stamp down the soul, while the smaller villagers handled the more delicate matters of planting and harvest. The simple harmony at work was oddly wholesome to witness, but it was for a different reason the sight kindled Albedo’s spirit. Even if he lacked Linkle’s athleticism, he could put his brain to work. There was plenty here that he could use.

Wasting no time, he ran a quick circuit around the farm, picking up pons as he concocted a plan. Like a smith he took the raw material presented to him and hammered it onto a workable form, guaranteed to get the job done. The idea that he might be wasting time while his competition barreled onward affected him not at all; this was how the Knights of Favonius’ Investigation Team Captain got things done. It took him only a few moments to put together a solution, after which he put it into practice.

He made for an unused plow and ran up one of its long handles, each movement deft and precise. The weight at the front kept the wooden device from moving as he reached the extremity and jumped to the roof of a nearby well. Ahead lay an instrument whose purpose he could not quite divine, but being a central pole with four red logs branching from the top in a plus sign, it would serve him well as another stepping stone. A leap from there took him onto the roof of a farmhouse, and though for a second his leafy footing threatened to slide him backwards, his forward momentum won out and brought him to the dwellings’ zenith. The much smaller plateau on the other side that overlooked the plot sported a large wooden signboard of some kind, covered with tacked-on papers. Getting across its narrow top was no mean feat, but Albedo managed, even if the board wobbled beneath the impact of his footfalls. Then he came to one of the village’s odd trees, whose leaves existed exclusively in oval masses at the end of their branches. Just as he figured, the mass held firm, allowing him to climb up. Once on top, the next tier of the village’s peaks lay just a few meters above him.

Albedo summoned a solar isotoma. The flower bloomed from within the bark of the plant beneath him and poked up through the leaves. From there he just needed to step on and be elevated to the next level, and as rose he scoped out the new area. This spot was a lot narrower, home to just a few flowers, a couple horned, donut-shaped monuments, and a large windsock. The villager sitting on a bench looked a little surprised to see him, but let him off with just a wave. It would be a moment before Albedo could call forth another construct, so now seemed like the perfect time to use his other trick. He ran right over to the sheer cliff face ahead of him, laid his bare hands on, and started to climb.

As he rose, scaling the cliff face without equipment or even handholds, Albedo wondered what Linkle might have thought seeing this. Apparently it wasn’t normal for the people of other worlds to do this, even if it happened all the time in Teyvat. As long as someone in his world had the stamina, they could crawl right up any flat surface. He arrived at the next tier a moment later, the level dominated by flagpoles and rain barrels, and above him to the left he could see an enormous, red-clothed horn poking out over the edge. Another solar isotoma lifted him straight to the top.

Once there, he found himself alone. “Linkle?” he asked, looking around, but he didn’t find her laying in wait to surprise him or anything. Had he actually beat her? Albedo jogged over to the other side of the Goat Village’s flattened peak, and he quickly got his answer. Linkle was having the time of her life just flying around the northern side of the village, bouncing and climbing everywhere. In her exhilaration she’d either forgotten about the race or found something more important, and the sight sent a pang of...something coursing through Albedo’s heart. He found the sensation difficult to describe. Melancholy, perhaps? For a few moments he just watched, but since the pair had a job to do, he knew he needed to bring her back down to earth. The Alchemist considered calling out, but got a better idea a second later.

BWUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

As the horn resounded through the Alpine Skyline, the flagpole trees reacted. The blue, green, and multicolor flaglines launched out from their homes as if they were alive and snaked through the sky, joining the yellow and red lines in connecting Goat Village to nearby landmarks. While the blue and green ones led elsewhere in the sky-high region, the multicolored one shot straight down and disappeared into the clouds. Regardless, the way to the old mill was open. Albedo crossed his arms as he waited, although if Linkle looked up at him he planned to wave down.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

As the second round begins, your characters might start noticing narrow but sizeable cracks in places around them in places they haven't seen before. Nobody else would seem to notice them, however.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Barney Rynsburger

8:40-9:55 AM

As the minutes passed by the gnawing feeling of wasted time eroded away what comfort the student center couch offered Barney, and as he grew more uneasy his little refuge lost its savor. He’d been able to rest for a little while, but without news or gossip to distract him from himself he’d started stewing in his own juices. Like the oysters in those sea life documentaries he’d seen as a kid, left out to bake on a rocky shore by the falling tide. It wasn’t doing him any good, and it sure wouldn’t leave a better impression of him on anyone who happened to see. It was time to leave.

But where to go? As he shifted his weight around again to fight off the numbness, his head couched in one hand, Barney thought about his options. It would be a good idea to use what little time he had left before the nine o’ clock classes started to get a bite to eat--they say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all. But right now, the idea of food sounded revolting. It wasn’t just that Barney wasn’t hungry; rather, he felt as if he wouldn’t be able to keep anything down if he did force himself to eat. Stomach’s as upset as the rest of me, he thought with a painfully dry smile. Besides, eating when unhappy was what made him like this in the first place. And did he even deserve a meal in the first place, after the stunt he pulled? Have a little discipline, Barney, he chided himself. Might as well head back to his room to swap out his Calculus book for his other laughably overpriced text, then mosey on over to his second class ahead of time. Wouldn’t want to be late to that one, too. As he stood, he noticed a crack in the wall beneath the television, and his eyes lingered there for a moment longer than they should. Had that always been there...?

When he got back to his dorm he found it just the way he’d left it. No sign of his roommate Felipe. “Where’d you go, man?” Barney whispered, worried. He remembered arriving with his friends last night from the restaurant, everyone a little boozed up, but he didn’t recall Felipe dispersing along with him and Matt. Maybe he’d crashed at her place. As he put his Calculus book on his desk Barney made a mental note to give his bud a call before lunch, then reached and took the much fatter English book from the windowsill.

Immediately he sensed something wrong. The book felt cold, clammy. Barney gulped and looked over at the windowsill. Stale water pooled there, having leaked in from the window. A sinking feeling took hold of him. How long had it been there? Since…? As the realization hit, dread took hold of him. It had rained on the Friday of Thanksgiving break, at least two days ago. He plopped the text down on his desk and turned it over. The back cover was peeling. Not a good sign. When he tried to flip through the index he got hit by a funky, moldy smell, and the rumpled pages stuck together. Those he did tenderly pry apart he discovered to be blotched all over, a whole lot of ink ruined, entire pages unintelligible.

Groaning, Barney sank into his chair. If his early misfortune killed him, this was his soul leaving his body. Of course, losing the back of the book wouldn’t hurt his studies much, but there was no way in hell the bookstore would buy the text back now. Two hundred dollars, down the drain. Like he needed that right now. As he teetered, however, he pulled himself back. Calm down, calm down. It’s a textbook racket anyway. No way those scammers would have bought it back for more than, like, forty anyway. Then it would go back on the shelf for two hundred dollars for the next poor sucker to be forced to buy. This wasn’t that bad, he rationalized. This was lose-lose from the start. He stood and slipped the damp book into his bag. Better get a move on.

A few minutes later he entered Principles of English Composition, coming in just as the previous class let out. Those students shared the same unamused look of suppressed annoyance he saw every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in his own class. Not a surprise--this gen ed course was, after all, about as required as it was useless to the vast majority of young adults obliged to plant themselves in its chairs. Which was to say, extremely. But everyone had to put up with it, so put up with it they did. While a lot of the students found some solace in the class’s aide, a very pretty senior who stood in stark contrast to the typical professor fare, the better saving grace for Barney was Felipe. Their friendship began with commiseration over this very course. After seating himself Barney kept an eye on the door, watching for any trace of his companion.

And just before the cut-off, Felipe did appear. Small and lean, with a perpetual five o’ clock shadow and disheveled look that rode the line between confidently carefree and sloppy, he slouched into the room with a terribly overcast expression. Uh oh. Not good. He sat at Barney’s left as usual but kept his eyes focused ahead. Something was eating him, too. Barney decided to respect his privacy for now so things wouldn’t get awkward right before class, but it was hard to hide his troubled expression. Just two dudes, falling apart together. We must make quite the pair.

The class seemed to pass quickly. Barney had a hard time focusing. If either the professor or Harriette called on him he knew he wouldn’t be able to answer, but luckily he seemed to escape their gaze. Pretty soon the students were shifting their sorry carcasses to make for their ten o’ clocks, but neither of the sorriest moved just yet. A few moments passed of silent, mutual companionship before Barney took a deep breath in through his nose. “Hey, man,” he said softly, his first words to another human all morning. “You okay? I didn’t see you this morning.”

“Naw, man.” Felipe shook his head. He turned to his friend, revealing for the first time a blackened left eye. “Things...things went bad last night.”

Barney’s heart sank once again. “W-what happened? Are you hurt?”

“It, well, I mean, this is nothin’.” As he reached up and touched his eye he winced. He let his arm fall back to the table and continued in a hushed voice. “Thing is, last night, me and Maria got into another fight.” He hesitated, but the sympathy in Barney’s eyes assured him that he wouldn’t be able to get away without spilling the beans. “Okay, well, here’s what happened.”

“After you guys went in, she stops me in the parking lot, all pissed. Starts goin’ off about me goin’ out to drink all the time, never tellin’ here where I am, all that stuff. And I know she’s got a point, y’know, but I wasn’t thinkin’ straight and I started talkin’ back. Sayin’ she’s always too controllin’, demandin’, can’t just be there for me without makin’ a fuss. Then we’re pretty much shoutin’, and this asshole pulls up.” Felipe’s face turned angry. “Cole Baby Face Steiner. This goddamn white knight walks over, says I’m botherin’ Maria and ought to leave her alone. She turns on him sayin’ to mind his own business and I join in and give ‘em a little push. Just to say, y’know, back off, dude. Next thing you know this guy’s on the ground, howlin’ like I broke his ribs or something. He comes after me sayin’ some crap about self defense and not lettin’ me harass Maria anymore.” Leaning back, Felipe shook his head. “So I slugged him. Maria did, too. He runs off cryin’ somethin’ or other. I turned back to Maria, all happy we pulled through against this asshole, but she just gives me this look…” He closed his eyes and sighed. “Told me I’m hopeless. That I never think about anythin’ before doin’ it. Then she just...goes.”

Barney rubbed his head. “That’s really bad. Cole’s in the SGA. If he whines about you...it could be really, really bad.”

“I know.” A despondent nod told Barney that his friend knew what penalties might await him. “It’s not just that, though. Maria...she looked at me like I was trash. Like she never wants to see me again. I know I’m not the greatest guy ever, but...but man, she’s like, the best thing that ever happened to me. She’s all I got! If she leaves...man, I don’t know what I’ll do. Might as well kill myself.”

This wasn’t the first time Felipe whipped out a line like that. As inappropriate as it was, he issued remarks like that habitually when faced with all sorts of misfortune, from bad grades to sucky cafeteria food. But given the current situation, something about the way he said it chilled Barney’s spine. “Hey, don’t joke like that. Not when it’s serious.”

Felipe laughed once, abruptly. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, man. Just got a lot to think about.”

Unconvinced, Barney decided to play a risky card. “Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m pretty much screwed, too. Missed a big test this morning. Only a matter of time ‘til I’m out.”

“Aw, bro. We can share a cardboard box together. Roommates for life!” He held out a hand for a fist-bump. Barney didn’t give him one. After a moment Felipe cleared his throat. “Uh-hmm. Well, uh, later, man.” The weight of Barney’s lightless eyes on him sent him on his way in a hurry. After he disappeared Barney turned to face forward again, drawing his feet across cracks in the tile beneath him, to stare straight ahead at the classroom’s smartboard. Other students would be arriving in a few minutes, but until then he figured he could take a moment to try and swallow the lump in his throat.

World of Light

hello! I don't think I've mentioned this yet on this roleplay. On August 1st I'll be leaving for a road trip and won't be back until Augest 8th. So I won't be online very much, if at all. Especially from the 4th-6th where I won't have an internet connection at all. Either way I won't be posting that week, even if I do get online a little bit.

@Zoey Boey

Thanks for the heads-up!

World of Light

Tora, Poppi, and Big Band

Level 9 Tora (34/90) Level 8 Poppi (104/80) Level 3 Big Band (24/30)
Location: Al Mamoon Northwest - Obelisk Temple
Primrose’s @Yankee, Fox’s @Dawnrider, Yoshitsune’s @Rockin Strings
Word Count: 1266

With time of the essence, the Grimleal captains and their associates busied themselves searching their new locale for any sign of a way forward. More like the bridge-spanned cavern that Band and Primrose braved than the rest of the Temple of Khamoon, this place appeared to be more of a naturally-occuring (albeit massive) cave that ancient buildings constructed within, rather than an area painstakingly cleared by the laborious efforts of miners and masons. The manmade section actually occupied a comparatively small area, with untamed rock walls, roiling sand pits, and bulky columns around it. At least four stalactite-lined tunnels extended haphazardly away from the central cavern, any one of which could reasonably lead to the stronghold of the Resistance.

Seeing all this, Band couldn’t help but wonder if Tora and Poppi might have jumped the gun in declaring that the route to their destination lay right below everyone’s feet, just waiting to be revealed by some clever mechanism. Depending on how far those tunnels went, his team could be here for hours, even days, and never know if this or that ordinary-looking stone was actually a button for a hidden door. “Ugh. We ain’t got time for all these stolen moments.” The idea of getting stumped in such an unceremonious, mundane fashion after coming all this way pissed Band off, so he deployed his magnifying glass and stepped forward after Primrose to scope the place out with renewed vigor. He was a detective, after all! If the Resistance came this way, there had to be a sign.

The first problem he ran into wasn’t too little evidence, but too much. So many feet had trampled the sand in the area going to and fro that nothing useful could be gained by trying to trace them. With furrowed brows Band widened the scope of his search. After a couple minutes of examination between the assembled party members, he came to what he thought was a conclusion. “It don’t look like there’s much sand up and around the rocks. If their base was down a tunnel, all those bozos trampin’ though woulda left some kinda trail. That means we can set some...aerial boundaries.”

Kan-Ra, crouched down before the recessed relief of a scarab beetle, murmured his concurrence. “Mm, yes. I believe that this is the door. I’m sensing a magical artifice here as well, which would indicate some sort of security mechanism in place.”

While the others searched, Azwel had reclined against a pillar, ostensibly to recover from his fight with Es but also to keep sand out of his raiment. “Or a trap of some sort, hmhm,” he added helpfully.

“There is indeed some sort of curse at work,” Kan-Ra confirmed as he stood to his full height. “The work of an inferior magician, I might add, but it would likely trigger if we attempted to force our way in nevertheless. I highly doubt it to be so sophisticated as to distinguish friend from foe, so the solution must be around us.”

“Hem-hem!” Tora cleared his throat with his little arms akimbo, all smug and full of smiles. “What did Tora and Poppi tell friends? Smartypons know puzzle when see one!”

A double honk from Big Band’s little horn, just like that of a clown nose, cut through the Nopon’s elation. “Instead of gloatin’, how ‘bout you make yourself useful and hustle down that sidepath, since you two can fly ‘n all?” the detective told them.

Aware that he was pushing it a little thanks to the Grimleal captains’ shared look of annoyance, Tora turned to give it a shot. After Poppi helped boost him over the shifting sands the two disappeared down the little tunnel, leaving the rest to continue their search for anything that might be of use. Their concentration didn’t last, however, as less than a minute later the sound of running footfalls drew their collective attention toward the entrance. After a moment Yoshitsune, Skull, and Panther appeared, banged up and burned to varying degrees but otherwise okay. “Hiya!” Panther greeted cheerily, waving to everyone. “Looks like we didn’t miss much. Everyone alright?”

Skull took stock of everyone and came up a few short. “Wait, where’s, uh, Tora and Poppi? And Red?”

“The duo went off to explore a side path,” Kan-Ra explained. “As for Red, if you mean the masked woman, she was injured in the initial ambush. When we moved on, she turned back and left.”

Touching bases with the Phantom Thieves put Primrose’s mind at rest, allowing her to fully focus on the task at hand. As luck would have it, the dancer happened on something interesting just moments thereafter. Like the others her eyes and hands had been tracing the intricate patterns and carvings that covered the pillars and walls in this place nonstop, and though she wasn’t nearly so fixated as to accidentally fall in a sand pit, she wasn’t watching her feet, either. As such, it took her by surprise when her open-toed shoe happened to hit something hard in the sand. A glance down revealed what looked like a dark stone half-buried in the sand, but it glistened oddly in the light of the chamber’s braziers. A closer inspection revealed it to be far from natural: it was a carving of a beetle rolling an orb. If touched it emitted a slight yellow glow, and if struck the shaped crystal would light up.

In response, the wings of the scarab on the doorway opened, and the first of the three symbols connected by lines beneath it gained a glowing, circular outline the color of sunlight. The door itself, however, did not open. Band gave a long, low hum of contemplation as he looked at the door and Primrose’s find. “Hmm. This beetle...just like with Eliza.” As Azwel and Kan-Ra looked at him, he explained further. “Lemme back up. There’s this vicious li’l honey I’ve tangled with once or twice back home named Eliza. Blood’s her thing, and if she’s goin’ all out she might turn it into a bug just like that and fly around. Straight up, straight out, straight down, big boom. And ‘cause she won’t shut up, she sometimes calls out ‘sunrise, high noon, sunset’.” He shot a look at Azwel as the sorcerer yawned, then cut to the chase. “Anyway, I’m thinkin’ we got two more bugs to find. One in the middle, one up high.”

Kan-ra grinned as he gave a soft clap. “I am impressed. It is rare that the myths of ancient Egypt come in handy, and rarer still to find someone who knows them--however that knowledge might have come about.”

Crossing her arms, Panther squinted at him. “Are you saying you recognized this stuff too? You coulda led with that!”

“And rob our good detective of his time to shine?” Kan-Ra looked amused. “Perish the thought. Now, let us seek the remaining scarabs.”

Band took serious issue with that sort of condescension, but since he’d already wasted enough time, he let sleeping dogs lie. The team dispersed, only a little closer to their destination but with clear targets in mind. Skull brushed some particles out of his hair after he got a little close to the sandfall on one side of the ruin. “Gah! Y’know, this’d be a lot easier if we could use Third Eye like Joker can.”

“You mean, if we could cheat,” Panther laughed. “C’mon, let’s climb up on the rocks. I’ll have Carmen send up some Agis and we can shoot any beetles we see up high.” Skull nodded, and the two jumped to higher ground.

Ms Fortune

Level 4 Nadia (78/40)
Location: The Maw - the Depths
Blazermate's @Archmage MC, Bowser's @DracoLunaris, Ace Cadet's @Yankee, Sakura's @Zoey Boey, Frog's @Dark Cloud, Mirage’s @Potemking, Link’s @Gentlemanvaultboy
Word Count: 859

The hollowness in Nadia’s stomach forced her to agree with the Cadet that she could have chosen her insults better. Even for a stray kitten used to living on scraps, this hunger was becoming a serious problem. It could only be worse for those with more normal, well cared-for childhoods, but Nadia found that telling herself she had it better than the others didn’t help her out a whole lot. There was no telling how much farther the kids had to go to be free of the Maw and its damnable curses, but just two areas sounded a little too good to be true. The odds of them making it were slim. Consequences or not, the kids needed to eat something soon, or else grow too weak to carry on.

But there was neither food nor rest to be had in the hanging catwalk labyrinth, and both Nadia and Ace agreed that they needed to get a move on. While trying to deal with Moreau they, Link, and Bowser had managed to get the platforms and both the start and end of the aerial maze wrecked. That left them both stranded in the middle without an immediate option, and left Nadia in particular bemoaning the fact that she left her bedsheet parachute behind. On the subject of Bowser, however, the little king started hollering across the former Depths’ upper reaches to make sure Link and Kamek were okay. While Kamek didn’t exactly make a great case for spending his time productively, Nadia was still glad that everyone seemed to be okay. Although, she couldn’t see that green-haired kid. Did he end up hiding in the storeroom? Falling in the water when Moreau attacked? Hopefully not.

Bowser ended up directing Nadia’s attention downward. She could see Link making his descent, but apparently Junior was down there, too. By pure coincidence she smacked her own forehead at the same time as Ace, having not put two and two together earlier. Of course, that meant that the young hero who just saved everyone’s bacon by risking his life to open the way now faced an irate Moreau on his own. Worse still, and hopefully not thanks to Kamek’s ‘help’, Moreau seemed to be plodding toward Flow Control at the north side of the room.

They intrepid climbers didn’t need to waste time discussing what that meant; instead, Nadia took off after Ace toward where Bowser hung over the platform by the Command Center. The route taken by Link proved that the stair towers didn’t need to be intact to be traversable, and right now the Seekers didn’t have enough time to be picky. The two ran, jumped, swung, and slid like lives were on the line until they reached Bowser’s ladder and could shimmy down to what remained of the stair tower.

Nadia paused as she landed on the twisted platform, her spine chilled by a grotesque noise that issued down the hall from the direction of the Command Center. “W-what was that?” she squeaked. “Are they in trouble in there?” In vain she craned her neck to try and see inside, but couldn’t get a clear shot down the corridor without committing to it. Then she looked back down to see Link reach the bottom floor and promptly start making a racket at Moreau. Indecision clutched her heart like an ice-cold hand, squeezing in two directions. This was a crossroads; she needed to make a decision, and make it fast.

“Ohhh…” she moaned in dismay, both brain cells working overtime to come up with an answer that would break her out of this paralysis. “W-well...whatever’s in the Command Center, it can’t be worse than the fish monster, right? And we’ve only got two guys down there.” But doubt riddled her. Did she think that just because the exit lay that way, too? Before she could second guess herself, the kitten leaped down to the mangled stair tower’s third floor. From there she could race down the stairs as fast as her little feet could take her, headed for the bottom.

Meanwhile, Link’s noisemaking earned him his desired results, for better or worse. Rather than comb through the debris to try and flush out Junior, Moreau rounded on Link with a bellow. Its anger could not be mistaken, but it held something else as well, a sort of piteous, quavering, almost sobbing quality. “Don’t...be cruel,” Moreau cried. “It’s not fair. It’s not fair! I should be the one with her...not them…” He hauled himself toward Link, crawling faster than one would expect for such a misshapen monstrosity. “Rrragh! You’re the reason nobody loves me!” his garbled moans echoed through the once-flooded base, addressing all the intruders at once. “If she didn’t need monsters to...to terrorize intruders, I...I wouldn’t be stuck with this miserable life!”

Like a walrus he reared up and slammed his weight down where he last saw Link. “They’ll have to respect me if I kill you! Please!” he pleaded. “She’ll make me better...I just need to...to! Grrah!” He started lumbering around, trying to ram and bite anything that moved on either the ground floor or the metal walkways just above.

---

Once it became clear that the Proxy found its targets by sound, the Command Center quickly filled with grave silence. Even as the horrific pile of pustules began to stalk among the gathered children, however, there existed a glimmer of hope. Its senses were not so acute that it could detect the muffled shuffling of little feet here and there, particularly when timed with the nauseating cries that issued from the creature’s warped gullet. And though its strength and speed made actually fighting it a near-impossibility for a bunch of tired, scared, and hungry kids, Mirage awakened his team to a different possibility. Smack dab in the center of the room was a four-story drop that not even this abomination could survive.

First, Peach needed to vacate the area right between the opening in the pit cage and the pilot seat, which was about to become a highly contested area. Sakura moved in to help the fallen princess out. She got lucky with her footsteps, but as she maneuvered Peach face-up and whispered to Peach to no response, the sound carried far enough to alert the Proxy. With a gargle the fleshy horror turned her way, but the sudden rattle of Mirage’s dart against a section of the chain-link pit cage got its attention off her back. The Proxy howled and threw itself against the fence, thrashing its imagined prey, but despite the frightening display of violence Geralt came back to help drag Peach to safety. Mirage’s distraction also allowed Rika to take charge of the submarine controls without getting mobbed herself, and once the mechanical arms started up their mechanical ruckus the Proxy’s wrath was thoroughly occupied. Together Sakura and Geralt two pulled the little princess around the side of the cage opposite the Proxy and toward the communications station by the window. If either checked her pulse en route they’d be relieved to learn that their ally was still among the living.

A few moments later they’d ferreted the half-conscious Peach in the legroom of the desk and could turn to reappraise the current situation with their unwelcome guest. Rika’s efforts with the arm controls had drawn the wailing Proxy around the cage, through the open gate, and onto the extension over the pit itself. There, unable to jump or otherwise reach the source of the noise, it could only stamp and scream in hideous frustration.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Just as a helping hand for anyone who may be in need of it, the plan at the beginning it to start off your character's day, then run through a bad day in your character's life. I do apologize for relying a little more on the players at the start here, as you know how best to realize your character's sorry situation. Tension already has your characters fraying at the edges, and the events that befall your character during this school day will only bring you closer to the brink. I'm looking for some insight into your sufferer's life, what's currently going on, the recent past, and of course the day's events at the university.

The IC day will play out over the course of a few rounds of posts from everyone, possibly running through the day's highlights, which can (and probably should) include meeting with a fellow PC or two. If you have any questions about the sorts of things you can make, include, or do to, please feel free to fire away. I'd also be happy to interact with anyone, either as Barney or the world.

As the school day wraps up with the last period ending at around 5 o clock, the red strings of fate will bring our characters together in a singular location, and things will start getting Persona-y. At that point I'll be doing more as the GM to really get things kicked off in style for you all.

World of Light

Team Mao

Location: Al Mamoon Northeast - Rocket Inc.
Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Mao’s @Potemking, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Laharl’s @Dark Cloud, Joker, Mona, Fox, Necronomicon, Braum

Though the group gathered in hesitation before the maze of arrows laid out before them, the Overlord who led them to the office in the first place was quick to take the lead once again. He managed to make it a good way though before he needed to take a break and quell his nauseousness. . As he swore his vengeance, Joker couldn’t help but wonder why the people who made this trap didn’t place down facing arrows themselves, or just make the puzzle unsolveable in the first place. Their goal, he figured, must not be to stop any intruders but to annoy them. What that might accomplish he couldn’t say, but he resolved to beware any post-maze traps that might befall someone driven by irritation to incautiousness.

One by one the intruders braved the puzzle. Despite being too big to even fit comfortably on a single tile, Braum got spun like all the rest, and ended taking a different route to the same destination that Mao did. At that point he chose wrongly and ended up back at the start. If the experience perturbed him, however, he gave no sign. “Ahaha, oh well!” he exclaimed cheerily. “At least this is fun!”

With Joker busy observing his allies through the glass to get an idea of the patterns and hopefully set a good example by going straight to the end, Fox stepped up after Jesse to give the puzzle his best attempt. He paused to give Midna, Sectonia, and Necronomicon enough space to float right over the troublesome pads and to the next room. The royals went ahead to secure the premises while Necronomicon remained at the finish line to give her allies a hand. “Hey, try this one! Oh no, not that one, ugh! Now you’re back there...well, there’s no way out. You better start over.”

As she helped as best she could, placing waypoints to clarify locations her directions and tentacles could not, she heard Midna and Sectonia yammering away. At first she paid them no mind, but she ended up hearing a familiar name, and after that she couldn’t help but tune in. As the Twilight Princess mentioned recruitment Necronomicon flew north, almost to Mao’s stopping point, so that a wall lay between her and the royal conclave. Luckily, sound could travel in ways vision could not.

Her eavesdropping only got as far as the start of Sectonia’s monologue about altruism before Fox stole her attention away. “Necronomicon? I thought you marked a tile to avoid rather than a tile to try, and seem to be back where I was before. How can I make the best of this?”

“Uh…” the Persona focused back on the task at hand. “Well, that entire section down there is pretty much a dead zone. Just back up to the middle of the room and...hey, hang on a moment.” A number of eyes fell on the flying saucer as she scratched her hull with a tentacle. “Why, um, don’t you just try jumping over the tiles?”

Joker and Fox both looked down at the tiles, noting the clearance between them and the ceiling. The leader of the Phantom Thieves cleared his throat. “...I was...wondering how long it would take us to notice.”

His friend ran a hand through his hair as if to preserve some dignity, adjusting his mask as he did. “It would appear I missed the forest for the trees.”

After that, Ciella and the remaining Seekers made quick work of the so-called puzzle, each member yet to get through feeling various levels of shame. With the aid of her mask the Grimleal Lieutenant remained frosty and inscrutable, and though Joker understood why she stayed back to let the others solve the puzzle first, he felt like they missed out on seeing her inelegantly spun around, too.

Everyone reunited with the royals in front of the staircase, by the wall-mounted telephone and technological-looking vending machine, which on closer inspection appeared to be totally deprived of both beverages and its payment system. Having plenty of SP anyway, Joker disregarded it to focus on the stairs ahead. From here he could see a laser grid at the top, and when he ascended to check he saw a closed room beyond the lasers that appeared to be used for storage. A look around suggested no terminal or other control in the vicinity through which the lasers might be controlled, so there wasn’t much use spending any more time on it. That route being a dead end left only one option: the nook right beside it and the elevator housed within, colored orange. Ciella stooped to examine it, but her lack of experience with modern technology meant she couldn’t figure out any way to open the door. After fruitlessly trying to insert her fingers to prize open the doors, she turned toward the rest of the group. “Anyone care to make themselves useful?”

Having already situated herself nearby Jesse obliged, pressing the elevator call button, and like clockwork the doors slid open. Knowing she couldn’t help blind spots like these, Ciella suppressed a scowl and ducked inside. As it turned out the elevator was more like a lift, a placeholder from original construction, being both bigger than usual and lacking any walls between the passengers and the sides of the elevator shaft. Despite its size, the whole group couldn’t fit inside thanks to the total volume occupied by Ciella, Sectonia, and Braum. The Seekers would need to make two trips, unless Jesse made some helpful adjustments with her Tool Gun.

No matter how the raiders chose to descend, there was only one destination, labeled ‘Base’ on the wall panel. Once started, the elevator creaked to life and began its downward trip. It moved at a decent pace, as indicated by the shaft walls speeding upward, but as the seconds ticked by it gradually became clear that they wouldn’t be reaching their destination any time soon.

Unfortunately the trip was far from uneventful. When the lift came to a abrupt halt the Seekers were more than ready to proceed onward, but not for a sudden ambush in a small room. This happened several times, with one or more walls gone to reveal a room. Handfuls of jab-happy Craws, mace-wielding Clubbas, tough-bodied X-Nauts, and laser-shooting Yux and tried their luck, attacking the moment the elevator-riders appeared. Four times the lift came to a premature stop, sometimes in the corner or along the wall of a room and twice in the center, but invariably enemies lay in wait for its riders. None put up too much of a fight against their opponents’ vast and varied talents, although the Wizzerds distinguished themselves with both offensive and stat-boosting magic. Most of the time Joker and Fox could regain the initiative by leaping into battle the moment the lift came to a rest, beating even Ciella’s arrows to the punch, but even minified Braum’s shield was a valuable asset against the mobs’ ambushes. Once cleared out the enemies left behind what amounted to pretty ordinary facilities for the Resistance: a boardroom, a washroom, a kitchen, and living quarters. Some food could be found in the kitchen, but other than that nothing Joker could identify nothing of particular use or value.

After the fourth time no more stops interrupted the lift’s downward progress, so its riders could relax a little. Still, they were going far, far below Al Mamoon, deeper than the roots of the city could possibly extend. After the brief skirmishes Joker kept calm, breathing steadily as he composed himself, even as the known world receded and the unknown drew near. Nobody could predict what lay ahead.

Suddenly the elevator shaft opened up with a rush of air, forcing everyone inside to grab hold of something or someone, lest they fall. The solid stone had given way to a cavern of elephantine proportions, its exact dimensions impossible to discern through a haze turned bluish by distant lights. What Joker could see, however, was the immense dome structure suspended in midair by a support column from the ceiling. The elevator came to a stop on some kind of high-up platform, and Ciella wasted no time stepping toward the edge to look down at the structure for a better view. Enormous tubes or cables of some sort reached down from various directions to plug into its sides, and the curved bars of metal atop one another brought the image of a birdcage to Joker’s mind. In front of them one part of the cagelike lattice appeared to be busted open, and it was straight toward this opening that what looked like a propulsion device right in front of them pointed. Like the gigantic cage-arena it looked highly technological, of the otherworldly sort he’d only glimpsed in Okumura’s Palace and perhaps Alcamoth until now. There could be no doubt; this was alien construction.

What is it with desert buildings on top of super advanced tech? Though he wondered about the odd trend, there were more important things to consider, and Joker adjusted his glove as he thought. “That place has ‘boss fight’ written all over it. Assuming that cannon-thing will send us, we should make sure we’re prepared before going over.” He peered toward the edge of the platform he and the other Seekers stood upon. Precarious indeed, but with the absolute lack of wind there wasn’t that much danger, as long as nobody tripped. He looked back to see Necronomicon insert herself into the man cannon for the sake of experimentation and get catapulted off in the direction of the cage, forcing her to decelerate mid-air to make her way back toward her allies. “We could wait for Mona to join us.”

Ciella huffed. “I will not stand idle while our foes lick their wounds and bolster themselves. Any moment now they might activate some artifact, or complete some ritual to make good their escape. This is our chance to dispel their false justice. To take another step to a world without deceit!”

So saying, she stepped onto the man cannon and rocketed off in a rabbit-eared blur, her hail trailing behind her like an ice-blue comet. She passed Necronomicon on the way, who approached the others with an intensely quizzical look despite her lack of face. “H-hey, are we doing this?”

Joker shrugged. “Guess so.” Though some part of him felt exasperated at Ciella and her status as a wild card, he couldn’t deny that he wanted to get things over with, too. A familiar feeling was rising inside him, the same that beat in his heart and pumped through his veins just before assaults on other rulers and other cages. That electrifying feeling of anticipation! Like music to his ears.

He and Fox exchanged a nod, both young men galvanized by the same vigor. Joker took off toward the cannon at a sprint and blasted off the second he hit its stream of energy. At dizzying speed he soared through the empty air, his arms spread like wings as he flew, a wild smile on his face. This was exhilarating! This was what it meant to be alive.

All too soon his flight came to an end. Joker landed with a roll on metal coated by sand and rose to his feet to find the place every bit of a colosseum as he imagined. What he saw before him was no reason to quit grinning. There were no traps, no machinations, no attempts at escape. Just the enemy. Silhouetted against radiant light from behind were an assortment of figures, all shapes and sizes, eight of them ready and waiting. He recognized the floating one in an instant. All that really mattered, though, was that they were here to receive him, and he and his team were here to be received.

As he watched, the shadow of a ninth figure approached through the light. Though short and blocky, she sported what looked like a skirt and a bun, and her position above and behind the rest suggested that she was their superior. The enigmatic Number Two that Mao mentioned, Joker assumed. But if that was so, who -and where- was number one?

Ciella stepped forward. “Hear me, you hypocritic pretenders, you so-called Resistance! For the havoc you have wrought against the city of Al Mamoon and its people, and on my authority as a Lieutenant Captain of Validar’s Grimleal, I place you under arrest.” She raised and threw down one arm, calling forth some magic, and behind her back manifested six giant arms of water floating in the air. “This is what became of one fool who dared to resist. Choose the same and fare likewise.” Her lips curled into a smile. “Please.”

A no-nonsense voice reached back across the arena, hailing from the little woman at the very back. “Yeah, um, I’m gonna have to tell you that your orders mean nothing. There’s no use trying to convince them. They’ve already sworn allegiance, and I’m gonna need you to as well, ‘k? But uh, you're gonna need a little disciplinary action, I think...so let's get started, hm?”

She clapped her hands, and the Resistance got to work.

Cold Monastery

Location: Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline
Linkle’s @Gentlemanvaultboy

Although the question took the villager by surprise initially, a little more reflection made it seem like a pretty obvious line of inquiry. Either way, the diminutive townsperson was happy to oblige Linkle with a response. “Just hitch ride like normal! Our flag lines are magic. You can zip down, zip up, even zip down branching path! Along with goats, they make life in Alpine Skyline possible!”

With raised eyebrows Albedo recontextualized the whole area. All things considered, the lines possessing magic of their own made a lot of sense. How a branching line worked he couldn’t fathom, but the fact that simple rural communities existed atop these sparse peaks in the first place was testament enough to something special at these villagers’ disposal. That said, it made him wonder about what exactly lay below, other than the autumn glade of the goddess Freya. Naturally ordinary people wouldn’t want to live in the frigid peaks and wastes, but what kept people like these from a less perilous existence down in the misty valley? The alchemist resolved to keep an eye out.

Meanwhile, while Linkle took to the idea of a race to the zenith of Goat Village with gusto, it wasn’t her first instinct to just take off running. Instead she paid more attention to a certain rather suspicious individual in the vicinity, and Albedo agreed. In a place uniformly dominated by cheer and color, a strange figure like that, whose very body eked a dark miasma as it fought an internal war against the laws of physics, stood out like a sore thumb. As Albedo watched, the mask tilted sideways, in increments like the hand of a clock, until it was almost upside-down, then snapped back into place. “Yes, let’s.”

As the pair approached, the odd individual took notice and gave a slow, cumbersome bow. In a smooth, slow voice he greeted them. “Good day. I am the badge seller. Please disregard my twitchy behavior. My body has been to places that left a permanent mark. Badges are...totally ‘in’ right now. That’s what I’ve been told to say. So please, by all means, make a purchase.”

His free arm ceased its spasms to summon forth a menu. It contained an array of badges, each with a name and description, as well as an associated cost in green gems.

Badge Seller’s Offerings

• Photo Badge - hold the badge to deploy a flying camera. It can be configured with a variety of settings. Press the badge to take a picture remotely, and hold again to retake the camera
• No-bonk Badge - when diving other otherwise flying forward, even a headfirst collision with a solid surface will not hurt the wearer or stop forward momentum, allowing immediate action
• Kombat Badge - looks snazzy, and will comment ‘Fatality!’ ‘Brutality!’ and ‘Flawless Victory!’ for appropriate situations
• Screw Attack - modifies the user’s jump into a rapid somersault that rises quickly and deals multiple electric hits
• Franklin Badge - reflects all projectiles. Will break after ten total seconds spent equipped

Before looking at the products Albedo considered the gems. “What are these emeralds?”

“Those are called Pons,” the Badge Seller drawled. “They appear scattered around the whole Skyline and can be collected easily. If you leave and come back, more will appear, too.”

Albedo crossed his arms. “I feel as if this may be an improper question, but if you want these Pons, why not simply take them yourself?”

The Badge Seller’s mask vibrated sharply. “...As you can see, my ability to move is limited. I cannot.”

“I...see.” Clearing his throat, the alchemist looked back over the menu. It sounded like he and Linkle would need to run and jump around a lot to even make a purchase in the first place. That meant a race would be of even more benefit, so he tensed himself to spring into action if Linkle thought she’d get a head start.