Vertigo

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

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Fellwing felt genuinely happy — and the slightest bit guilty — when Heliotrope, tired as she seemed to be, lit up visibly at the chance to talk about her work. The black drake listened attentively, surprised at the healer's take on Moon Magic. Most of the drakes she knew considered it the only true magic out there (well, besides elemental magic, she supposed), so to hear someone call it out on its unpredictability felt almost relieving.

Exactly, she wanted to say, sometimes Moon Magic can be just as fickle as Shadow Magic, yet we only treat the latter as a transgression.

The Seer did not, of course, say any of that. Instead, she smiled at the mental image of Garrock covered in polka dots and said: "That is fascinating! I don't know much about nature or what it can provide us, but I'd love to hear more about the kinds of herbs you use sometime, if you've the time." She glanced back towards the door and mused: "That is, unless you've been put off teaching for the rest of your life."

Before the healer could reply, Stargaze's panic stole her and Kyte away. Fellwing was comfortable settling back into the background, pretending to be very interested in a random flask so as to hide how interested she was in the ensuing conversation regarding Moon Magic. She'd always known it wasn't entirely safe either, but the side effect on Kyte's wing wasn't something she'd ever thought to consider. Poor Stargaze; she probably hadn't, either. Thankfully, Shieldwing seemed to have that covered, always the first to rush to the white drake's aid.

The topic shifted back to the Darkness, and Fellwing struggled not to look over. While doing so, she caught Rudrick's hesitation, and quickly looked the other way instead. As bad as she felt, she knew it'd be best if she stayed away from whatever was going on between the brothers. There were others more capable than her to help them. Skobe included, surprisingly enough. He seemed to get along with the old grump as well as one could.

Besides, she still had questions — though she was unsure how to word them, and hesitated to interrupt Heliotrope's work besides. As a — hopefully somewhat natural, considering what she was doing now — lead up, she ventured: "Do you often handle patients touched by the Darkness?"

Pokemon: Dream

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_{Camphor's Lab
@Rune_Alchemist, @XxFellsingxX, @Crusader Lord, @Savo}

The two girls had barely made it out of the laboratory when Chloe was made privy to another emergency. One that was, as far as she was concerned, far more tragic and urgent than any haunted old factory could ever be. Apparently, Jill had never used a mobile device in her life, and didn't know how to text. Like, oh my god? In this day and age? She said she had a friend! Who just sent a text! What kind of a friend was he, if he hadn't even bothered to teach this poor girl a skill that essential?! She swore...

Chloe barely noticed them arriving to their destination, all her focus still taken by her own devices, whose functions she was still busily explaining to the poor neglected soul with her.

"And now, look. When you take a picture — like I showed you, remember? — you go to the filters, and— hm? Sorry, come again?" she looked up, only registering what Jill had said when she heard the door rattle. "Oh. Well that's lame. How'd our rescuee get in?"

As if to answer her question, Jill's Pokémon companion up and scurried to the window, her weird hand-tail swinging as she started to squeeze inside. Chloe leaned a hand on her hip and gestured at her expensive clothes with the other, as if they were an explanation on their own. When it was clear they weren't, she spelled out: "I am SO not squeezing in through a window."

Just then, a voice spoke out behind them. Chloe startled, turning around to find them approached by... some rando? Tall, lanky, questionable fashion choices. Though next to Jill, Chloe's ongoing project, everyone else's getup looked pretty normal in comparison.

She was just about to ask if they could help him, when the guy went and opened his mouth and oh my god, who crawled up his ass and died? Was this Yuu? Jill's probably-technologically-and-definitely-socially-challenged friend? Wow, looks like the girl didn't only have poor taste in Pokémon and clothes.

Chloe huffed audibly, shifting to face him. She threw back her hair, lips curling into a sweet — if decidedly fake — smile.

"Maybe you should consider buying some new clothes too, sweetie. I can tell it's been a while since you dug those out of a garbage can." She gave the boy's getup an exaggeratedly judgemental look-over. "Oh, and I'm like so sorry to tell you, but looks like you're a little late too." She nodded towards the window. "Your fellow ape's already inside."

A sudden bark from Snuggles stole Chloe's attention just as the door stole Yuu's. And so, while he went on to try and break through it like an actual Primeape or something, Chloe found her Snubbull barking at a—

"Oh! Well, hi there, cutie! Oh, aren't you a sweet little thing," she cooed at the sigh of a Riolu, squatting down to give the Pokémon pets. "Snuggles, play nice, okay? You two are going to become the best of friends, I can SO tell!"

She was reaching for her bag to let her - furiously, aggressively barking — Snubbull out, when Riolu suddenly bounced after— ugh, no way. How did someone like him have such a cute and well-behaved Pokémon?

... Also, wait, were they seriously heading for the window!?

—

Yep, they had seriously headed for the window. Chloe dusted herself off for the umpteenth time, her fairy type's barking echoing off the walls and traveling far into the darkness ahead. She shivered; it was cold, and creepy, and damp, and there were definitely things creeping about somewhere in here!

But not actual ghosts, because actual ghosts did not exist.

... Was that buzzing machine about to explode or something?

"Ugh, let's get a move on, we need to find that girl. Actually, oh, gimme a sec." She whipped out her Pokedex and started walking while she texted, trying to decide whether it'd be worth to actually stream this rescue operation now that they had Mister Sourpuss to ruin everything. Maybe she'd just film, and cut him out in post.

we're here! 💖💖 got in thru the window 😱 where r u @?

SPIRITUM

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In the end, no shots were fired, no fight initiated and no friends made. Silje would have considered that a failure, were it not for Kali's offer for a high five —which she did immediately take, hopping up a little to give her friend's palm a proper smack — and Justice patting her head. The diminutive mage grinned at them both. "You bet!" she told Justice, "I'll munch on 'em all."

They poured out of the store one by one, Silje with her hands full of stuff. Free stuff. They had told them to take shit and fuck off, so she'd gone ahead and taken shit before she fucked off. See? She could follow instructions.

As she emerged, Gerard warned them about a big gun — and surely enough, knowing what to look for and where, Silje found the man in question soon enough, trying to hide up in his hidey hole. She waved happily at the sniper, then wandered closer to where an old man was accosting his friends and asking for papers. Papers? Hmm...

Silje was about to unroll and present the dirty mag she'd rolled up and plucked from the store, but Justice was faster at producing what the old man wanted, and so she let her do the whole squad leader thing and take care of it. In the interim, she resumed staring at the sniper and waving, wondering whether he could see her expression through the scope.

That was the last thing she thought about, before she completely zoned out.

—

By the time Silje came to, a beautiful night sky hung above them. She was sitting by a grill with the rest of the crew, happily cooking her spoils from the general store. Bits of an impaled — and by now, mostly melted — chocolate bar dripped into the fire from the end of her skewer, producing quiet hisses.

She was laughing. Laughing at what Gerard said, because he told the story in a way people told funny stories, laughing because she was enjoying herself, and laughing because she was hungry. She was still laughing when the airship fell.

The explosion that followed silenced her. But only for a moment.

"... Whoa! They really got our grill beat! That was a lot of fire! ... And a lot of grilled bodies, I bet," she exclaimed, looking around as if to confirm she hadn't just been seeing things. Surely enough, the crash was all anyone talked about now, Gerard's funny tale of destroyed walls long forgotten.

Silje jumped to her feet as the others were gearing to head out and investigate, but instead of making for the truck, she dashed towards the tallest of the WARDENs. "You take the truck," she called out to the others, patting at the giant's arm like it was a car door she was about to swing open. "I'll take the Morden and race you there!"

Chronicles of the Six: Magic’s Awakening: A Magical Boy RP. Reboot

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The others didn't need to be told twice to have a go at the beer, and that alone lifted Noah's spirits a little. He couldn't imagine anything sadder than having to finish the entire stash alone. That'd be a great last memory of him; Noah the fuckup, puking out his goddamn guts in a shared tent. Hell nah, if he was gonna be an embarrassing mess by the end of the night, so would the rest — he'd make damn sure of it.

Noah took a gulp of his fresh can, nearly choking when it was revealed this was Conner's first. The redhead wiped at his mouth, wide-eyed as a deer. The fuck, did he misunderstand, or...? Seriously, this guy had never drank before? Even Gray had, be that it was at Noah's own insistence. Yeah, he knew Conner's parents sucked, of course, but he'd assumed the dude had told 'em to go fuck themselves long ago. Man, he really had to grab Connie and take him out on the town.

Milo and David returned from their run just then, and it was the talk of food that made Noah realize he was starving. Huh. Guess he'd forgotten to eat, then. Again. With a sigh, he fastened the tent's rope and rose. "At this point, I'll take charcoal."

—

They didn't need to settle for charcoal. The more responsible dudes had packed actual food, and the less responsible ones helped eat, if nothing else. Noah stuffed his face like no tomorrow, pausing only to drink and offer an occasional wry comment. His melancholia hadn't gone anywhere, but the night sky was pretty cool and so were his friends, so he could deal for now.

"Forever, yeah? That's a really fucking long time, Connie, sure you ain't gonna get bored of our ugly f—"

... Huh?

Noah's eyes narrowed into a squint. What was that? Did he have one beer too many, or did the stars just...

Holy shit, was that a tentacle?! He'd seen where this kinda shit went and it wasn't—

Light flashed so bright it seemed to burn away everything. The sky, the beach, his friends, whatever dangerous thoughts were threatening to form in Noah's head. The next he knew, he fell, fell and fell, until he'd forgotten what it felt like not to fall, so it was practically like he was standing again.

Except when he blinked open his eyes — not even having realized he'd shut them — Noah realized he was lying down. It felt like the aftermath of a bad trip; he had no idea where the hell he was, why and how, or whether his head would ever be the same again. Something had to have been permanently damaged, he felt so groggy.

"What the... shit... I swear I didn't pack... anything that hard." Though looking at it now, maybe he should have. He should have at least brought weed, because the second he stood and took in his surroundings, Noah felt like he needed some serious mellowing out or he was gonna freak. They were absolutely, definitely not in fucking Kansas anymore.

He looked the group over and made a mental note that they all seemed to be fine — physically, at least. Milo had lost the plot and was eating the mangled corpse of a marshmallow, and Gray was... yeah. Yeah, fuck.

"We're all gonna fucking die, aren't we."

If so, please just let him go first.

—

Coiled around a branch of a nearby oak, a small, earthen dragon watched the arrivals with hungry curiosity. He smacked his lips, eyes narrowing at the redhead. Something he couldn't place was calling him to this strange creature.

He uncoiled from his resting spot, starting to stalk his way down the tree and towards the — potentially tasty — morsels mulling about.

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

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Fellwing didn't dignify Garrock's grumpy remark with more than a quirk of her brow. She wasn't sure what he was trying to imply. What nonsense could they possibly get into on a quick trip to visit healers? Skobe could pull something she supposed, but...

But then came the comment from one of the Semscale dragons, and Fellwing couldn't help but get a bad feeling about what was to come. Was the Coryn fellow they'd mentioned truly that bad? Was he the issue?

... Whether he was or not, he clearly had issues, Fellwing soon realized. And one of them was eating laboratory samples.

Fellwing slid aside to let the winged drake pass once he was dismissed. Though she didn't consider herself all that sentimental, she did feel a little bad for him. For all the talk she'd heard, he didn't seem... that bad. But then again, she didn't need to work with him on the daily, unlike—

She turned her attention to Heliotrope as the healer addressed her and the rest of the drakes, though the way she talked about Darkness threatened to make Fellwing fidget.

"No symptoms for me," she said as casually as she could muster, praying to the Moons her clutchmates wouldn't mention her momentary struggle with her fears at the island. She truly was fine, after all. Getting a little too close to the Darkness on occasion was part of her job description, but she trusted herself to make her way back to the light at the end of the day. Or at the end of the night, as it were.

She glanced over to the various potions and containers, half-curious, half-desperate for a distraction. "What is it that you make here? Healing salves and antitoxins and the like, I'd imagine, but I'm curious what else you can produce."

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

100% puppy/work busyness here, but trying to catch up across the board this week :')

Expedition to Isekai

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So much for a peaceful dinner. In the time it took Duncan to refill his bowl, the entire campsite had erupted into one big shit show.

Asahi still wanted to go to the damn mountain, alone, while Ayana went on another tirade about... honestly, Duncan wasn't sure. He couldn't help tuning out half the things she said as the ramblings of a madwoman. What he did gather was that she wanted to be their leader and uproot the entire camp. Some wanted to wait for rescue — a concept Duncan hadn't even spared a thought to before. It did make sense there'd be attempts, though. The police or the government or the military or whatever would have started to wonder where an entire bus full of students fucked off to without a trace, and eventually connect the dots. There was a chance they'd be found and brought back to the real world any minute now.

The thought made Duncan's stomach turn.

Shun, who Duncan wasn't sure should've been moving about just yet, was about to go off on her own again, though this time only to the lake, and Ayana seemed to have turned her ramblings on Asahi now. Some people seemed to honestly be entertaining the thought of an election. Nothing was actually getting done or decided. His bowl was empty again.

"For fuck's sake!" Duncan finally groaned, slamming the empty bowl into the grass. "You guys aren't actually serious about the damn election, are you? I don't care how shit of a job Masato's done, she," he jabbed a thumb towards Ayana, or whatever the hell inhabited her body. "Is batshit insane, if you haven't noticed. You'd be better off voting for a goddamn rock."

Duncan, who wasn't exactly known for his respect towards authority figures, hadn't really ever considered Masato a leader, exactly. Some of the others clearly had, though, enough so to outsource decisions and responsibilities to the guy. So to think they'd be ready to replace him with a freakshow like Ayana was unbelievable.

"And you," he pointed a finger over to Asahi now, "Ain't gonna go anywhere alone. You don't want anyone dragging you down? Fine, I'll come, and you know there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop me. Hell, I can carry your ass there and back in two days, tops, with or without your go-ahead. Watch me."

The second the words left him, Duncan remembered what had happened the last time he left. How he should have stayed; should have been where he could protect everyone. Was he about to make the exact same mistake again, not even a day after he'd sworn he never would?

... Maybe, but what fucking choice did he have?! If Asahi went and died, they'd need to send another party anyway, and he couldn't go without the damn pinkhead because he didn't know where the fuck he was going — a fact he knew the other student would be more than happy to point out if given the chance. "I'll just. I'll just bleed enough before we go that you guys can heal up if you get hurt while we're gone. And you can keep a lookout. We got a tower for it now."

Duncan's determination had faltered, words sounding more and more like questions than declarations. His eyes trailed over to his friends, to Haruko, to Shun, who he'd failed to follow after twice, and almost let her die for it.

"And while we're gone, you guys either stick with what you have," he nodded towards Masato. "Or at least vote for someone playing with a full deck. If I see any weird shrines of worship when we're back, I'm burning the damn camp down."

Expedition to Isekai

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Duncan was the first to realize he wasn't exactly acing his little stealth mission, but there wasn't much he could do about it. He tried; made his steps lighter, hunched lower, even held his breath as if that had been what did him in, but nothing could mask the sound of his approach. All he could realistically do was hope he wasn't nearly as loud in the ears of normal humans as he was his own. Heightened senses made it difficult to judge. It was like wearing noise cancelling headphones and not realizing how loud you were, except the exact opposite.

Having fixated on the sounds he was making, it took Duncan a good while to realize that he could no longer hear Haruko and Akito talking. It wasn't quiet, it never was anymore, but it was quieter, and that was honestly pretty suspiciou—

A shout so loud it made Duncan's ears ring pierced through the forest. He recognized the voice and the panic first, already bursting into the scene by the time his mind registered the words.

"Get the h—" his body was faster than his thoughts, and certainly faster than his words. Duncan hadn't factored that in, hadn't even gotten out half a warning before he'd already closed the distance between him and Akito, one hand thrusting towards the wannabe delinquent.

He grabbed the guy by the front of his shirt, hoisting him up. Higher, faster than he'd meant to, his other hand pulling back to prepare for a punch — only for his mind and his senses to finally catch up. To remember his punch felling a tree and realizing what it would do to the squishy face of a human. To see that Haruko was unharmed, if startled — and to understand that the startlement likely had nothing to do with Akito.

"I, uh. Came... to tell you guys you're missing out. The water's nice."

—

The water had been nice, and it would've been nice to continue swimming, but once Masato showed up with fresh meat in tow — had the guy really killed that thing alone?! — the waterfront was hastily transformed into a butchery instead. Not that Duncan minded, really. He was starving, and had high hopes that in the midst of handling guts, Haruko would forget about what had happened. Duncan himself was quickly starting to, the process expedited by a trip to a literal monster den — be that he'd apparently missed out on the action itself.

As he looked at the more handy students making tools out of monster parts, he swore he would not miss out on the next bout, though. Not in a million years.

Duncan was practically inhaling his dinner, idly wondering whether they'd be able to somehow make their own alcohol out here to go with the meat, when Asahi suddenly stood. Duncan wiped broth off his face and looked up. The dude sounded serious. So much so that although Duncan grinned at his gorilla comment, the grin didn't last long.

Reflexively, Duncan turned to look towards the mountains. As expected, he didn't feel shit.

"Did you land on your head or something back there? Bro, come on, you're talking crazy. You really think we're about to let you wander off alone cause you think you felt some... presence at the mountains?" He didn't stop eating to talk, so half his words were muffled by bites of meat. "And no offense dude, but if there really is something deadly out there, you sure as shit ain't going to be able to deal with it alone."

He swallowed and threw up a dismissive hand. "What's the rush, anyway? We're doing fine out here. We got food, water, shelter... hell, for all we know, everyone could "Awaken" or whatever eventually. Just chill, have some meat, you got time to rush into certain death. Doesn't gotta be first thing in the morning."

Pokemon: Dream

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_{Camphor's Lab
@Rune_Alchemist, @XxFellsingxX, @Crusader Lord}

Never mind. She was definitely not going to leave Frieda out of her scathing review.

Seriously, feigning ignorance after a visitor was attacked on the premises was so not a good look. Chloe very much intended to let the assistant know that, but between the explanation of her upcoming job and Snuggles barking up a storm in her arms — where she'd scooped her up after the puppy recovered, much to the Pokémon's dismay — she couldn't quite find a chance to. She hadn't even found a chance to apologize to Jill! Chloe herself knew Snuggles had just wanted to play, but she also knew people tended to misjudge the poor pup — and that even her play bites hurt. Well, supposedly. She'd never been bit, so people could be exaggerating.

Anyways, at least no one had gotten hurt this time, and Jill didn't even seem to have noticed anything was amiss, so... maybe it was better not to even mention it. Chloe had to admit, as ugly as the little devil thing was, it had been pretty useful at stopping Snuggles without escalating things further. But that was literally all it had going on for it, and it was definitely way too smug about it.

Once Chloe had her items, she was finally given the go to ask questions. She had many, but could only get out the most pressing one, "Are you seriously telling me you know nothing about the weird, hairdo ruining Misdreavus harassing people in here?" before the dex in her hand made a beep and lit up. She heard a similar sound over from what she assumed was Jill's own Pokédex. A quick glance at the screen, and she realized it was a message from one of the other trainers. Huh. She hadn't even realized the thing had messaging functionality! Could it take pictures? It had like, a scanning function, right, so—

Thoughts wandering, she scrolled over to read what seemed to be a call for help. Someone named Clarissa was trying to catch a Murkrow. Those were dark type, right? She fixed her grip on the Snubbull; a fairy type. And ghosts? Like the one that had just been a bitch to her? Oh my god, this must've been fate!

help's on the way, hang tight girl 💖💋

Chloe typed in her contact information, sent the reply and turned her grin over to Jill. "You're going too, right? It's not even that far!"

Truth be told, Chloe was unsure why she was getting so excited in the first place. Some Toy Company building wasn't exactly a glamorous start to her new journey, and even though she got paid per Pokémon caught, Murkrow, if there even were multiple to be caught, didn't really fit her style. Yet somehow, just the thought of actually getting to do this, to do something on her own, seemed super exciting.

Besides, streaming a rescue mission would get insane views!

She tried to seize Jill by the arm, snap a quick selfie of their rescue group, and practically haul the poor girl out the door, the assistant — and her potential answer to her question about the Misdreavus — all but forgotten.

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

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Oh, no.

After surviving a magical plague, a dragon made of darkness itself, and a flight that seemed to go on forever, it seemed they were due for the true final boss of misery: family drama.

But while Fellwing purposefully distanced herself from Garrock's reunion with his estranged sibling, not wanting to meddle in their business, her clutchmates seemed to be of a different mind. Skobeloff made a joke of it, Stargaze — bless her heart — was entirely clueless, and Shieldwing was earnest if blunt as ever. Fellwing buried her face into her wing and sighed.

She did peek over when she heard talk of a... half a healer, though. Before she had to ask, Skobeloff did so for her.

"And that's truly all we can ask for," she hurried to comment on this Coryn fellow, eager to change the subject from the matter of family. "I'm likewise fine, but it wouldn't hurt to have a healer look some of us over, just in case."

She looked over to Maug openly, but couldn't help her gaze also flicking to every dragon they'd rescued — as well as Garrock's wing — in turn. Hopefully briefly enough not to be noticeable.

"If you would," she smiled at Rudrick, gesturing with a wing for him to lead the way.