Yankee

After Era Mythos

How's CS creation going for the rest of y'all?

@ERode

Still catching up elsewhere and for sure not making a May 3rd deadline. That and considering whether the cast so far could use a different type of character from Esme instead.

After Era Mythos [Corpo-Heroes Powered by Fame]

@ERode Realistically I probably don't have the time for another RP. At the very least I have to catch up in a couple others before even considering it. Plus if multiple people are going more for a nemesis/staged bad guy angle I wouldn't want to crowd that (though I guess I could go for a good boi instead).

That being said I do like making characters so I'll throw down the concept lol.

Charybdis has nothing on her!

"You don't even need to do a deep dive to find all kinds of stuff about her. She's somehow involved in or has an opinion about nearly every piece of drama over the last few years - opinions her followers take as fact. She took down Miss Dovely during a spat with only her vitriol... And a single slap. She single handedly drove Heatman off of social media after tanking his power level with a scathing video message, and the hate campaign still lasted four days after that. She even got Kira-Kira Karin's boyfriend to stray... ruining a three-year long heroic tag team. Then she dumped him a week later! She's strong, you should see the marks she left on him. She's an online entrepreneur credited with several projects and products too, though allegedly she stole from small creators and passed them off as her own work, no one really believes that! At least no one that matters. She pulls whatever she wants towards her and once she grabs onto something she never lets go until it's rendered useless. Now she wants in on this industry. She's already got an online following, so this could be lucrative for us if we play our cards right... Only... Well, we can't really market her as a hero, can we? I mean, she's...

A brat. A megalomaniac!"

Esme the Vortex

[+]

"I like my men how I like my viral meme dresses...
Black and blue ♥

...huh? You don't think that'll fly as a catchphrase? But you're the ones who--
Ugh, call the brand manager! I have a few words for him!"

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Food Processing I

Level 7 Roland (24/70) & Level 10 Therion (280/100)
Word Count: 2674 (+3)

When Roland and Therion had first pulled up to the Refinery, the latter had been skeptical they'd find anything. When they'd broken in and fought off crazed food cultists with no lost cargo to be found, Therion got even more doubtful that they'd find what they were after here. And, once they'd gone deeper and discovered what could be described as a ritual site for turning people into food, well... suffice to say the thief was not optimistic about what else they would stumble upon.

So Therion had peeled away, took to the shadows, and crept off into areas of the Refinery that weren't as populated. Since they were already here, he figured that he might as well find something worthwhile to grab. Maybe this cult had a treasury or some other way to fund arming and clothing their ranks stashed somewhere around here. He'd left Roland on his own because from the way the man spoke about his past experiences in his city, it seemed like the Fixer was more or less used to this kind of thing and had it well in hand.

And if he didn't, well, that was a problem for the future.

The thief searched quickly but persistently, prioritizing staying out of sight even though his dagger was drawn and ready in the case he was spotted. His goal was, of course, what coffers he could find - but it wasn't very long before something caught his ear. A pair of female voices, ones that definitely sounded out of place...

He followed the noise until he came to another room. Two sentinels, their unnatural forms concealed by heavy robes of white, stood guard in front of heavily locked double doors with barred windows just tall enough that Therion could see inside. The cell within was lined with empty manacles that hung on chains from the wall, some of which were secured around the wrists of human prisoners. The loudest voice he heard belonged to a young blonde in a black leather skirt, jacket, and tube top accented with red, covered in bruises, but her words made no sense. “Cocktails, mixers, ice…the snacks are real nice,” she seemed to be singing to herself, perhaps in a state of terrified delirium. “Soda, sour mix, dry…I’m lit, you can’t deny…”

The other voice belonged to a rugged woman in worn-dorn survival gear, including a cap with goggles. While she was wearing mascara, she also sported a painful-looking black eye. Her primary concern seemed to be getting her fellow captive to shut the hell up. Additionally, the thief spotted one individual whose voice he hadn’t heard: a bespectacled fellow with a raven-black ponytail, decked out in wild western garb, maybe been some sort of engineer. Unlike the blonde girl he quavered in silence, almost rigid with fear of the fate these cultists had in store for him.

Therion spent a good few minutes weighing the options, his tail twitching as he stared at the captives and the pair of men keeping watch over them from his hidden spot. The thief could take on the guards and likely wouldn't have much difficulty in just dispatching them, but doing it safely and without alerting other cultists in the area was another issue. Leaving the prisoners to fend for themselves wasn't an option that could seriously be entertained, so in this case... probably best to reunite with his scavenger hunt buddy and deal with this together.

Therion picked his way back towards where he'd left Roland. With the way the other man's equipment worked it might have been more of a pain to find him again, had he not been aware of how his stuff worked. Therion came up around Roland's side, more than an arm's length away to make sure he wouldn't inadvertently startle the guy.

"Problem," he said. "There's a couple of live sacrifices down at the other end."

Roland had picked up his book of the Wendigo and was eating a burger when Therion showed himself, having been split up a bit to cover more ground. ”Ah, hm. They might know more about this place, we should probably help them out.” Roland said. He was more neutral about that situation if anything. It sucked that people were being sacrified and sure he’d save them, but not with any hero complex or anything. It was just another day and Roland figured he’d never see those people again anyway.

Either way, Roland got up and followed Therion down to the holding area. The latter motioned for the two of them to slow as they approached, and they peeked out to see the situation from the same place Therion had watched from earlier. Roland saw the prisoners with varying degrees of acceptance and or fear. He then turned to Therion and asked. ”Any idea on how to get them out besides fighting the entire complex? Unless you can give them some stealth, there isn’t much else we can do?” Roland then looked at the guards, saying. ”Regardless, we need to take out the cultists guarding them. I can handle that if you can open the doors. My way of opening locked doors is silent but noticeable. ”

Therion shook his head. "We already cleared most of the way from here to the entrance, they don't need to be stealthy - just fast."

Not that the thief could bestow speed upon them either, and didn't plan to pick up any of Primrose's dancing any time soon. Therion jerked his chin towards the duo of guards before continuing. "So if you want to handle the guards, draw them deeper in so anyone else that shows up doesn't block the way out, then double back."

Therion was pretty close to calling this little adventure a lost cause as far as getting paid went, so bailing on it after rescuing a few people was perfectly fine with him.

”Fine, but beware of the invisible creatures with the blood footprints. They’re kinda rare, but they’re walking around and they like to sneak up on you.” Roland said, stretching his shoulders a bit before running off to cause a bit of chaos.

Using his initial stealth to get a free swipe, Roland silently ran towards the guards protecting the prisoners from the side outside of their sight. As he approached the first one, he purposely ran in front of them, dragging a dagger across their chests and making himself out to be obvious as he moved deeper into the complex to get their attention. Getting their attention that did, and they followed the intruder that had just slashed them. Therion could hear the scuffle that Roland was involved in soon after…. Well, the guards fighting.

Therion waited a few seconds more just to make sure the sentinels were far enough away, and that any additional attention Roland drew wouldn't first come to the jail room before he made his own move. He came up close to the bars on the door, getting a more accurate count of how many were imprisoned in case there were any he hadn't been able to see from his previous vantage point. His gaze lingered for a moment on the babbling woman, hoping she didn't have some kind of head injury or something that would impede them. The prisoner themselves could see his feline ears and single gray eye peeking out from his fluffy white hair before he disappeared from their view once more. Then, there was the quiet and subtle scrape of metal on metal.

Obstacle one was the door itself, and thankfully unlike the building's entry door its lock was not so sophisticated that the thief couldn't get through it. He resolved to invest in some training (or spirit shenanigans) specifically for those tech locks, but for the present he clicked the door open and slipped inside. The captives' salvation came to them in the form of a thin man decked out in black and purple, with a checkered scarf and one manacle tight around his wrist, though the difference between his shackle and theirs was that theirs had keyholes - which Therion swiftly exploited, moving to the closest person which happened to be the woman with the nasty shiner.

"You're all damn lucky we happened to stop by this place," he said. The road to the Refinery had been pretty devoid of other vehicles besides those sailing the skies, likely because of the fact there was a creepy food cult stationed here. His tail twitched as he worked the lock until it popped open, then moved on to the next person. "Do you know if there's anyone else locked up in here, or are you the only ones?"

When the guards had suddenly departed, their quick and sharp footfalls suggesting some sort of chance, the on-edge captives had all perked up. The survivor and the engineer both went on high alert, and even the biker’s singing trailed off. Then Therion revealed himself and opened the door. At the sight of a regular human -feline features notwithstanding- all three assumed that the newcomer must be there to rescue him, so their chains rattled as they strained against their manacles, ready for freedom. “Oh, thank God…” the engineer breathed, his shaky sigh of relief barely audible.

The survivor seemed to be made of slightly sterner stuff, and thrust her manacles toward Therion, holding them steady as she answered his question. “There were more of us. Lots more. You see my gun anywhere?” Once free, she made for the cell door, then scanned the room until she found a steel chest. “Bingo.” She tried to open it, only for run up against another lock. “Damn it!”

Therion freed the engineer second, who rubbed his wrists with a wince. “Thank you.” He furtively approached the cell door, then took up a position to keep watch over the area lest any more horrors creep from the gloom. “My bundle’s in there too,” he whispered urgently.

Therion would see the occasional ink attack coming from where Roland was fighting, first a wave of ink, then a blast of ink that drew a line on the ground before hearing one of the guards scream and make no more noise. Then the impact of a shotgun blast upon a wall, a bit more time, and another scream before it went silent. A few more of these happened before Roland was finished. He’d come out of the shadows a few moments later, a couple more books in hand and Emotion level 4. Granted the voice of the puppet that came when he gained Learning nor the indicator Roland got the EGO Wrist Cutter wasn’t heard as Therion was too far away from the fight itself. Even so, the thief couldn't help but wish that Roland had dragged things a bit farther just for safety's sake.

”These cultists being made of squishy food makes them kinda easy to cut through. Like… how or why would they even want to make themselves weaker? Like… how did this whole thing start?” Roland said, flipping through a sentinel’s book and finding nothing but more mention of snax. Whatever these cultists were doing was overwriting the people they were before fully and completely.

By that time Therion had freed the last captive, who immediately dashed straight out of the cell, her blonde pigtails streaming behind her, then turned left. “That’s the way they took Lucy!” she exclaimed, a little too loudly.

"Wait—!" he bit out, reaching to take hold of her shoulder and halt her steps. Unfortunately he grasped only air.

At that moment a cultist that had crept up after the others ran off and lay in wait since then burst from the darkness, grabbing the girl from behind. “Wagh!” For a second she struggled in the cultist’s grip, but before Therion or Roland could move to assist, she lifted her legs in order to use one shoe to spark the flint wheel on the back of the other. The next moment, she jammed that heel into the cultist’s foot. Flame gushed through the heel into the cultist’s constituent bugsnax, resulting in a chorus of screeches as it released its hold. With a gleeful laugh, the girl wheeled around with a spinning flame kick that took out both her assailant’s knees. It dropped into a kneeling position, and after sparking her other heel, the biker rammed it into the cultist’s chest with a powerful turn kick. A split second later, an explosive fireball went off in its center mass and scattered the burning bugsnax that made up its limbs and head around the room, wailing and aflame.

The biker girl tittered as she admired her handiwork. “Heehee! Up in smoke!” Apparently, even without a head injury or terror-induced delirium, she was still a little loopy by default.

With that problem quickly resolved, the older woman turned her anxious frustration toward Therion. “Hey, cat boy! Open this up so we can get our gear and get the hell outta here!”

“Nuh uh!” The blonde shook her head insistently. “Not leaving without Lucy! They couldn’t have taken her far!”

Though slightly taken aback at how he'd been addressed, Therion looked between the two women with his visible eye narrowed. It settled on the blonde.

"We'll find your friend and anybody else still left," he told her. The fact she could fight would be helpful, since it seemed she wouldn't be the type to wait outside. As much as Therion wanted to just get out of here too, it wouldn't sit right with him to knowingly leave someone behind at this point.

He then went over to the chest, kneeling down to quickly get it open for the other two. "I don't blame anyone that wants to leave now. Exit's down the hall and up a flight of stairs, on the right." After a beat he recalled that they'd just left the truck parked out there and added. "Don't even think about ditching us here while we're still inside, though."

For a second the survivor looked tempted, but she shook her head. “Safety in numbers. We’d be fools to split off now.”

Opening the chest revealed a handful of different weapons confiscated from various prisoners. The survivor immediately seized a sawed-off shotgun in a deathgrip, then stood by menacing the shadows with it. Once given a chance, the engineer retrieved a dynamite dispenser that he quickly attached to his belt. Most of the locker was occupied by a pair of large white fuel tanks attached to a harness and two baton-shaped flamethrowers, which the biker gleefully took and equipped. “Burnice, ready!” she grinned, testing the throwers’ pilot lights. That left two unclaimed items in the locker: a high-quality black baton, and an ornate bladed whip. They did not remain unclaimed for long, as the thief stashed them by habit before turning back to the others, ready to go.

”If their last member is deeper into the facility, we don’t have much time Therion. We’ve gotta get going.” Roland said, pointing a thumb at the place he was just fighting the prison guards in. ”C’mon.”

As the group made their way deeper into the facility, Roland said. ”But you're right, I hope they don’t take the truck. Running cross country kinda sucks.” Roland said, making a bit of a joke as they passed through the area where he had fought the prison guards. Splatters and lines of ink could be seen, as well as bullet holes in the walls and a gash from a large sword.

“We’re looking for a woman doctor named Emilia Blackwell,” the engineer informed his rescuers as they went. “Dark hair, glasses. Bloody apron…” He cleared his throat. “Um, my name’s Vergil, by the way. Vergil Olney? I know it, uh, doesn’t matter, but…just wanted to say thanks, again. If you wanna tell me your names, I’ll be sure to remember them!”

Why does he make it sound like a memorial, Therion thought to himself, though he did offer his name at the very least. "It's Therion."

After Era Mythos [Corpo-Heroes Powered by Fame]

Speaking of wrestling would you allow someone to apply as a heel/new villain instead of a new hero? Just curious.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

(pats the top of Adel's box) Guess he'll be staying in there a little longer

Like I said before, I'm okay with a true hiatus and I will 100% return when the time comes. I had so much fun. Would have popped back in here to say something sooner but I kinda was gone for a while.

@flux take care of yourself (and your partner) and hopefully you get some more free time soon in general! And thank you for all of the work you did in the interim, the info you collected was nice to see and I think a lot of your ideas might be cool to implement in the future too. I'll definitely be checking out more of your stuff, and I gotta remember to send you some art too. Will probably be PMing you eventually!

Shoujo⁴: Hatsukoi Reunion

I had made my post in such a way that its just to establish Takaya's character as I specifically didn't want to intrude on the current scenes (figured there's time for that later), though I appreciate the thought to try and include him. I thought the earlier scenes would be better/more impactful like this with only a few participants before things ramp up and the whole gang is together. So, yeah, that said I'm happy for things to move on or not (though seems like most are in favor of moving on). This goes for the future too, if ever there's a scene of a few characters going on that want to keep going, I'm fine waiting even if I'm not involved in a different scene. That being said, will certainly jump in with other characters for real once we skip ahead a little.

Hell on Earth: Supernatural & Demonic Detectives

---

_{With: Lorelei, Dezzie
Location: Floating District}

---

The consensus was to stick together, which was more than fine with Barbatos as it was his initial preference anyway. It would probably better in the long run too, as there would be less filling each other in later if they just talked to everyone together in the first place. Something he hadn't considered though was the possibility that whoever was responsible for the mess back at the manor might decide to come after any potential loose ends - a fact that Dezzie brought up, being that she was one such loose end. The man blinked in abject surprise and then nodded vigorously at both women. "Sure, sure, of course."

He then laid one of his large palms on Dezzie's shoulder, practically engulfing it, so he could pull her in close to the other detectives. "And don't worry, we definitely won't let anything happen to you Dezzie."

Well, anything bad at least. Dusting, flowering, or otherwise. Of course if one wasn't familiar with the detective of Section 7 they might question how much truth was in Barbatos' claim - but those acquainted with them knew better.

Regardless, though Lorelei probably meant her words as a quip, ironically depending on where exactly in the Floating District they ended up and how late they stayed, he actually might be liable of being spirited away. He still owed Chrystalabra a favor and there was no telling when they'd collect. Thankfully when the stylish woman in white intently led them away, it was not in that direction.

Barbatos patted Dezzie on the same shoulder he still had a grasp on and then steered the smaller demon after Lorelei, where she could escape his friendly and reassuring touch (or at least, that's how he intended it) if she wanted. If Lorelei had a specific place in mind already, Barbatos wasn't going to question it. Following her lead had rarely led them astray as far as he knew, after all.

---

It was pretty easy for Barbatos to make himself at ease anywhere, and the inside of a gentleman's club was no exception. To say there were quite of few of these places in New Helle, let alone the Floating District itself, would be an understatement, and to say that Barbatos frequented them would actually be an overstatement - but he was familiar with a handful more establishments over others, so upon entering he unabashedly looking around the interior while trying to recall if he'd been to this particular one before. If he had, it would only have been once, he figured. He struck up some small talk while the trio waited in the circular booth until the friend Lorelei mentioned found them.

"Oh, I'm single," he said following the implication the newcomer made, which hadn't phased him at all beyond him cracking a smile like he was in on the joke. Yeah, the matching clothes and the location could easily lead someone to that conclusion, huh? Wonder if that was Lor's plan the whole time and she just didn't mention it. If anything, they did certainly fit into the area more this way.

Barbatos was ever eager to chat with new people, and whether Lev was really as young as they appeared or as old as they acted didn't make any difference to him. Even so, he let Lorelei and Lev catch up briefly before he reached over to take their hand much like he'd done earlier to Dezzie, and introduced himself with his name. "Barbatos. Nice to meet you, Lev."

And since this was Lorelei's contact, it would probably make more sense to let Lorelei handle kicking off 'business' by filling Lev in on whatever she deemed they needed to know and then following her lead once more. Before that though he couldn't help but ask, "how do you two know each other?"

Shoujo⁴: Hatsukoi Reunion

---

Chihara Takaya
Chihara Takaya

---

The first of April, and the beginning of a new school year. Some students dreaded a return to school, some welcomed it; some were determined to make the year a good one while others fretted, nervous that it wouldn't be. From new debuts to final years, for students, there were only a few other days that could match the whirlpool of varied emotions of this one.

For Takaya, it was the start of his second year in Kumoriyama Private High School. He wasn't anxious at all, and in fact, his morning on this day was relatively unchanged from his usual. He woke up early, dressed (in a crisp new uniform for the year), got ready and double checked the bag he'd packed last night. He descended with it to the ground floor where his mother could be found in the kitchen, already setting dishes of rice, vegetables, and rolled omelettes onto the nearby table. In a few minutes his father would join them both for breakfast - a quiet event where greetings and well wishes for the day ahead were swapped. Purely casual chatter among the family normally didn't last long. Today, it was his mother that spoke up and steered towards more important things.

"Takaya, I put together a small gift for your homeroom teacher. It's in the entryway, be sure to take it with you."

"Thank you, I will."

"So it's the start of a new school year already, is it?" Takaya's father said, glancing up from his side of the table where both a newspaper and a tablet were spread out. There was an article about a local corporation displayed on the screen.

"It is."

"I trust you have everything you need. You're prepared, yes?"

"I am," Takaya responded with a small smile. Father seemed satisfied with the simple answer and turned back to reading.

There really wasn't much more that needed to be said. Takaya was prepared - his work load would increase again, but it was nothing he couldn't handle if it was similar to his first year. He'd kept the same sleep schedule throughout school breaks, and his self study had never stopped either, so he was well used to the routine. Even if the material was different, it would all just be more of the same. The same daily pattern throughout the week, the same pressure to make beneficial connections, the same drawn out effort to stay at the top of the class, the same responsibilities at home and at school...

Takaya lapsed into silence while his parents made quiet conversation; his father's work grievances, mostly. He politely excused himself once he was finished, then he met his mother at the kitchen counter so they could split the leftovers into two bentos. It wouldn't be a full day of courses until tomorrow, but Takaya wasn't going to go right home after dismissal - so taking lunch with him just made sense. Besides, it made his mother glad to see her family enjoying her food, even after all this time. That soft, joyful little twinkle in her eye was easy to spot when contrasted with her normally sober expression.

Brief goodbyes were exchanged as Takaya left the house first. He made his way to the nearest city bus stop, a route he was intimately familiar with by now. Sure the train was a little faster (and the station not that much further away), but he preferred the little bit of extra privacy of the bus when there was no worry about arriving late. Takaya placed a pair of buds into his ears and plugged the jack into his phone. Early morning fog made the light at this time of day still somewhat dim, and the screen reflected glaringly on his glasses' lens until he turned the brightness down. Unless one were to peek closely over his shoulder from the seat behind Takaya, the only thing they'd get a glimpse of playing on his phone were a lot of colors and movement. That, and text as he swapped back and forth between pages and apps, his fingers swiftly swiping and flicking at the screen, jabbing the submit icons before going back to a video and repeating the process. It was now, seated alone on the morning bus, that those various emotions most other students would be feeling flickered in Takaya's eyes.

There was time enough to claim some login bonuses as well before his stop. When he clicked his phone shut, stuffed the earbuds back into his knapsack, and exited the bus, though there were other early arrivals it was still before most other students would be getting to the high school. Once actually on campus he made his way to the gymnasium where the entrance and welcome ceremonies would be taking place.

The set up was nearly complete; a school banner and decorations were hung up around the stage, a small podium had been dragged out, and faculty were congregating to set up the remaining half of the temporary seating. Takaya took in a deep breath and walked over towards one of the more familiar faces. "Good morning sensei. Do you need any help getting things ready?"

"Oh, if it isn't Chihara-kun. We're almost done, but here - take these."

Before, he probably wouldn't have gone out of his way to help. He didn't feel any particular sense of fulfillment in helping out now either, but since there wouldn't be much to actually do today... plus, something his parents had advised him on the other day had stuck with him. The first year of high school was for adapting to everything new and setting a personal standard, the third year was for cementing that standard and ensuring that opportunities presented for the future didn't go to waste, essentially a whole lot more study and testing. The second year, however, would be best for relationships.

Professional ones, of course.

The time to really get into the teacher and staff's good graces, to secure recommendations from them on his behalf when applying to universities. To form bonds with influential peers on the off chance it could lead to an easier in for business even beyond further education.

He'd keep that in mind for times like these, when he was actually free. He didn't want to keep getting stuck doing errands... again... but a positive first impression on a first day was good. He made pleasant small talk with his old homeroom teacher and his new one (they'd known beforehand, but he'd give her the gift later) until everything was set out, at which point it wouldn't be long until the majority of the student body arrived.

The ceremony itself was standard. A few names of first years caught Takaya's ear as they were called out. Underclassmen from his middle school, the younger children of a neighbor or two, one that was strangely similar to an old playmate. The principal and a select few other teachers spoke, a short song was sung. People stood up after closing remarks and began to filter out towards their homerooms.

It was only the first day, sure, but so far everything was proceeding as expected. Takaya adjusted his glasses and got going himself.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Roland & Therion

Level 7 Roland (15/70) - (Holding 1 level up)
Level: 10 - Total EXP: 277/100
𝙱𝙿 ●●●●●
Location: The Paved Wilderness
Word Count: 1620 (+3 exp)

A race proposal was completely unsurprising, especially from Ms. Fortune, and though Therion didn't know Roland as well he also wasn't surprised when the man accepted. There was definitely a little bit of a competitive streak in the guy, or just want for something fun.

Though the thought had crossed his mind to throw some obstacles Nadia's way, ultimately the Orsterran thief was just along for the ride, so he left it at that. He'd pulled his arm in and tucked both of his hands behind his head as he leaned back in the seat and looked out the windows. Up until the time the light show in the sky ahead of them caused Ms. Fortune to lose control of her vehicle in their rearview mirror, Roland and Therion's had been pretty nice. Therion had gotten a sense of driving a couple of times already, and riding passenger. Much smoother than a horse and carriage. He could get used to it.

Although he should probably check on the feral since she'd disappeared from view.

Therion pressed two fingers to his feline ear, utilizing the linkpearl there. It had been a few days since anyone in their linkshell had used it to his knowledge, but it probably still worked. As long as Nadia still had her pearl in.

"We saw that," Therion said first, tone bland but with underlying amusement. "Call back if you need help. We'll swing back around after we find all the lost loot."

If it turned out she actually needed help that would be a different story, but otherwise Therion just turned his head toward Roland. "Let's keep going. If that ship up there crashes in our path maybe we can check that out too."

Who knew, maybe they were some kind of sky pirates that were participating in the 'scavenger hunt' as well.

After a moment Therion also asked, "...you know where you're going, right?"

He'd heard Roland tell Ms. Fortune that he had a place in mind, but for all he knew the guy was just aimlessly following the road.

”Well, more or less. These streets are a lot less maze like than the City or Midgar. I figured we should check out that mysterious building no one knew much about.” Roland said, driving fairly casually. ”Why? Place a bit too spooky for ya?”

"We haven't even seen the place yet," Therion scoffed. "Though if it does turn out to be another waking nightmare, could you really blame anyone for wanting to avoid it?"

Especially after the morning they'd all had. The thief turned his gaze back outside of the truck, watching the passing landscape and the dog fighters circling their prey. "Though I guess there are people that like that kind of stuff."

His tone subtly implied that Roland was probably one of them, what with the anecdotes he often brought up and the weird, kind of creepy way some of his transformations looked.

”Yeah, I hear that. Hopefully none of that gross stuff we were just involved with. I’d much rather some kind of mystery than just…. zombies.” Roland said, sort of both confirming and denying Therion’s idea of him at the same time.

”Really, I don’t know if I can apply any logic to this place. But if I did, I’d assume there's probably some guy holding out at that place that knows lots of weird stuff or is like, weird? Usually spots like that can have intel that no one else has though.” Roland said, justifying his idea of wanting to go there.

Realistically, what Roland claimed was baseless and, frankly, should have been absurd. However, the amount of times Therion and his fellow travelers had met someone or something out in isolated areas of Orsterra, let alone everything they could find in this world, well... the thief really couldn't argue that logic.

"Guess that makes sense," he said instead.

As they drove, a point of interest caught Roland’s attention. It was the crashed airship. A little detour wouldn’t hurt, Roland turning off the road and heading for the crash. As they got near, they found there were survivors. Numerous Froggits were running around in a panic around the wreckage of the medium sized airship, clearly in distress as they had survived the crash.

Roland looked at the cartoon frogs and quickly figured that they weren’t much of a threat. In fact they seemed kind of pathetic in a way. ”So… Do we just send them back to Hammerhead? I really have no idea what these things are...” Roland said to Therion.

"Sure, give them directions if you want," the man replied. He popped the truck's door open and hopped out, intending to get a look around the vessel and see if his hypothesis was right. Hopefully before the crew's pursuers caught up. He certainly didn’t want to give the frogs a ride or anything (even though he’d hitched one in the first place), and correctly assumed that Roland didn’t either. Roland pointed them back towards the town, although corralling the froggits was a lot… easier than he thought? They really didn’t have much of a brain among all of them, but they could at least follow the road in the direction Roland pointed.

As the two men found themselves in the wreckage of the ship itself, they came upon some of the cargo that they were told to retrieve. Three crates, with one odd crate that looked like it contained guns. Besides those, there wasn't much else intact. Finder's keepers still applied in this situation, as far as he was concerned.

"Strongboxes," Therion told Roland, dragging the only one that didn't look the same out from under some debris. He could tell just by sight the lock would be simple to pick, but figured they should at least get everything loaded into the back of the truck first. Once they were sure they'd ferreted out everything worth taking, they carried their free finds to the truck's bed and shoved them in.

Out of the three, only the gun box really seemed to have anything that interested Roland. Guns were rare in his world due to their extreme cost and oftentimes relative ineffectiveness against extremely skilled opponents. But this wasn’t his world and there were weird things here.

”Hey, want to see whats in the gun case? Might be something good.” Roland said.

Figuring he meant the red one, Therion obliged Roland and opened that crate first. It took only a few seconds of fiddling with the lock until it clicked open.

"We'll keep whatever's really worth it and sell the rest back to whoever owns the cargo," he agreed.

Inside the crate

Alien Sidearm An orange energy weapon of extraterrestrial origin which shoots chargable plasma shots. Comes with 35 magazines of 10 shots each. Fire rate is one shot every .15s, reload time is 1.2s, shot speed is medium. The plasma shots deal extra damage against energy shields Moonface A powerful but imprecise and slow-to-reload double-barrel shotgun with a spread in a distinctive smiley face pattern
Caldwell Conversion Chain Pistol A fascinating and mostly functional antique sidearm that's essentially belt-fed for maximum time between reloads (18 shots) and maximum reload time (28.7 seconds). Fires at a rate of 24 rpm, with an effective range of 85m and a cycle time of 1.4s

”Huh. Well, I wasn’t sure what I was going to expect. I kind of like two out of three of these guns.” Roland said, looking over the items in the cargo crate, mostly pointing at the plasma weapon and the shotgun.

Therion held up the remaining one by the chamber chain, giving it a strange look with a raised eyebrow. Was it... supposed to look like that? He still hadn't gone out of his way to learn more about firearms besides how to identify them and, vaguely, how they worked.

He tossed the gun back into the crate. "Have at them. These things are too loud for my liking."

Roland gave the two guns he had interest in a try. Therion was right, guns were often noisy. However his gloves made his movement and weapon attacks silent, so Therion would hear no sound from the two weapons Roland gave a try with. Well, no sound from the guns firing although the impact sound of a smiley face of bullet spread from the shotgun hitting the side of the airship did make quite a bit of noise. The silent way the Fixer did everything was enviable, really.

”Thats uh, strange. Well, guess we should get going then. I’ll have to test to see if my shotgun and pistols do more than these or not.” Roland said, putting the pistol and shotgun into his gloves and throwing the last gun into the back of the truck.

It didn’t take too long before the two had loaded up all the crates they were going to keep, so basically all but the gun chest they had opened, and started to drive back off towards the factory again.

Shoujo⁴: Hatsukoi Reunion

True, true. Sometimes I get bogged down in details haha.